Gymnastics: Nimble Northlanders produce their best

Northland's Zoe Espie played a leading role in Northland's success at the Gymsports nationals. Photo / Alphapix.co.nz

Northland finished the 2015 New Zealand National Gymsports Championships with heads high after their best showing at the annual event.

The Northland team joined more than 900 athletes at the championships in Auckland last week, which covered the five Gymsports codes of artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, tumbling and aerobics.

Competing in artistic gymnastics, the Step 6 and Step 7 senior women's team from the Whangarei Academy of Gymnastics [WAGs] proved their worth, bringing home a large tally of medals.

The step 7 division 2 team of Kyla MacKenzie, Zoe Espie, Michelle Crawford and Sophia Cosson won bronze in the teams competition. MacKenzie also placed first overall, while Espie was second, Crawford sixth and Cosson 10th.

MacKenzie, Espie and Crawford also finished in the top eight on several apparatus to qualify for the apparatus finals on day two.

Mackenzie went on to win floor, place second on vault and third on beam, while Espie came second on floor, fourth on bar and seventh on vault. Crawford placed sixth on beam and seventh on floor.

Competing in step 6 division 2, Chloe Campbell won gold in floor and vault, improving on her 2014 result of second on vault.

Ryan Townsend from WAGs and Andrew Van Der Linden from Kaitaia qualified on day one of their competition to rank in the top 24 for level 5 boys. They went through to the finals, where Van Der Linden placed 13th overall, and sixth on parallel bars, with Townsend 14th overall and eighth on the high bar.

In power tumbling, Elleanor Kelly from Kaitaia competed strongly, winning a silver medal in the sub junior women's international level.

Whangarei's Tiana Tawha competed in the women's 15/16 years trampolining and placed 10th overall - a solid result considering she had injured an ankle beforehand.

Jesse Tunnicliffe from Kerikeri qualified for the beam finals in step 7, placing fourth on day one of competition. Unfortunately, she injured an ankle during the competition and was unable to continue.