This past weekend the University of Nottingham Gymnastics club had 25 members compete at the BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport) Gymnastics Championships, held close to the University at Hinckley Gymnastics Club in Leicestershire. The competition was split over two days, with the women's competition taking place on the Saturday, whilst the men competed on the Sunday. The weekend saw magnificent success for the #GreenandGold with the University of Nottingham winning the Men's Artistic Gymnastics BUCS Championship, with some outstanding performances along the way for both our men and women.
Opening the weekend, our Grade 4 and 3 women competed well within fields of 36 and 47 respectively, with our top performer in Grade 4 being Mya Bromwich posting an All Around score of 24.45 (8th) - including a 5th place finish on Floor, whilst in Grade 3 Imogen Phillips received a score of 23.75 to place 5th, missing out on a bronze medal on Floor by just 0.05. After a long wait during the day, our Grade 2 athletes began competition at 7pm with Ellie Vine placing 7th. On Floor, Ellie and Emily Irving placed 4th and 6th respectively, which highlighted the especially impressive from Emily who received a 0.5 penalty for a somewhat harshly applied routine requirement deduction. Without this deduction, Emily would have scored at least 11.85, and placed 3rd. Due to her performance in this event and other UGC league competitions, next year Ellie Vine will be competing in the elite Grade 1 category - congratulations Ellie!
Moving into the men's competition on the Sunday, the university's Grade 2 men had an incredibly successful competition. Kieran Craig increased his All Around score by over 5 points compared to his last competition before Christmas, whilst Musa Siddiqi competed well, achieving a gold on Pommel Horse and Vault, putting him into 3rd overall. However, the most remarkable performance was that of James Hodgson, who has hardly trained since March 2020, with James achieved a bronze medal on Vault, and three golds on Floor, High Bar, and the All Around competition. Well done James! The final round of the day was the Grade 3 men, including UoN's Marlow Dupont. Marlow achieved solid scores of 11.8 and 11.75 on Floor and Vault respectively, putting him in 6th overall in a strong cohort of 34.
Sunday's action also saw our four Grade 1 athletes, including scholars, Frank Baines, Euan Cox and Sam Mostowfi, alongside Lorenzo Carrozo, compete. Sam had an uncharacteristically shaky performance which can only be attributed to his recent illness that meant he did not train in the week leading up to the event, finishing with a respectable 70.3, putting him in 11th (out of 24). Lorenzo had a clean competition, placing 7th All Around and 3rd on the notoriously difficult Pommel Horse. Euan Cox also had a clean competition, aside from a fall on his incredibly difficult triple back dismount on High Bar, and performed incredibly well to finish 3rd overall, and 2nd on Floor and Rings. The top performer for the University of Nottingham over the weekend was Frank Baines, who was awarded silver medals on Pommel and P-Bars, as well as gold on Floor, Rings, and High Bar. His exceptional performance gave him a score of 66.95 and a gold medal, beating reigning British Champion Joshua Nathan in second. A huge congratulations to Frank and Euan on their overall medal performances.
These truly brilliant individual achievements meant that the University of Nottingham finished as BUCS Champions in Men's Artistic Gymnastics! With the competition taking the scores of the top four gymnasts in Grades 1 and 2 to determine a top universty, Lorenzo, Frank, Euan and Sam achieved a massive combined score - enough to see them take home the trophy ahead of the University of Loughborough. This is a truly incredible achievement from the team and we are hugely proud of this accomplishment. Congratulations to our champions!
On his and the teams success, Frank commented afterwards - "I’m really pleased to have come away with the team gold, I believe it’s the first time Nottingham have won the team competition so I’m proud of all the guys who competed, especially considering we had a few injuries/ illnesses to overcome in the build-up to the competition. The guys composed themselves really well throughout the competition and the gold medal is a testament to our hard work! Individually I’m happy to have put together a clean competition. The first competition of the calendar year is always a bit nerve wracking so I'm happy that I posted a good result, and I can take this confidence forwards into the upcoming national competitions."
Alex Perry, the University of Nottingham Sport's Assistant Director of Sport added - "Congratulations to the Gymnastics club for an excellent set of performances at the BUCS championships over the weekend. To come away with such a great haul of medals alongside a range of individual performances across all grades is a great reflection on the hard work and dedication that has gone into this season from Frank, Euan, Sam and Lorrenzo, as well as everyone involved in the club."
For a full round-up of results, please visit gymdata.co.uk. The club's next competition is in just two weeks on Sunday 20th February, where the University of Nottingham will host a University Gymnastics Cup league competition at Notts Gymnastics Academy where there will likely be upward of 200 competitors, including 49 University of Nottingham gymnasts.
Left to right; Euan Cox, Sam Mostowfi, Lorenzo Carrozo, Frank Baines
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Posted on Monday 7th February 2022