Competitions, 2019

In the June of 2019, I was selected to represent Great Britain the inaugural Junior World Championships in Gyor Hungary. Training took place at the 'Olimpiai Sportpark' which, was just a 15 minute walk from where we were staying. The accommodation used was that that was used for the EYOF in 2017 so the majority of countries stayed together. 

With a solid podium training done the focus was onto the competition. I had a solid AA competition finishing 23rd with a score of 76.739. 

Full results - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Junior_World_Artistic_Gymnastics_Championships

I was selected to compete for Team GB at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan in July. A fantastic experience from meeting at Bisham Abby National Sport Centre with all the others athletes, this being a multi disciplined event. We got given all our Team GB kit which was a real highlight, never been given such a lot of great kit from Adidas. Later, flew from Heathrow all kitted out proud to wear the Olympics rings representing GB.  

We got to Azerbaijan early morning and with police escort were driven in convoy to the Olympic village. Each nation with its own section, so Union flags flying. The opening ceremony was at the Crystal Hall in downtown Baku with the Olympic flame and games opened by the President of Azerbaijan a great evening with the arena full of spectators and 6,000 athletes from 26 counties. We had the honour also to be invited to the British Embassy residence to meet the British Ambassador, parents invited too.  

The Gymnastics Centre a great looking arena purpose built for gymnastics, opposite the village, so just a 5 minute walk to the competition venue. With days training and and acclimatising to the venue and equipment focus was very much on the competition. A really good competition. Starting on floor i performed a solid routine just missing out on the final by 0.2.  I was up first on all pieces which wouldn’t have been of choice but great I went clean on all pieces with an all round score 76.500. As a team we just missed out on Bronze by 0.933 from Italy with Ukraine taking Gold and Russia Silver. 

My Scores: 

Floor - 13.500 D: 4.6 E: 8.9  Pommel - 11.500 D: 3.4 E: 8.1  Rings - 12.350 D: 3.9 E: 8.5  Vault - 13.800 D: 4.8  E: 9.0  P-Bars - 13.050 D: 4.3 E: 8.75  H-Bar - 12.300 D: 4.0 E: 8.3 AA- 76.500

My first international call up for Great Britain was at the 24th  Junior Team Cup in Berlin. I had a clean AA competition scoring 76.000 which placed me 16th in my age group, 17th across all ages. 

With the youngest team competing we came a credible 10th out of the 38 teams. 26 countries with 152 gymnasts competing from USA to Russia so a solid result for GBR. 

All results - https://www.btfb.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Veranstaltungen/JTC/Ergebnis_Gesamt.pdf

This was my second time in Germany in 2019.  We flew out of Heathrow to Frankfurt but missed the connection flight so a train journey it was... We also missed podium training and as a result so a very brief training session getting used to the equipment the morning of the competition.  We had a strong team with the more experienced Adam Tobin and Ewan Cox.  I had a strong competition winning AA bronze and my first gold for Great Britain in the team competition.

Team Results

Gold - Great Britain (310.550)

Silver - Switzerland (310.300)

Bronze - Germany  (308.300)

The Budapest Cup was used as preparation for the Junior World's which was taking place a month later also in Hungary in Gyor. The competition took place over three days (training, competition and finals).

I had a good AA competition scoring 76.000 and qualified for three finals floor, pommel and parallel bars.  In the finals I won bronze on P-bars with 12.85, just missed out medalling on floor with a score 13.25 and was 5th on pommel scoring 11.8.  This competition confirm selection for the World's.