Pleasing results at Tauranga event

Medals on display: Gisborne Gymnastic Club gymnasts show their medals from Tauranga. They are, back (from left): Lea O'Reilly, Monroe Brouwer, Amarah Cameron, Georgiana Elmer, Lizelle Duckworth, Aria Thorpe, Hollie Walsh and India Gill. Front: Santino Camero. Picture by Liam Clayton

FOURTEEN gymnasts from Gisborne Gymnastics Club took part in the ARGOS Junior Competition in Tauranga last weekend and returned with pleasing results.

This was by far the biggest junior event for club gymnasts during the 2021 season — 322 female and 88 male competitors vied for the top overall places in each step or level, as well as top team awards.

Included in the Gisborne Gymnastics Club contingent was Santino Camero, the club's only male competitor in Level 1 at this event.

In Santino's case, he was taking part not just to compete but also to make friends and get to know other gymnasts and coaches from clubs around the North Island.

Santino placed fourth overall in his second competition. He won vault and placed fourth on high bar, parallel bars and rings. On floor he placed fifth in Level 1.

In Step 1, India Gill won the bronze medal in the overall event in the eight-years-and-under division. She placed first on uneven bars, fourth on floor, and equal-fifth on vault.

Lea O' Reilly had her best competition of the season. She placed fourth overall in Step 1 in the nine-years-and-over division. She also won the uneven bars, placed third-equal on beam and fourth-equal on vault.

Hollie Walsh placed fifth-equal overall in the “over” division. She was third on vault, third-equal on uneven bars, fifth on beam and sixth on floor.

Monroe Brouwer was fifth-equal overall with Hollie. She was second on uneven bars and beam.

Alexi O'Brien competed for the first time and scored a total of 52.850, which gave her seventh-equal in the Step 1 over division.

Honor Phillips was third-equal on beam and fourth-equal on vault in the over division.

Isabelle Evans was fourth-equal on vault.

Gisborne Step 1 Team 2 (India Gill, Monroe Brouwer, Hollie Walsh and Lea O'Reilly) won the gold medal in the Step 1 team event, half a point ahead of Counties Manukau.

Alia Sims was the club's only Step 2 competitor and her best result was a second placing on vault. She will be pleased to see Team 2 from Step 1 moving up to Step 2 in the next event in two weeks.

In Step 3, the Gisborne team of Aria Thorpe, Amarah Cameron, Georgiana Elmer and Lizelle Duckworth won the silver medal behind Counties Manukau and ahead of Waitara.

Aria Thorpe was second overall in the “under” division in Step 3. She took first place on vault, second-equal on uneven bars and fourth on beam.

Amarah Cameron placed third on beam in the under division.

Celena Bull, who competed as an individual, placed sixth overall. Her top apparatus was uneven bars, on which she placed second. She was fifth on vault.

Georgiana Elmer was 10th overall. Her best apparatus was beam, in which she finished fourth. She was sixth on uneven bars.

Lizelle Duckworth scored well on vault, in which she was eighth.

Capria Tamatea competed in Step 4 for the first time. She had a small test run of all her new routines during the annual Schools Gymnastics Festival, earlier in the week in Gisborne. She placed fifth overall with 50.300 points. She was second on uneven bars and fourth on beam.