Saturday 14th July 2018 saw Leeds Gymnastics Club travel to the New College Leicester for the British Junior Team Championships. The Men’s Artistic team consisted of Jack Stanley, Simon Toussaint, Patrick Watkinson, Alex Morris, Mikey Goddard and Jonas Rushworth.
Leeds Gymnastics Club has won the British Junior team title, The Bill Williams trophy, for the 2 previous consecutive years, so the pressure and expectation were high.
The boys started on Parallel Bars, Jonas the first one to compete who unfortunately sat down on his Tippelt. Mikey and Patrick followed with solid routines. Simon settled any nerves with an outstanding performance and Jack followed that with another solid routine.
High bar saw a couple of uncharacteristic errors from the team but Watkinson and Toussaint followed with clean routines then Jack Stanley showed his class with an excellent routine to finish.
On to the Floor and Goddard led the way with a nice routine. Watkinson followed this with greatly executed landings. Toussaint also went clean. Stanley and Rushworth showed exceptional work but carried an unusual error in each routine.
Pommels which is always a challenge in any competition, and with the added pressure of carrying a couple of falls, was going to be a big test for the Leeds team – who then pulled out 4 clean routines from Alex Morris, Patrick Watkinson, Jack Stanley and Simon Toussaint. Leeds were back in the game.
The team then went to Rings with clean routines from everyone, of Highlight Toussaint’s great display of strength and control and Stanley’s faultless dismount.
The Leeds Team retained the title once again scoring 291.420, 13.830 marks ahead of second place Pipers Vale Gymnastics Club.
The Coaching Team of Dave Murray, Tom Rawlinson and Andy Butcher commented, ‘We are so proud of the boys! They executed the routines really well and showed our class. The hard work has paid off, but now starts again.’
The Leeds boys now have 8 weeks to prepare for there next competition, the prestigious London Open.