Marriotts gymnast Katie Bell is beaming with delight after becoming the Scottish national champion. She won on beam in the 10 to 11-year-old age group at the weekend. The competition was held at Perth in Scotland on Saturday, and Katie is eligible to comp

Marriotts gymnast Katie Bell is beaming with delight after becoming the Scottish national champion.

She won on beam in the 10 to 11-year-old age group at the weekend. The competition was held at Perth in Scotland on Saturday, and Katie is eligible to compete as her mother hails from north of the border.

Katie also finished in fifth place on vault and sixth on floor, and in eighth place in the overall competition from more than 20 gymnasts.

It has been an excellent year for Katie who took national gold as a member of the Eastern Region team at the national grade three final earlier in the year, as well as gold as a member of the Herts county team in the regional inter-county championships. She is also the Eastern Region level three individual champion.

Coach Svetlana Lebiadzinskaya was delighted by Katie's success, and they hope to return to Scotland early in the New Year to trial for membership of the Scottish national squad.

* Sunday saw one of the busiest competitions of the year as the Marriotts Gym Centre hosted the Herts county acrobatic gymnastics championship.

Acrobatic gymnastics was previously known as sports acrobatics, and involves gymnasts competing as individuals in tumbling competition, in floor routines as pairs or trios.

All of the home club's participants came away with a medal.

The grade B tumbling saw Emma Hepsoe take bronze, while in the grade C tumbling, Frances Maydom won gold, Evangeline Evans the silver and Kelly Stringer just missed the medals by finishing in fourth place.

There were further gold medals for Nataliya Smethurst in the grade D tumbling, Ellen Daly in the grade one women's under-12 section, Amy Haughton in the grade one 12-14 section and Rachael Osburn in the grade two women's 15 plus section.

In the grade one women's tumbling 15 plus age group, Leanne Merrill took silver, missing gold by just 0.2 of a mark.

The pairs and groups saw more success. Leanne Merrill and Emma Hepsoe took gold by more than a mark in the preparatory B women's pairs, and Kelly Stringer and Nataliya Smethurst took bronze in the grade two women's pairs.

In the grade one women's pairs, Amy Houghton and Evangeline Evans came seventh overall.

In the trios competition, Rachael Osburn, Amy Haughton and Frances Maydom took bronze in the grade one women's pairs.

While in the grade two women's pairs it was a one-two for Marriotts with Aislinn Browne, Kelly Stringer and Nataliya Smethurst in silver and the trio of Joanna James, Leanne Merrill and Ellen Daly taking gold.

On a highly successful day for Marriotts, coaches Nikki Merrill and Lorraine Cooke were overjoyed by the success of their gymnasts.