It's Notts, for the first time!
Nottingham Gym Club won the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics
Team title for the first time in their history, in a very
exiting competition at the Spectrum, Guildford on Sunday,
1st April 2007.
 Nottingham
Team
Their young and talented team, overcame the five times Champions
(2001-2005) from Liverpool by 2.050 points (Silver); the Bronze
medallists from Huntingdon by 10.600pts and the last years
Champions from Heathrow, in fourth, by 11.200pts. Park Wrekin
finished in fifth, and City of Newcastle, in sixth, out of
15 Teams from all over the country that took part.
The key to the success of Notts (Becky Downie, Laura Jones,
Jordan Lipton, Louise Mercer and Niamh Rippin, led by coaches
Claire Starkey and Ian Kime) was their consistency on all
four apparatus and particularly on A. Bars and Beam (41.300pts
and 43.350pts respectively).
Liverpool, with their star-champion Beth Tweddle performing
on three apparatus (without Bars, due to her shoulder operation
in January), scored highest on Vault, 42.150 and on Floor,
41.600, but had a number of hiccups on Bars and Beam.
Beth was the highest scorer on Floor, 14.800, having added
a triple twist to her programme.
Huntingdon, who didn’t have a full team in 2006, won
the Bronze in spite of the fact that they had to perform on
Saturday night while the strongest challengers were still
on their way to Guildford. However, the team led by Marissa
King and Emma White rose to the occasion presenting solid
routines without major mistakes.
Said the happy Notts Head Coach Claire Starkey, who’s
enthusiasm brought a new reliable generation not only to the
Club, but also to the National Team:
“Before the competition we knew that we had a fairly
good chance to win. The routines, the skills and the preparation
of our gymnasts were of a very high level, and they have matured
enormously over the last year. However, with the powerful
Team of Liverpool around, including Beth Tweddle, and all
the other strong challengers, I was not sure if they had grown
enough to cope with and fight back the nervous tension. They’ve
proved they have and now all of them are over the moon with
their achievement. What’s more, I believe that they
are now convinced that the hard work pays back.
It was most amusing and endearing for me was to see Jordan
(Lipton), after she was awarded the Ursel Free Trophy as the
highest scorer on any apparatus in the Championships (15.050
on Beam). “I am now so glad that last week you made
me work on Beam so much more than everybody else in the team”,
she told me!”
“I am also happy that, in spite of her not very clean
landing on Vault, Becky (Downie) was the first British woman
to have dared to perform a Yourchenko Double twist.”
Becky Downie was the highest Individual All-around scorer,
56.250 (Ace Awards Trophy), followed by her teammate Laura
Jones, 54.950 and Marissa King (Huntingdon), 54.550.
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