Belleville are London Gymnastics Champions - News - Wandsworth School Games

Belleville are London Gymnastics Champions

An impressive performance by Belleville school stole the show at the London School Games Mini Gymnastics competition on Thursday 4 July. Belleville representing Wandsworth, picked up gold in four of the six Key Steps Two and Three events on their way to securing overall gold for the borough overall both standards.

In the Key Steps Two competition, for children in Year 3 and 4, Wandsworth clinched gold in the Team Vault and Team Body Management events, along with bronze in the Floor discipline.

They continued their winning ways in the Key Steps Three category - for children in Year 5 and 6 - with victory in the Vault and on the Floor, and bronze in Body Management.

Last year the south Londoners took overall silver in the younger age group competition, and gold in the Key Step 3. This time around they underlined their commanding performance by claiming overall gold in both age groups (105.7 points KS2, 108.65 points KS 3) as well as the overall winner’s plate.

Wandsworth Team Manager and coach Rochelle Douglas was delighted with her team’s medal-winning haul.

She said: “The Key Step Two children are really quite committed to doing everything I ask of them in the gym, and their style really stood out today. They all delivered perfectly and I can’t ask for more.

“We are really happy with them, they’ve been working really hard. Some of them got the opportunity to compete last year and they came second, so they really wanted to improve on that and win.

“The Key Step Three were just Year 5 children, with three of the team only pulled in three weeks ago to learn the routine, so I’m especially proud of them, as we weren’t expecting to win.”

Douglas, who competed as a gymnast at the London Youth Games as a youngster before going on to represent Great Britain at the World Championships in 1999, believes her team have the potential to go far.

“There have been so many top athletes come through the London Youth Games - I represented my country on numerous occasions and it all started here at the London Youth Games, so let’s hope there’s lots more coming through.

“If some of them could join a proper gym club and push themselves a bit further to do more hour then I think that some of them could go that way as they have a good basic foundation now of skills that they have learned in their school," added Douglas.

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