More gymnastic success
This has been the best ever haul of medals for Arden at the National finals in Stoke on Trent. Last year's winners were split between two age groups and we had three Year 7 pupils and two Year 8s in the U14 boys team. They came very close to beating Royal Grammar School (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) but finished in second place. This really is a fantastic result as only two of the team had previous gymnastics experience and they were competing against boys who have been trained in their school from the age of seven. Special mention has to be made of Corey Allen the U14 captain. He has been a fantastic role model, helping to coach the younger members of the team and gaining the highest score of all the boys within the competition.
U14 team consisted of: Corey Allen, Ryan Daines, Jenson Williams, Aidan Wilson, Matt Bambrook.
Arden have never won any medals before in the very competitive U19 mixed category. We fielded a very strong team and Joe Butler lead the way with a fantastic score of 15.2 on vault - beating even Corey! Ed Elvidge, Kaili Woodward, Lois Mansfield and Lottie Mason also performed well and we were in a strong position going on to the floor. The judges complimented them on their floor routines with Lois Mansfield gaining our best score. Overall they finished in third place.
The U19 boys were on in the last round and competed against some incredibly good teams from around the country including Royal Grammar School, Ivybridge Community College in Devon and St John's School in London. They finished out of the medals but all performed really well with Tom Robinson-Jones getting our highest score on vault and Chris Denton on floor. The rest of the team were Harry Boddington, Will Hitchcock and Ryan Cambridge.
Many thanks as always to Mrs Bennett (our vault coach) for all of her help and support. It was another long day but worthwhile as the students gain great pleasure from competing. The day was tinged with a little sadness as it will be Ed Elvidge's last competition with us as he is in Year 11.
