Posted 14 March 2010
Good news stories
Compulsory grades 4 and 3, Perth, Bell’s Sports Centre 6th March 2010
Three of our gymnasts attempted this year to compete in the elite grades: Jennifer Brankin at level 3 and the two youngsters Sarah McKenzie and Hayley Bell at level 4. These grades put extremely high demands on the girls both psychologically and physically.
Even though Sarah and Hayley started the competition on beam – a nerve wracking piece at the best of times – Hayley managed to complete her routine without a fall and Sarah could limit her falls to 1. Floor was their second piece and both girls did their best, performing their dance with some flair and landing all their tumbles. Next piece was the dreaded Range and Conditioning which requires a high level of flexibility, strength and control in the handstand position. Sarah got through her routine cleanly but unfortunately this time it was Hayley who took one fall – a rather costly one as it turned out later…The fall had left her just below the pass mark for this particular piece. However, on the last two pieces, vault and bars they both did very well, with Hayley receiving the highest vault score of all competitors. In the end they finished in position 8 (Hayley) and 9 (Sarah) with all around scores of above 53 points. Congratulations, girls!
Jennifer took her compulsory grade 3 one year out of age. She looked a bit nervous but collected and mature enough to handle the pressure. Vault was her first piece in the competition and although this is not normally her strongest event she excelled and received a very high score. This set her off to a good start and helped to settle the nerves a little. On bars everything went to plan! – unlike in training the day before where she had fallen twice. This was a big relief. Next up was the beam, a piece Jennifer does very well in training. Would she be able to deliver the same quality under pressure? Well, yes! The routine she performed for the judges was her best ever. A joy to watch. The pressure was off now – only floor and R+C to get through. On floor there was a little mistake in the last tumble but Range +Conditioning was beautifully performed. Jennifer passed the grade and received the gold medal for the overall result and the R+C. An amazing competition for Jennifer!
Good News from DGC 2K
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Celtic Cup, Cardiff, 20th Feb 2010
On the 20th February this year’s Celtic Cup was held in Cardiff. Three girls from Dundee Gymnastics Club 2K had been selected to compete for Scotland in the Junior Team: Kirsty Campbell, Hannah Kilcullen and Jordan Archibald. It was the first competition of the year and nerves were jingling. The atmosphere in the gym was great - lifting our girls to rise to the challenge. Even though the Northern Irish team looked much improved the Scots defended their silver medal successfully – beaten only by a very strong Welsh team. Kirsty was the highest scorer within the Scottish team, her performances looking mature and safe. Hannah scored a personal best on floor and bars and Jordan competed her yurchenko full twist on vault for the first time successfully in competition. 13.4 the impressive score.
This was an excellent ‘practice’ for the Scottish Championships which are to be held on Saturday 27th/28th February at Bell’s Sports Centre in Perth.
Scottish Championships 2010
The Dundee girls Kirsty Campbell, Jordan Archibald and Hannah Kilcullen competed in the junior section of the Scottish Championships 2010. On Saturday the gymnasts completed the All Around competition which is also the qualifying competition for the apparatus finals held on the following day. It was an exciting competition with Jordan and Kirsty going head to head for the gold medal. In the end Kirsty just had the edge over Jordan, and Hannah placed herself in bronze medal position: 1, 2, 3 for Dundee 2K! The girls clearly dominated the junior section. This became evident once again during the apparatus finals. All four gold medals went to Dundee 2K: Jordan won the vault, Kirsty the bars and Hannah both beam and floor!
Table of medals:
|
Vault |
Bars |
Beam |
Floor |
Jordan |
Gold |
Silver |
Silver |
|
Kirsty |
Silver |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Hannah |
|
|
Gold |
Gold |
10 January 2010
Scottish National Squad Trials Results
Academy Squad
Name |
Squad |
Yes/No |
Dayna Duncan |
Regional |
Yes |
Hayley Bell |
National |
Yes |
Sarah McKenzie |
National |
Yes |
Scottish Squad
Name |
Squad |
Yes/No |
Jennifer Brankin |
Start Squad |
Yes |
Hannah Kilcullen |
Junior Squad |
Yes |
Kirsty Campbell |
Junior Squad |
Yes |
Jordan Archibald |
Junior Squad |
Yes |
Congratulations girls!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Northern European Championships
In November this year 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!
