The newsletter that keeps you up to date London Gymnastics ~ Connecting Gymnastics to you! Our monthly news publication ‘London Matters’ shares news with you all about events attended by London gymnasts and shares in their success. Since London 2012 our sport has never been more attractive, our clubs have never been busier, clubs are devising new ideas, growing classes, fundraising and achieving success in London and beyond. London Gymnastics wants to continue to shout about the suc- cess of our London clubs but we need your help. • Has your club done something different, maybe added a new type of class for a particular group of gymnasts that has been a success? • Have you done some unusual fundraising? • Been on a really successful course that you would like to share? • Bought a new piece of equipment or resource that is really useful? • Attended a competition? • Won a local award for success in your club or a particular gymnast or coach? • Do you have a special volunteer, coach or gymnast that you think needs recognition? We want to share this news across London. London Matters wants to continue to promote all that is out- standing about our sport across London. So if you think your club has something to share then email us a report. Photographs are brilliant to as they help the article come to life. If you include a photograph we must also have an email giving permission for publication from the photographer. We will now be offering the opportunity to win a pair of tickets to a regional event as a ‘London Gymnastics Reporter’. You will receive 2 tickets to a London Gymnastics competition or event and a ‘Press Pass’ after the event you can write a report on the event for inclusion in London Matters. All you need to do to win this prize is send us an arti- cle about your club for inclusion in our monthly London Matters newsletter. [email protected] London Matters – it really does but we can only share your success if you share it with us! LONDON GYMNASTICS Providing the perfect balance of fun, passion and precision Dear Friends of the Festival del Sole, as announced earlier this year the 12th edition of the Festival del Sole will be held in Riccione from June 29 to July 5, 2014. Registrations will open on 1 November 2013: as newsletter subscribers you will receive first all the information needed to register your team. To ensure good organization, registrations to the Festival del Sole will be limited: we will only accept the first 130 teams who will submit the registration form. As always, there will be no restrictions on age, level or discipline. Please note that to participate in the Festival del Sole you will need to purchase the hotel package, which we will be offering at very convenient price. For the coming edition, the price will be final- ized by July and will be communicated together with the cost of the participation fee. We are working to bring lots of new features to the Festival: continue to visit our website festivaldelsole.it to discover them. Meanwhile, you can write to [email protected] for any questions you may have. Suppliers to London Gymnastics LONDON GYMNASTICS Providing the perfect balance of fun, passion and precision If there are any subjects, topics or coaching items that you feel should be included in future conferences, seminars or training events then please forward them to either Jessica Capelli' the British Gymnastics London The London Club Development Conference took place Area Manager at on Sunday 10 February at the magnificent Europa [email protected] Gymnastics Centre, Crayford. Or Anne McNeill the Regional Chairman at: The event began with an opening address and [email protected] presentations by Matt Connell, Head of Marketing and communications at British Gymnastics and Ben Murphy, London Gymnastics Marketing Executive followed by some amazing displays from Bromley Valley and Europa. The day was a great success with over 100 delegates attending 24 workshops throughout the day ranging from Pre-school, Gymnastics for All, Ballet, Men’s Artistic, Women’s Artistic, Freestyle Gymnastics and Nutrition. If you missed this year Club Development Conference then watch out for the information for 2014 which will be included in London Matters and on the regions website www.london-gymnastics.co.uk Gallina Clarke from A & V Rhythmic Gym Club was presented with the British Gymnastics Gym- Mark plaque by Claire Ongley the British Gymnastics London Club Development Coordinator for South London. LONDON GYMNASTICS Providing the perfect balance of fun, passion and precision European Medallists (Junior and Senior) MAG: Daniel Keatings, Max Whitlock, Brinn Bevan, Sam Oldham, Jay Thompson, Frank Baines, Courtney Tulloch, Nile Wilson, Sam Oldham, Daniel Purvis, Theo Seager, Reiss Beckford, Cameron Mackenzie, Samuel Hunter WAG: Beckie Downie, Jocelyn Hunt, Niamh