Northern European Championships

In November 2009, the Northern European Gymnastics Championships were held in Cardiff. Scotland is represented at these championships every year and it is an honour for any Scottish gymnast to be selected for the team. Six weeks prior to the competition Hannah Kilcullen from Dundee was selected as a reserve – along side her Dundee’s Kirsty Campbell and Jordan Archibald qualified for the team but had to be withdrawn because of injury and illness respectively. As upset as Hannah was for her team mates she was of course very happy and excited to be able to go herself!

The national coaches didn’t expect much from this badly weakened team (5 of the top Scottish gymnasts were unavailable) and as it turned out were ready for a nice surprise. The girls (Kendal Smith and Eilidh Craig from Lasswade, Emma White from Huntington, Jordan Lipton from Notts and Hannah Kilcullen from Dundee) were determined to do well for each other and competed without too many costly mistakes. In the end they won the bronze medal for Scotland, demonstrating just how much depth there currently is in Scottish women’s artistic gymnastics. It was a real occasion to celebrate!