Level 6 Voluntary Team, Perth, November 2009:
The Level 6 proves to be extremely popular with clubs across the country. The entry was massive once again. 29 teams entered – wow. There were no age restrictions so our team of 8 and 9 year olds was one of the youngest in the field. The girls had an early start. They competed in the first round where scores are usually rather harsh. Still, our team fought their way through the competition and finished in a credible 6th place. Along with a few mistakes some beautiful routines were performed. Jamie Lee vaulted powerfully and with style. She won the silver medal on this piece! Sofia stayed on the beam, showed nice clean lines and few wobbles. This performance won her the 3rd best score on beam! Chloe and Sarah both vaulted well and finished in 5th place and Catherine’s bar routine was executed cleanly to give her the 7th highest score. Hayley finished with the highest all around score amongst our 8 year olds, demonstrating that hard work does pay off. Well done, the team!
Open Age team F.I.G., November 2009
During the last week of preparation it became clear: the girls from DGC2K went to this competition to defend their title. There was no doubt in their minds.
Calamity: One day before the competition Jordan Archibald showed all the common symptoms of getting the flu…
Oh dear, now Dundee only had four gymnasts left in the team and these included the youngsters Harley McAfee and Jennifer Brankin next to the more experienced Hannah Kilcullen and Kirsty Campbell. The trophy was quite out of reach, we thought, but all four were ready to put up a fight. They warmed up in a focussed and determined fashion and kept this attitude right through the actual competition. Not everything went quite the way it was planned but the girls made absolutely sure that they didn’t give any additional marks away. The team spirit was commendable. Hannah and Kirsty stood up their somersault vaults. Kirsty got through her bar programme as if it was easy. Harley showed that she can giant around the bar. Jennifer stuck her difficult beam programme and Hannah finished with the most beautiful floor routine. Coach Bea Petersen was very happy with the girls’ performances. What ever was going to happen to any trophies and medals.
The presentation ceremony that followed was full of nice surprises: Team DGC2K in first position! Jennifer and Harley contributing two scores each to the result. Kirsty won the individual all around score as well as bars and beam. Hannah came 3rd in the all around and won the floor. It was one of those days that reminded you how sweet the taste of success is…
Level 5 Voluntary Individual and Team, Perth, October 2009:
In October 2009 Sarah Blake, Jiana Lowrie, Jodie Lee Johnstone and Charlotte Bruhn had their series of competitions. The first one was the individual competition (Charlotte missed this one because of her holidays). The three gymnasts went out and did a very good job with few mistakes. Only the beam proved to be treacherous for Jodie and Jiana. Falls were highly penalised because the minimum number of moves to be shown was affected resulting in start values decreasing. However, Jodie came out with terrific vault and floor scores and Jiana performed much better on vault, bars and floor than she had done in training. Sarah kept a cool head throughout, made no mistakes to speak of and finished in bronze medal position with a score above 44 points. This means that Sarah qualified to move up into voluntary level 4 next year. Congratulations!
In the team competition everyone pulled together and after the problems on beam in the individual competition the girls now all stayed on! No falls for the team! And this was particularly positive for Charlotte who was courageous enough to perform a back flip in competition for the first time. Well done! The entry in this competition was huge and the depth of quality gymnasts impressive, hence medals were hard to come by. Still, Jiana improved on her last competition and made Coach Lisa really proud. Jodie was placed 4th on the vault and Sarah won the silver medal for her floor exercise. Brilliant!
Level 6 Voluntary Individual, Perth Sept 2009
For all six gymnasts from Dundee this was their first voluntary competition ever. The 8 year olds Chloe Lindsay, Hayley Bell and Sarah McKenzie were in the first round and went about the business of competing without much ado. The floor routines all worked fine, vaults were flighty and landings held. On bars the brand new upstarts worked – and then we came to the beam…a real challenge when the whole body suddenly starts to shake. Sarah still managed to stay on and performed a nice routine with a back walkover. Excellent work. Well done all three little ones!
The 9 year olds Catherine Foote, Jamie Lee Thomson and Sofia Ramzan pretty much matched the steady performances of the girls in the first round. I only witnessed their beautiful floor routines before I had to head back to Dundee to start the Club session and it was Jamie Lee who got the audience’s biggest applause. Her dancing was inspiring. Catherine did very well over all, remembering to sell her routines and how to stay on the beam! Sofia stood out from the crowd. She showed a few glimpses of brilliance and finished in bronze medal position! Congratulations!
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British Junior Championships July 2009
This was the second time that Dundee 2K had gymnasts competing at the British Championships - the biggest competition in Britain and the only one that presents certificates to the competitors before any routines have been performed. That's how much it means just to have qualified for this competition!