Rippin, Hannah Whelan The English Gymnastics Championships 2013 was Commonwealth Medallists hosted this year at The Europa Gymnastics Centre. MAG: Reiss Beckford, Max Whitlock Len and Yvonne Arnold OBE and their strong volun- WAG: Laura Edwards, Charlotte Lindsley, teer team certainly know how to put on an event. The Niamh Rippin, Beckie Downie championships this year spanned three days and had a huge entry from London Gymnastics Clubs. Scores Youth Olympic Medallists from the event can be found on MAG: Courtney Tulloch, James Hall, Sam Oldham, http://www.gymdata.co.uk/comps.asp Dominick Cunningham, Nile Wilson, Reiss Beckford, Ashley Watson With two World Class gymnasts competing in the WAG: Tyesha Mattis, Teal Grindle, Catherine Lyons American Cup (Kristian Thomas and Gabby Jupp) we were still left with an array of talent. One World, European multi medallist (Louis Smith MBE) off Strictly dancing, another World, European and Commonwealth medallist (Beth Tweddle MBE) off ice skating and flying around you’d think there wouldn’t be much talent left to see but how very wrong you would be. Who would have thought even 10 years ago that we would be hosting an English Championships with so much depth of talent? The calibre of gymnasts really demonstrated the strides forward made by British Gymnastics and their work in partnership with coaches and clubs. The figures below show that 17 Male gymnasts were competing at the English Championships who have at least one International medal. On the girls side there were 9 gymnasts. It’s certainly not going to be an easy job for Eddie and FRIDAY 1ST MARCH Amanda to pick their final European’s squads. The WAG Espoir Competition British Championships at the Echo Arena in March is Europa gymnasts Georgia and Catherine certainly got going to be a huge event with so many gymnasts the event off to a winning start. Georgia-Mae Fenton needing to peak at the right time. English Espoir AA Champion, Bars Champion, Beam We now have so many gymnasts that can fight for and Floor silver medallist. The diminutive Georgia had medals on the International circuit and the biggest a superb day when everything just came together. problem for a Team GB gymnast these days is staying Beautiful presentation, clean execution and just healthy and fighting to get higher scores than their enough difficulty to prove that she was simply the team mates to get in the squad. High difficulty and best – English Espoir All Around Champion! perfect execution are key as one mistake and there’s Catherine Lyons (back from her success as a last another gymnast waiting behind for your spot! minute replacement in the AYOF 2013 championships) performed with her trademark poise and elegance. Amongst the start list for the English championships it When she performs everyone stops to watch. Espoir was difficult to predict who would take the titles with Floor Champion, Silver medallist Bars and 4th place AA so many big names competing. Espoir. 2000 Olympian: Lisa Mason SATURDAY 2ND MARCH 2008 Olympians: Daniel Keatings, Hannah Whelan, Beckie Downie WAG Senior Competition 2012 Olympians: Sam Oldham, Daniel Purvis, Europa’s Olivia Blatch travelled all the way back from Max Whitlock, Hannah Whelan Loughborough and competed well on three pieces after her success in the BUCS competition the World Medallists previous month. Daniel Keatings, Daniel Purvis LONDON GYMNASTICS Providing the perfect balance of fun, passion and precision SUNDAY 3RD MARCH The family is certainly going to be sending a large part of their life in the gym for the next 15 years or so! Big WAG Junior Competition sister Ellesse added to the medal tally at last month’s London ended the last day of the English Champion- Disability Floor and Vault taking a Silver medal, she ships with a bang, medals for our London gymnasts performs with the trademark family smile! The set is were shared between Europa, East London and completed with brother Carlos who trains at the Aspire. In the WAG Junior Competition the girls really Europa Centre but within the sport of boxing and like demonstrated their depth taking 7 out of the possible his brothers and sister is also at the top of his game. 15 medals. From East London Chantelle Halford took Silver on Uneven Bars, Bronze on Beam, tied Bronze on Vault and 4th AA with Tyesha Mattis becoming Champion on Vault with Silver for AA and Floor. Aspire’s Lauren Mitchell tied for Bronze on Floor and was 8th AA. On Sunday the success for home club Europa continued, Ellis O’Reilly, (Tied on Vault for bronze, 10th AA), Briony Moir (16th AA, Europa) Congratulations also to coaches of our London Medallists for your many hours of work with your medal winning gymnasts: Rochelle Douglas, Sam James and Peter Etherington (Europa GC) Rebecca King, (Aspire GC) Lorraine Atkinson (East London GC) Those who can, do.