In early October, this year at the Trusts Arena in Auckland, the National Gymnastics Championships will once again bring talented children from all over New Zealand to participate and compete over 5 days.
It really is the BIG event in the gymnastics calendar and involves Artistic, Rhythmic, Trampoline, Tumble & Aerobic disciplines. Franklin Gymsports have 9 children that have qualified to attend Nationals this year. Niamh in Woman’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG), Ruby and Alix in Tumble, and Alexander, Andy, Brennan, Caleb, Lola and Mason in Trampolining. This is a huge achievement for our club where the children train for many hours in an environment with limited space and equipment. The dedication of our coaches and the families to make this happen is outstanding.
WAG (Woman’s Artistic Gymnastics) is perhaps the most well-known of gymnastic disciplines consisting of individual vault, uneven bars, beam and floor competitions combined with an all-round one. Niamh has enjoyed a successful season and is thrilled to be representing the club for her third National Competition.
Tumbling is a rapidly growing sport in New Zealand, and within our club. It is a combination of different gymnastics floor skills all linked together to show speed, power and precision. Having only opened competitive tumble into our programmes in 2018, we are very excited to have two girls qualify for Nationals this year.
Alix Holgate is an ex-competitive gymnast and has now been doing tumbling for two years and this will be her second year at Nationals. Excited to compete again, she is thrilled to share the experience this year with Ruby Allan who is also an ex-competitive gymnast who recently moved into competitive tumble. Both girls train exceedingly hard and the club is thrilled to see them both compete this year.
TRAMPOLINE & DMT
The sport of trampoline consists of competing on two different apparatus, one being the trampoline and the other, the double mini trampoline. We have had great success on both these apparatus’s this season with many qualifications across them both. Franklin Gymsports has run a trampoline class for around 8 years. In 2017 we were lucky enough to secure a FIG level coach with many years of experience in the sport. With the support of a great coach, this group of trampolinists have managed to go from strength to strength.
For Alexander Sharp who has been in our trampoline programme for about 6 years, and Lola Schmitt O'Reilly who is also an ex-competitive artistic gymnast, along with Brennan Miller and Andy Johnson this will be the second year they have represented the club at Nationals. For Caleb Brown and Mason Hall who have all achieved amazing results at season competitions which has seen them do well enough to qualify it will be their first year. Having such a large group represent the Franklin area is testament to the commitment of all involved.
We wish all of our competitors the absolute best at Nationals, it’s a huge achievement to be there and we are a very proud club seeing our children representing us. If you would like to find out more about what we do, and how much fun it is, come and see us at club night...