Jordan Archibald, Kirsty Campbell and Hannah Kilcullen all competed in the junior section. Hannah in round one the others in round two, each of them in a different pool. This demanded a high degree of self-sufficiency and confidence. And then there was another little quirk that really got the nerves tingling: The rules were that gymnasts are relegated to the Challenge Cup if they score less than 44 points over the 4 pieces of apparatus.
This was a tall order for Hannah who had never scored so high under the new Code of Points. She started the competition on beam (...!) and was first up - oh dear. I don't know who was more nervous, Hannah or I. She started well, however, and only got into trouble once: her c-spin didn't work and she had a fall. 10.45 was a score she could live with if everything else went to plan. Next piece was the floor where Hannah was going to compete her double tuck in the first acro line. Confidently she started and stood the difficult tumble up. She continued her performance with skill and expression and was rewarded with a score of 11.85. So far so good. Vault was an easy piece for her: pike tsuk, flighty but with a large step on landing. Now there were only the bars to get through. And this was the moment she let her nerves get to her: the mo flew into the high bar and killed the swing. She struggled on bravely but had to take the penalty for an extra swing. She finished the routine with a big double back dismount - and another large step on landing... Would it be enough not to get relegated? The waiting for the score - and then: 9.15. Sandy Richardson, national coach and myself worked out her final score somewhat frantically. Unbelievably Hannah scored 44.05. She couldn't have cut it any finer but she made it!!! Well done!
The second round with Jordan and Kirsty started immediately afterwards. Jordan started on vault and Kirsty on bars. Jordan's handspring tuck front worked well even though it didn't land dead. On her second vault yurchenko straight she came on so quickly that she touched the vault table with her knuckles instead of her palms. But still, it was very respectable and in the end she had the 9th highest qualifying score. This placed her as first reserve for the apparatus finals on the next day. Kirsty meanwhile had a spot of trouble during the warm up. She just couldn't quite catch her gienger salto. The occasion clearly got to her a little and unfortunately she also fell on the gienger in competition. The score was 9.15. None of us had expected this and suddenly the 44 points were not as easy to achieve as we had anticipated. However, Kirsty showed her competitive side on beam. In the short warm up she looked as if she was ready to fight back - and so she did! She performed an absolutely beautiful routine with good split separation in her leap and strong, sharp landings after every move. Only the dismount went a little squint. Never mind. 11.95 would do nicely! Jordan was on bars at the same time and also did very well. No fall and never lost the swing. Altogether a solid performance. 10.95 the score. That settled the nerves a little. In the third rotation Kirsty was on floor and Jordan on the beam. Both warmed up well and were disciplined enough to repeat every one of their moves until they were just right. It paid off. Jordan had no falls and finished in 7th position with a score of 12.45 - this secured her a place in the apparatus final! What a surprise... Kirsty also went clean and scored a credible 12.3 on floor. Things were going well. The girls just had to keep a clean sheet on the last piece. Jordan still had floor to do and Kirsty finished on vault. Kirsty put everything into her handspring tuck front - and nearly over rotated it. She saved herself with a giant step forwards. 12.7 was the score. This gave her an overall score of 46.1 - well out of the danger zone! Excellent. Jordan meanwhile put her last energies into her floor routine. She looked a little tired and the tumbles were a little laboured but she still got through without a fall. Her overall score was a huge 48 points which placed her in a remarkable 12th position! What a day it was. Relief and happiness ruled.
On the Sunday Jordan marched on once again, this time to compete in the beam final. The girls she stood next to all had big names: Heathrow gymnasts Danusia Francis and Nicole Hibbert on one side and Welsh superstar Lizzy Beddoe and Liverpool's Jenny Pinches on the other. I couldn't have been more proud of Jordan. That she didn't quite manage to hold her nerve in this set up was forgivable I thought. She had a fall on the flip layout but kept the 7th position that she had qualified in. Adrian Stan had been watching the competition closely. He was clearly impressed with Jordan and as a result invited her to train with the British Squad. Wow! What an honour.
It was an exciting and utterly positive weekend for the gymnasts and coaches from Dundee. One to remember!
And last but not least: A big 'thank you' to Paul Carson who gave up his time to accompany us to Guildford and to do all that important talking that keeps everyone's spirits high. Cheers, Paul!
