A string of excellent performances by the girls from Marriotts Gym Club was fully rewarded in the regional final of the British Club Grades. The club is now celebrating two regional golds at Ipswich at the event for grades six, five and four. The girls ha

A string of excellent performances by the girls from Marriotts Gym Club was fully rewarded in the regional final of the British Club Grades.

The club is now celebrating two regional golds at Ipswich at the event for grades six, five and four. The girls had qualified via the county grading.

The morning session saw a marathon grade six competition which was split into three age groups.

In the youngest age group, there was a high standard. Although not in the medals, the trio of Hannah Rayfield, Laura Burns and Lucy Moxham scored the distinction mark of greater than 45 out of 50 as well as scoring more than nine on every piece of apparatus.

In the nine/10 year age group, Georgia Hayes also achieved a distinction pass.

Georgia, who had finished third in the county qualifier, really stepped up a gear and in a tight competition she fought her way to the gold by just 0.175 of a mark.

In the next level up, the grade five championship, Anna Young was in the nine to 11-year-old age group.

She went into the competition in high spirits having just been selected for the Eastern Region squad.

Her first piece was the beam and although she completed the routine cleanly, the judges viewed it harshly and gave her a score of 8.90, leaving her 0.4 of a mark behind the highest scoring gymnast.

Excellent performances on floor and range and conditioning (which is a test of strength and flexibility) only clawed back 0.125 of the gap.

Her final two pieces were superb with 9.7 on vault and 9.0 on bars to give a final overall score of 47 out of a possible 50 marks.

It was not until the final presentation that her coaches and supporters were able to breathe a sigh of relief as she took gold by 0.775 of a mark.

In the grade four competition, the beam routine took its toll on the chances of their two representatives.

Both Jessica Barfoot (10 to 12 year age group) and Rebecca Lees (13 plus age group) suffered falls that left them outside of the medals.

The two gymnasts put in spirited performances for the rest of the competition, with Jessica getting the highest range and conditioning score in level four, scoring 9.70, and Rebecca pulling back to sixth overall.