IOM Women's Championships October 10th 2009
The Championships opened on 10th October with the novice and intermediate level competitors taking to the apparatus. In the younger novice section Lauren Wright and Emma Vickers from Ellan Vannin shared the overall title with Lauren scooping gold for bars & beam and Emma taking the floor. MGCE’s Amber Sibbald in 3rd. A weak beam let Kayleigh Dockerill down but a great handspring gave her the vault title placing her 4th overall. In the novice over 11 age group, Rachel Kissack of Ellan Vannin performed an immaculate floor and beam to take the title alongside fellow club member Imogen Wild who performed consistently throughout and topped the bars scores. The intermediate section was made up of girls from Ellan Vannin Club, and was a very close competition, each gymnast showing their strengths. Stacey Saltwell took the vault title, Bethany Quayle the bars and beam and Nicola Golding the floor. Bethany Quayle and Ciara Wilders looked in the best form, with Bethany just beating Ciara’s consistency to top the all around (AA) mark, Ellen Holden taking bronze.
Round 2 saw a total wipe out of the under 9 age group with Chloe Donnelly setting her sights on overall gold. A solid performance all around saw her take the title and all four apparatus golds. Sinead Hands took silver on 2 pieces for overll 2nd with Chloe McDonald in 3rd respectively.
The Under 11 age group proved to be the strongest competition with 11 gymnasts fighting for a spot on the podium. MGCE’s Tara Donnelly stormed to the lead on the first apparatus, floor, with an astounding performance, but subsequent falls and missing elements only landed her in 3rd AA. A tremendously consistent Ciara Goddard (MGCE) wiped the board with silver on each apparatus, whilst Ellan Vannin’s Kaitlyn Kneen breezed through the competition showing clean execution and difficulty with a Tsukahara vault and somersaulted acrobatic connection on beam. The difficulty executed well paid off, as Kaitlyn took the under 11 title with Ciara taking another Silver AA. New to the championships this year was the award for “most artistic floor”. Head floor judge decided that MG’s Radha Patel gave a dazzling performance which stood out from the rest of the crowd.
Round three brought surprises and tragedies. The under 13 age group once again saw a strong turnout of gymnasts each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Rebecca Johnson, member of the 2009 Island Games team potentially had more experience with greater difficulty scores on bars and beam in particular making her the strongest contender for the title. Holly Black and Aoife Donnelly packed in their difficulty with Aoife taking the vault title and Holly impressed that she had competed so many new moves. Samantha Crowe battled through the competition taking floor title alongside Nicole Burns and placing 2nd on bars and beam. Despite falls, Holly took the bronze AA, Sam placing silver and as expected Rebecca took the title.
Under 15 and Over 15 age groups, fulfilling Full FIG rules, were also competing for the IOM Ladies title. Grace Harrison started the competition well but with a fall on beam in a pike back somersault, she was unable to finish the competition. This left the door wide open for Lyndsey Beynon to take the under 15 title, having finished on a strong floor performance to guarantee the highest floor score trophy also. Christine Stoddart and Rhyanne Hancock, both Island Games 2009 team members saw rivalry in the over 15 age group. Christine produced a near faultless beam routine taking the highest beam score trophy. She suffered however from lack of moves on the uneven bars and a fall on floor leaving it up to Rhyanne to produce a clean floor to take the Over 15 title. Lyndsey’s AA score being higher than Rhyanne meant that she was to be Crowned Isle of Man Ladies champion.
Grace left the competition in great disappointment, with a trip to A&E, an unexpected yet broken leg being diagnosed. She did however win highest FIG Bars score of the day and everyone in the gymnastics world on the Isle of Man would like to wish her a speedy recovery.