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Scottish Championships, Perth, Bell's Sports Centre, 20/21st June 2009
Even though the last 6 months had been marred by injuries the national title was as hard fought for as ever. The girls from DGC 2K Kirsty Campbell, Jordan Archibald and Hannah Kilcullen came to defend their team title for the third time and clearly had the individual junior title on their minds too. Kirsty didn't show her double pike back somersault on floor because an injury to her foot had stopped her from practicing tumbles until 2 weeks before the competition. However, this didn't stop her from performing each routine with great focus, skill and attention to detail. She had no falls throughout the competition and qualified with the highest beam score for the apparatus finals the next day. Wow.
Jordan Archibald, the Espoir Champion from last year, started confidently on bars - highest score! On to the beam. Warm up had gone well and Jordan worked her routine cleanly until the round-off for her dismount nearly missed the beam altogether. She managed to avert catastrophy by quickly deciding in mid-air to change from a 1 1/2 twist to a full twist with a little tuck. On floor adrenaline gave her more height in the last tumble than she had bargained for...over rotation - fall. What a shame. On vault she was back to full form and showed both her vaults with massive flight and controlled landings. The result was another top score. Excellent.
Hannah started nervously on bars where her feet came off the low bar too early to do her bar change to the top bar. A noisy clonk was to be heard as she headered the high bar. Even after this she finished her routine with an amazing double tuck somersault which rose well above the height of the high bar. Beam looked nice and stable until she performed her difficult C-spin which proved too hard to control on this occasion. Next piece was floor and Hannah had clearly made up her mind that she was going to fight back. She performed her routine beautifully, worked hard on clean landings and straight legs as to not to give any marks away. Her vault was also superbly hit and gave her the highest tsukahara score of the day.
The result of all this was:
-DGC2K are once again Scottish team champions!!!
-Kirsty Campbell is the new Junior champion!!!
-Jordan Archibald is the runner up!!
-Hannah Kilcullen came 5th!
-Kirsty and Jordan were selected to compete for Scotland in the upcoming UK School Games
In the apparatus finals on Sunday the results were as follows:
Vault:
1st Holly Ramage (Lasswade), 2nd Kirsty Campbell, 3rd Jordan Archibald who competed her Yurchenko straight with full turn for the first time!
Bars:
1st Jordan Archibald
2nd Kirsty Campbell, Holly Ramage
Beam:
1st Kirsty Campbell and Jordan Archibald, this time with a nice flighty 1 1/2 twist dismount
3rd Hannah Kilcullen who demonstrated that the difficult C-spin can be controlled!
Floor:
1st Holly Ramage
2nd Kirsty Campbell
3rd Jordan Archibald, this time without the fall
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Celebration of Life Competition (Broadwood Gymnastics Academy), 7th June 2009
Four 10/11 year old gymnasts from Dundee took part in this new Level 5 competition, held in memory of Dave Scollon. Sarah Blake, Jodi Lee Johnstone, Harley McAfee and Jennifer Brankin competed for DGC. The atmosphere was upbeat and relaxed which helped the girls to compete at their best. Jennifer and Sparky performed their routines near enough faultlessly and even though their skills were not the most difficult they came to share 4th place in the end! Jodi competed a lot more positively than in the past and only made a few minor mistakes which - unfortunately - were costly in terms of judging - never mind. Harley's start values were a little higher and she managed to get through her routines with only 1 fall. This gained her the silver medal. Well done!!! In this competition the judges are asked to nominate a gymnast whose performances they found most impressive. This time round it was Jennifer who got most votes from the judges. They were impressed with the tidiness and confidence Jenn demonstrated in her performances. It was a superb event for the girls and once again parents and coaches went home feeling proud!
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Grade 14,13 & 11 at Perth, Bell's Sports Centre, May 2009
Grade 14, the first grade on the road to becoming a competitive gymnast, was taken by the following girls: Hayley Bell, Sarah McKenzie, Alanna Smith and Chloe Lindsay. All of them performed confident, well rehearsed routines and passed with ease. Sarah even achieved a distinction for her good work and finished in a very credible 7th place. Coaches and parents had every reason to be proud of our littlest ones!
Grade 13 was taken by Sofia Ramzan, Catherine Foote and Jamie-Lee Thompson. Again, there was no question about passing the grade. All three did! On top of this Sofia gave everyone a nice surprise: Although she was ill in the week running up to the competition she performed her routines beautifully and came 1st!!!
Grade 11 was attempted by Sarah Blake (Sparky) and Jodi Lee Johnstone. This was a grade hard to pass as it turned out. The judges clearly wanted to see all the required moves and on top of it stunning performances. This made for harsh judging and a lot of the gymnasts failed - not the Dundee girls, however! Both passed and Sparks even finished in 7th place! Well done to both of you!
