Dundee Gymnastics Club 2K was founded in November 1999 by Tess Inglis, Bea Petersen and Jackie Archibald. It started modestly with just a small group of young girls selected from the recreational classes in Dundee. Paul Carson, whose expertise lies in tumble and Sports Acrobatics, joined the club in 2002.

In 2003 the club changed status to a Ltd Company by Guarantee and also became a charity. A couple of years later Pam Bowie became a member of the team and apart from her interest in coaching she also volunteered to qualify as a judge. This was an important step, since clubs are expected to send their own judge with every ompetition entry. Lisa Mitchell joined us a little later and has become invaluable for the club.

Over the years the coaches gained a lot of experience and put time and effort into attaining higher coaching qualifications. It wasn’t in vain as Bea is now the only high performance coach and Tess one of the few senior club coaches in Tayside.

Raising the standard of coaching has been mirrored by the ever increasing success of our gymnasts. In 2002 we presented two gymnasts to Scottish national squad trials for the first time – just to gain experience and learn from the best…We were lucky and one of them was selected… The learning could begin:

Presently Jordan Archibald, Kirsty Campbell and Hannah Kilcullen (retired in 2010) are all members of the National Junior Squad and young Jennifer Brankin was recently selected to become a member of the National Start Squad.

The girls are not only good in training:

In 2007 three of our gymnasts competed in the British Challenge Cup with the aim to qualify for the British Championships. Amazingly all three succeeded and even exceeded our expectations: Jordan won the Cup and Kirsty was third overall!

More recently DGC2K won the Scottish team title three years running with Jordan Archibald becoming Scottish Espoir Champion in 2008.

2008 was a terrific year for her excelling particularly on vault where she made both British and Northern European finals. 2008 was also a good year for our developing youngsters: In their first grade every one of them was awarded with a distinction!

At the prestigious Dundee Sports Awards both coaches and gymnasts from DGC2K were well rewarded for their efforts: Young Athlete of the Year, Team of the Year and Coach of the Year were all awarded to various members of the club!

Still, it’s not all about competing. DGC2K has developed strong links with the German club TSV Kronshagen. Since 2002 we have met in Viborg (Denmark), Kiel (Germany) or in Inverclyde and Dundee for joint training camps and cultural exchange. We intend to continue in this tradition and are in the process of planning another trip abroad for 2011.