Youngsters took their first steps into competitive gymnastics at Marriotts Gym Centre in Stevenage on Sunday. It was for the Herts level seven and level six championships. Level seven is the first level of county competition and the gymnasts only compete

Youngsters took their first steps into competitive gymnastics at Marriotts Gym Centre in Stevenage on Sunday.

It was for the Herts level seven and level six championships.

Level seven is the first level of county competition and the gymnasts only compete on the floor and the vault.

In the youngest age group, the Marriotts girl gymnasts faced stiff competition with more than 20 gymnasts being entered in the age seven and eight-year-old event.

However, the young gymnasts came well prepared and produced a wonderful result for themselves and the club, finishing in first, second, third, equal fourth and ninth place in the competition.

The gymnasts (in their order of finishing) were Naomi Tella (gold), Grace Monchar (silver), Catherine Dorey (bronze), Serena Bateman and Olivia Andrews. In addition, Naomi, Grace and Catherine also took first, second and third for the vault apparatus.

In the level seven boys' competition (age seven/eight years), Marriotts put in an excellent display with gold to Robbie Nightingale, silver to Luca Moscardini, bronze to Rafal Marczak and Rory Miln in a close fourth place.

In the individual apparatus, it was Robbie followed by Luca and Rafal on vault, while on floor the order was Robbie, Rory and Rafal.

The girls' level six championship is the first county level competed on all four pieces (floor, vault, bars and beam).

Again there was a strong field, and the Marriotts gymnasts put in some excellent performances.

In the overall competition, Cerhys Davis-Jones took the silver medal, Jade Lam-Richardson finished fourth and Bethany Todd fifth.

In the apparatus events, Cerhys took one second and two third places, Jade one first and one third, and Bethany one second and one third place.

Marriotts boys also performed well at the national grade finals which were held recently at Newcastle.

In addition to the superb performance of Daniel Gardner who took overall silver and team gold at intermediate one, there was more success for the club and for the Eastern Region.

In the primary one grade, Sebastian Jaunzens took an excellent ninth place, and only an error in his floor routine prevented him being in the individual medals.

He still helped the Eastern Region team to the gold medal position with a margin of over five points.

In the primary two competition, Marriotts had three gymnasts in the five gymnast Eastern Region team.

Although not in the individual medals, the trio of Alex Carrier, Ben Drew and Zoli Andrews helped the Eastern Region team to silver.

The Eastern Region can lay claim to being the strongest region in the country after easily winning the overall trophy across all six levels of grade.