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Sport Dundee Awards - 
DGC2K rewarded for their success at the Dundee Sports Awards 2008
The club received awards for Young Team of the year (Katie Guild, Hannah Kilcullen, Jordan Archibald, Kirsty Campbell), Young Athlete of the year (Jordan Archibald) and Coach of the year (Bea Petersen) at the Dundee Sports Awards Ceremony last Wednesday at the Invercarse Hotel. Pam Bowie also received the award for Community Coach of the year recognizing her fantastic work within WAC and Newfields Gymnastic club, two clubs which act as feeder clubs to DGC2K. Tess Inglis was one of the 3 nominees for Volunteer of the year. Nominations for this event come in from all sports in Dundee, incl. swimming, hockey, cycling, ice skating, football, netball/basketball, to name but the most successful sports besides gymnastics. Dundee City Council, Sports Development section, organises the event with the help of a multitude of sponsors (radio Tay AM and Dundee University were the main sponsors this year). The club's huge presence at this ceremony highlights our gymnasts' and coaches' fabulous work and committment.
Posted 17 Nov 2008
On Saturday 15th November a team from DGC2K (Natalie Bowie, Harley McAfee, Hannah Kilcullen, Jordan Archibald and Kirsty Campbell) competed in the Scottish Open Age Team Championships. It was a tight competition with 5 teams from across Scotland contending for the gold medal: Fife, Lasswade, West Lothian, Glasgow and Dundee all had strong teams and looked well prepared. Bea decided to take a chance and asked the girls to put a few new skills into their routines. As expected some of these new skills worked beautifully and others did not - but hey, you've got to go for them some day... Jordan competed her double pike on floor in the last acro series (when there isn't usually a lot of oxigen available) and Kirsty managed her 2 1/2 twist in the last line! Hannah did her double tuck on floor and as a dismount off bars for the first time, Harley competed full twist and straight front salto on the floor and a change leg leap on the beam and Natalie performed a very high 1/2 twist on floor and a change leg leap on the beam). Our girls fought their way through the competition and didn't allow mistakes to phase them unduly. In the end they surprised their own coaches and parents by coming first! 0.5 points ahead of the second team (Lasswade). Jordan Archibald was also first in the individual scoring due to a fantanstic bar routine and sound work on the other pieces. To round it all up Natalie won the silver medal in the 12/13 section of the competition! We are all very proud of you, girls. Well done!!!
posted 21 Sept 2008
Last weekend we had gymnasts competing in the age group voluntary competition level 4 (9 year olds), level 3 (10 year olds) and the voluntary challenge for girls aged 12+.
For our little ones it was only their second four piece competition and they were very nervous! We started on bars - the piece of equipment where Charlotte and Jennifer had only just learned the upstart a couple of weeks prior to the competition. All three did well and the competition was under way. Next was the dreaded beam - not a good piece of equipment when you are shaking with nerves before you even get onto it... Charlotte and Jiana fought their way bravely through their routines but did have to climb back up a few times. Jennifer seemed a little less phazed and indeed managed to minimize her mistakes to 1 fall only. Everyone was now looking forward to the floor where it's quite impossible to fall off. 3 very nice routines from the girls with Charlotte's dance turning a few heads in the audience! Off to vault next: all three girls managed to get across the big vault table - not a mean feat it you can hardly look over the top of it! Jiana hit the board the best and came out with the third highest vault score in the competition! In the end Jennifer won the silver medal - congratulations - with Charlotte in 10th and Jiana in 9th place. Well done the girls!
Harley took part in the level 3 competition but because she was going to concentrate on the compulsory grade 3 the weekend after we only treated this event as a practice competition. Harley managed to get her first backward giant over, made everyone smile with her beautiful floor routine and demonstrated to the judges what a good vaulter she is. Harley was placed 10th.
In the voluntary challenge 12+ Alex and Natalie competed for Dundee. For Natalie it was the first FIG competition and she did well with her routines. She managed to make very few mistakes and finished her competition with a tsukahara on vault. It was very flighty and she stuck it without any problems: 12.5 points - a very decent result! Alex performed a floor routine with a wow factor - most expressive dance of the day! She stayed on beam and caught her mo on bars for the first time. Congratulations! Natalie finished in 9th and Alex in 10th place.
