Garioch gymnasts helped Scotland secure an impressive 16-medal haul at the British Women’s Artistic Classic Challenge in Guilford.
Islay Grant, Leah Douglas, Casey Reid and Thea Klopper represented Team Scotland after qualifying for the competition in a regional qualifier in September.
Grant competed in the Silver Section for the first time at national level helping Scotland secure a team bronze medal.
She also won an individual silver medal on beam, being awarded a certificate for having the most memorable performance on the apparatus.
Grant’s impressive display throughout the competition left her narrowly missing out on an individual podium place finishing fourth in the all-round contest, only 0.2 points off third.
Garioch’s Douglas, Reid and Klopper were part of the gold medal winning team in the Bronze Section, accumulating an impressive overall team score of 191.300.
The success did not stop there as at the end of the weekend the top apparatus scores from each region across all three sections – Bronze, Silver and Gold were added together to find the highest scoring team which would be awarded the Bill McLaughlin Cup.
Scotland pipped Wales to the cup winning it for the first time, capping off a successful competition for Garioch’s gymnasts and Team Scotland.
Praise all-around
Garioch gymnastics manager Janine Robertson is delighted that the Kintore club’s representatives could contribute to the impressive return of medals for Team Scotland.
She said: “Back in September, when they qualified to represent Scotland, that was the first competition back after Covid.
“We went into that event with no expectations of how they would all do with so long off so to have four gymnasts selected for Team Scotland was amazing.
“The girls worked really hard to prepare for the British Final, but again we had no idea how the rest of the regions would perform.
“To start so brilliantly with a team gold was phenomenal and for the successes for Team Scotland to continue over the whole weekend was unprecedented.
“The coaches and gymnasts are just delighted to be back doing what they love and to be able to do it with medal success is just the icing on the cake.”