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2022 Northern Europeans: Wales’ artistic gymnasts secure five medals, including Women’s Team title
Jennifer Nesbitt
A gold medal for Wales in the Women’s Team event was one of five medals our artistic gymnasts returned home with after a successful 2022 Northern Europeans in Jyväskylä, Finland over the weekend.
The women’s team of Mia Evans (Park Wrekin), Abigail Roper (Pipers Vale) along with Clwb Cymru quartet Jea Maracha, Sofia Micallef, Ruby Evans and Evie Flage-Donovan were crowned champions on day one with a total score of 197.050.
That put them ahead of England (196.450) in second and Norway (195.000) in third and saw Wales regain the Northern European Women’s Team title they last won in 2019 – a team which also included Mia and Jea and juniors.
Wales also took five of the top 10 placings in the individual all-around competition, with Jea the highest in 5th place.
It then got better on day two with three more women’s medals, two of them gold, in the individual apparatus finals.
Double British junior all-around champion Ruby struck gold on vault with a beautiful double twisting Yurchenko followed by a full twist. Jea grabbed gold on the uneven bars while Mia bagged bronze on the floor for her beautifully choreographed routine.
There were also a couple of near misses.
Abigail Roper, called into as a replacement for the injured Poppy-Grace Stickler, did a fantastic job as she made two apparatus finals; finishing just outside the medals in 4th on the floor while was 5th on vault. Evie was fourth on uneven bars while Jea was sixth on beam.
On the men’s side, the highlight was a brilliant bronze on the pommel horse for Fusion’s Iwan Scrivens. That came after a young men’s team including Iwan, YMCA Barry pair Sammi Morgan and Michael Tang, Harrison Harris (Valleys Gymnastics Academy), Theo-Amari Ochana (Heathrow) and Henry Lewis (Leeds) finished fifth and tied with England in a strong Team competition.
They also secured five individual apparatus final berths.
With Iwan taking bronze on pommel, Sammy only narrowly missed out on the medals in 4th. Michael and Henry were sixth and seventh respectively on vault while Theo was 8th in the rings final.
Llongyfarchiadau to all gymnasts and coaches and diolch to our judges and physio, who played a key role throughout the championships.