Five medals for club talents

Competitive gymnasts from the Wanganui Boys and Girls Gym Club picked up a number of placings at the Palmerston North Open Championships at the weekend.

Seventeen clubs from the central and lower North Island took part at Arena Manawatu, with the Wanganui club members gaining five individual medals and a number of apparatus placings.

Millie Manning won the Step 8 division, coming first in the vault and floor routine, and being runnerup in both the bar and beam.

Level 2 saw Troy Rea finish second overall, having come runnerup in the floor, rings and vault.

Crista Yum was also second in the Step 1, with first placings in the vault, bar and beam.

In Step 6, Genna Maples came third, having placed second in the bar and third in the floor.

Jonathan Maples was also third overall in Level 6, winning the rings, vault and parallel bars, while coming second in floor and third in high bar.

Getting apparatus placings were Armadin Firaza (third in vault, Level 1), Chase Morpeth (third in vault, Level 2) and Connor Gainford (second in floor, Level 2).

In the team's placings Rea, Morpeth and James McCann were second in the Level 2 boys, while Gainford, Joshua Hammond and William Morrison were third.

The big event coming up next month is the Wanganui Open Championships at the Wanganui Boys and Girls Gym Club on July 6.

This will be an exciting competition with clubs from the lower and central North Island competing.

It is also a qualifying competition for the New Zealand Gymsports championships, with the club's senior gymnasts aiming to qualify for the Wanganui/Manawatu team.