Tumbling: Inaugural Club Series Championships and revised RCC Qualifiers prove big success

Last weekend Welsh tumbling held the inaugural Welsh Club Series Championships at Deeside Gymnastics Academy alongside the Welsh Regional Challenge Cup Qualifiers 2022.

It comes after British Gymnastics revised the domestic tumbling programme during lockdown, enhancing the routines and giving the pathway a more defined and structured look.

The Club Series Championships gives young people additional opportunities to compete in the discipline of tumbling, to try new routines and to advance their skills along the pathway. 

Meanwhile the new Deeside venue at Aviation Park is a light airy positive space which gives the audience the ideal view point for tumbling. 

Our Welsh Club Series competition was a huge success, with over 70 young people competing at various levels from different clubs throughout Wales and making huge strides in their confidence and skill level. 

Then, on Sunday, Welsh Gymnastics staged the Regional Challenge Cup Qualifiers, previously called the NDP (National Develop Programme) Qualifiers.

This competition, like the Club Series, has been revised and improved, giving gymnasts opportunity to advance their skills, without having to take the huge step into the elite pathway.

The top two gymnasts in every age group and category are given the opportunity to represent Wales as a region in the Inter-Regional Challenge Cup Final which is being held in Sheffield in September.

There were a number of standout performances across the weekend.

A few of those include Ella Thomas, from Dimax, who showed real resilience on Saturday, coming back to the track after a mishap in her routine.

Also impressing were Elsa Burson and Rose Burson, the talented tumbling sisters from CSOG. Elsa came away with a bronze medal in the Club Series Championships with Rose placing second in the RCC qualifiers and therefore going through to represent Wales as a region in September.

There was also Cara Hazell from Planet and Florence Williams from CSOG placing joint 1st in RCC L2, with the exact same scores and therefore going through to the Regional Finals after the judges could not separate them.

Lauren Moyle from All Stars took the title in RCC L2 15yrs plus, a massive two points ahead her of her closest rival. 

Chelsea Hitchens from Wye, who was our youngest qualifier, went through in RCC L4 (9/10yrs), with Kadie Davies Jones from Planet taking the title in RCC 15yrs plus after competing and landing one compulsory and two voluntary routines.

Well done to all gymnasts who were a credit to the sport and discipline throughout.

FULL RESULTS 

Many thanks to our judges, too, who were also put through their places with a new live scoring system. Without them – and our track official Josh Beard – we could not run these competitions.

We now look forward to watching our senior women’s tumbler Megan Surman compete in Rimini in the European Championships this week and then our elite levels tumblers competing in the National Age Group competition in Birmingham at the end of June.