This weekend Harley attempted to pass the elite grade 3. It is a tall order with judging becoming more and more severe. She started with steady vaults but on her second piece desaster struck: she pinged off in her first giant but was spirited enough to go back up to finish her routine. 6.1 was a blow to her aim to pass the grade. Still she did not give up. The beam was next and she made sure that there wasn't too much work for the judges - no falls! Well done. From there onto her favourite piece: the floor. Again her floor was lovely and she scored the highest floor mark in the competition. Only Range and Conditioning to go. It's a bit of a challenge to stay on your hands for nearly a minute whilst performing various tricks... Harley lost her focus for just a moment and had to come down onto her feet - this mistake was penalised heavily by the judges and together with all other gymnasts who attempted the grade, she sadly missed the pass mark. However, the good new is: Harley was placed 3rd in this extremely difficult competition. Congratulations!
There were also 5 Dundee girls who participated in the level 5 competition: For Jodie-Lee and Kendal it was the first real 4 piece competition. Nerves did make them a little jittery but with 38.362 and 40.423 points respectively they did very well indeed! Christy and Stacy both improved their personal best to 39.867 and 39.789 points. Well done! Sarah or Sparky as she commonly known was the highest scorer from Dundee. For her it was also the first attempt at a 4 piece competition but she managed to keep a calm head and worked cleanly on all four pieces. In the end Sparky was placed 15th out of 41 competitors with a score of 41.223. Congratulations.
30-31st August 2008
Jorden Archibald and Kirsty Campbell from Dundee Gymnastics Club 2K were part of the Scottish Team that competed at the UK School Games in Bath/ Bristol on the weekend. The multi-sports event is held every year in preparation for the London Olympics 2012 to give the young hopefuls an experience that mirrors the Olympic Games. There were both opening and closing ceremonies and all participants stayed together in an athletes village. The standard of gymnastics shown at the competition was extremely high and the Scottish Team did very well to secure a bronze medal. On the second day of competition apparatus finals were held. Both girls managed to qualify for finals: Jorden represented Scotland on the bars and the beam whilst Kirsty competed on vault and floor.
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Dundee Gymnasts face the Challenge!!!
Jordan Archibald, Kirsty Campbell and Hannah Kilcullen, three Dundee gymnasts, competed in the British Challenge Cup at Aldershot at the weekend. It’s a prestigious competition with more than 65 entrants from the whole of the UK taking part. The Challenge Cup is a qualifying competition for the British Championships and all three gymnasts from DGC2K were intent on achieving the qualifying score of 44.0. As it turned out they reached their goal - but did even better than that! The girls held their nerve throughout and performed all their routines with ease and perfection. They clearly raised some eyebrows but the real surprise was still to come:
Jordan Archibald won the cup overall with a massive score of 47.4 points and added two silver medals – on vault and on bars – to her tally. Kirsty Campbell also made it onto the podium. She picked up the bronze medal overall with 46.15 points and the gold medal for her floor. Hannah Kilcullen finished in a very respectable 7th place with 44.9 points and, like the other two, achieved qualification.
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Grade 6 2008: Jiana Lowrie (4), Charlotte Bruhn (11), Natalie Gallant (17), Jamie-Lee Thomson (15)
all passed. total number of competitors 77
Grade 5 2008: Sarah Blake (1), Kendal Luff (35), Jodie-Lee Johnstone (32) out of 85 competitors in total. All passed
Scottish Championships, June 2008: DGC2K team came first! (Jordan Archibald, Kirsty Campbell, Hannah Kilcullen, Katie Guild)
Individual results for age group Espoir: Jordan (1), Kirsty Campbell (3),
in apparatus finals: Vault: Kirsty (2nd)
bars: Jordan (1), Kirsty (2)
beam: Jordan (1), Hannah (3)
floor: Jordan (2)
British Espoir Championships, June 2008: Hannah, Kirsty and Jordan had qualified to compete here. Hannah was injured and coudn't compete, but Jordan and Kirsty had a good experience with Jordan qualifying for vault finals.
Womens British Results Espoir Espoir
No Name Club Comp AV Vault Pos
243 Venus Romaeo Cardiff Central Espoir 13.550 1
240 Nicole Watson Park-Wrekin Espoir 13.525 2
222 Lara West Notts Espoir 13.500 3
230 Holly Ramage Lasswade Espoir 13.225 4
209 Danielle Wickham Port Regis Espoir 13.100 5
212 Jordan Archibald Dundee 2K Espoir 12.900 6
248 Rebecca Tunney City of Liverpool Espoir 12.725 7
216 Amy Middleton Horsham Espoi r 12.250 8