27th-29th October 2023 – Telford International Centre
Following the regional qualifier in September, Woking had qualified fifteen gymnasts to the South East team for the national finals. A long weekend of gymnastics brought lots of success for our MAG programme, in this, the final domestic event of the year.
The weekend began with the Club level 1 competition. Jude Rawlings, Harvey Holland and Fabian Higgins made up half of the South East team. Competing in a tough field
of 65 gymnasts, the boys performed brilliantly in their first national competition, helping the team to secure a silver medal. Jude posted scores of 9.5 on pommels and vault to finish 36th AA, whilst teammate Harvey completed seven clean routines to finish in a very respectable 17th place. Fabian overcame some early nerves to have a fantastic competition. His score of 63.420 was enough for 5th spot and he was duly rewarded with an invite to the BG Club reward camp. He will be joined on this reward camp by Fionn Kelly. Fionn worked consistently well across the seven apparatus to score 63.240 putting him in 6th in the Club level 3 competition. Not far behind was Declan Freeman, who scored a perfect 10 for his vault and finished the all around competition in 9th place.
Friday concluded with the Elite Grades competition. Mac Griffiths performed some great routines, including a tidy yurchencko prep on the vault to finish 21st and help his Elite level 3 team to a bronze medal. Ben Porter was competing in his final grades competition. The routines at this level are incredibly complex and the standard of the competition was high. Ben displayed some superb gymnastics and a mature attitude to finish third in the elite level 6 competition, receiving an invite to the BG development squad testing day.
Also competing in their final grades competition were Jay Coote and Max Veo-Creek. The pair performed well finishing 19th and 10th respectively. They were also delighted to help with the Club 6 team to gold, a wonderful end to their setwork careers. Eden Marlow was competing in his first national finals for a few years and helped his club level 4 team to a bronze medal. Oscar Mitchell posted on of the highest H-Bar scores of the club level 5 competition and placed 19th AA.
The final day of competition saw William Middleton perform in the elite level 2 competition. He showed improvements on his pommels and a lovely H-Bar routine to place 16th AA. Meanwhile, William Brierley, Sam Arnold and Edward Warburton-Gates were competing in their first national competition. The trio were presented with a silver medal in the Elite level 1 team competition. Edward recovered well from a shaky start to perform a great H-bar routine and place 19th AA. Sam posted one of the top pommel scores of the competition and placed 13th AA. William Brierley had a great competition, concluding with a 9.000 on the PPP and edging him into 3rd place AA. In addition to his bronze medal, William received an invitation to the BG foundation squad testing day.
Well done to all the gymnasts and coaches for a great end to a successful year, and good luck to those gymnasts attending reward camps or testing days.