Oct 2023 – RGC Athletes represent at Gymnastics Ireland National Series :
Over the weekend of October 28th and 29th over thirty RGC gymnasts took to the floor at the National Sports Campus in Blanchardstown, for the first in a series of Gymnastics Ireland events.
The weeknd included some of the RGC’s most advanced athletes participating across the disciplines of Tumbling (TUM) and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG). For many the weekend format featured gymnasts competing within team events, in addition to individual all around titles, apparatus placings and not forgetting ongoing selection trials for a number of International events which will take place over the next 12 months.
In keeping with the club’s reputation for quality performances and showcasing some truly beautiful work this weekend was true to form. It was a highly successful outing from our RGC gymnasts who celebrated many successes across the two days.
RGC WAG Overview:
It was an early start for members of our Intermediate Club Team – Ciara Farrell, Ciara Munnelly, Veronica Molnar, Caragh Flynn & Aisling Furey. They started the weekend off for RGC in great spirit, showing solid team performances, setting a very high standard in their execution along with great sportsmanship across the day. The team brought home both the Team Gold title in addition to Ciara Munnelly who took the National All Around title with a truly inspiring performance in addition to a 3rd place Bronze awarded for Vault and 1st place Gold medal for Uneven Bars.
Also competing in the first subdivision was RGC’s Level 6 Club Team. This featured teammates Saoirse Joyce, Tamara Vestenicka and Aoibhin Mullins. The girls gave it their all across the morning, showing some progressive new skills and upgraded routines against some tough competition. The team put out their highest scores on Vault and Uneven Bars finishing in 4th place with a team total of 109.47 and special recognition for Tamara who took the apparatus Gold on the Uneven Bars.
Some of our youngest gymnasts of the weekend competed in the Level 4 & 5+ Team event. Once again demonstrating very encouraging progress from earlier in the season performing upgraded skills and new routines on all apparatus. Competing in this category was Robyn Coady-Feeney, Alison Walsh, Siana O’Grady, Juniper Dwyer and Amy Walsh. This young team showed much promise for the future, they finished in 5th place with a team score of 119.550 within one of the toughest groups of the day. We really look forward to watching them in the future if they continue to make this much progress. It’s only a matter of time before we see these young athletes up on the podium.
The first day concluded with much excitement on the floor with RGC’s Advanced Club Team. This was a day of many challenges but the girls stepped up and took it head on. Tereza McMahon, Emma Morgan, Sarah Kidd & Rebecca Clarke represented at this level and did a phenomenal job. All of the girls performed new skills out in the arena and upgraded their difficulty on a number of apparatus. They did it beautifully and after a very tight competition they proudly featured on the podium for team silver and a score of 127.747. In pure style Rebecca Clarke took the All Around title and Gold medal in addition to apparatus medals for Vault (Silver), Uneven Bars (Silver), Balance Beam (Silver) and Floor Exercise (Bronze). On her heels was RGC’s Emma Morgan who finished in 4th place just outside of the medals by a whisker, but taking an apparatus medal on Uneven Bars (Bronze) for her solid work.
Day two was no less exciting. Taking to the floor first was our prestigious FIG Senior Team who showed that no matter what the obstacles they have to face in their path, they are resilience personified. They carried an uncharacteristic amount of team errors across some pieces and astonishingly they still returned to Galway as National FIG Team Champions with a clear margin over over 5 marks and a team score of 136.548. This team remains undefeated since their debut title in 2016. That’s some achievement for our Galway girls Jane Heffernan, Kate Molloy, Blathnaid Higgins and Emma Slevin. These girls are working their way through an ongoing trial process at present, I know Galway will join us in getting behind them in every way we can. Special recognition goes out to RGC’s Emma Slevin who also took the Senior FIG All Around Gold, in addition to ranking 3rd on Vault, and 1st across Uneven Bars, Balance Beam and Floor exercise. With a 2nd place finish on Floor for Blathnaid Higgins and a great second Vault, backed up by further solid scores from Kate Molloy and Jane Heffernan across Floor and Vault the girls demonstrated that it takes a Team effort to bring home the result.
The final highlight across the WAG discipline came from some of our younger athletes competing within the Level 6 & 7+ team event. This is one of the highest levels at Pre-FIG and these RGC gymnasts showed that the future is bright for the club as they made their mark with style and confidence. RGC’s Level 6 & 7+ Team comprises Sadhbh O’Flynn, Roisin McDonnell, Amy McNulty and Thi Anh Forde. All of the girls performing a vast amount of new skills and increased difficulty did it beautifully. With so few errors across the day from any of the girls they really did themselves proud whilst they battled it out with Ireland top talent. The team finished off the weekend for WAG taking the Team Gold as well as the All Around Title for our youngest team member Roisin McDonnell, closely followed in 4th place by Sadhbh O’Flynn. Bringing home a collection of apparatus titles included, a bronze placing on Vault for RGC’s Amy McNulty, standing next to her was RGC’s Sadhbh O’Flynn as she took the Silver Vault placing along with a Bronze on Uneven Bars. Thi Anh Forde demonstrated her outstanding qualities finishing up strong for the team on Balance Beam with another solid team score. In addition to the All Around Gold Roisin was also awarded 1st place Gold for Uneven Bars, and Silver for both Balance Beam and Floor exercise.
RGC TUM Overview:
Hitting the track in tumbling was some of RGC’s future stars within the tumbling discipline. Day one was an exciting start with our Intermediate gymnasts competing in the Level 1 – 11&12 age category. After some outstanding runs demonstrating fantastic progress we watched as RGC’s Elise Kelly stepped up onto the podium for the Silver medal alongside Teammate Oliwia Piaskowska, closely behind them, also proudly on the podium for the bronze medal was RGC’s Lily Clesham. This young team shows that they are a force to be reckoned with as they also took the Team Title as National Level 1 Champions. We can’t wait to see their progress in the coming months.
Our more experienced Tumbler’s did not fail to deliver either. It was great to see so many of our long standing members performing at what they do best, and making it look so easy. Within the FIG categories our RGC Tumblers brought home a collection of great results across all categories. After some adversity in the warm up, adapting to the apparatus Ailbhe Landy showed huge composure and focus by putting out two clean runs under competition pressure to take first place Gold medal within FIG 17-21 category. Backing her up with more solid results was RGC’s Lillian Kavangh, an athlete who completed her Leaving Cert earlier this year and impressively returns to her sport taking first place within FIG Senior Female showing that she’s as fit and ready as ever to take on a challenge and perform beautifully. On the men’s side the results just keep building. Former International Tumbler Darragh Moane returned to the track once again to share his outstanding work with the audience. What a credit it is to both athlete and RGC coach Elaine Ryan that an athlete can come out of retirement and almost a decade after he competed at World Championships in 2014 to perform a pass finishing with a sky high double straight as effortlessly as they come. Needless to say Darragh took his space on the podium with the Silver medal within the FIG Senior age category. Last but not least is RGC’s super charged dynamite that is the World Class Cian Hayes. Cian is currently in the final preparations of his 2023 World Championships Campaign so the National Championships was a great opportunity for him to perform under pressure and pace himself for the long game and remain focused. He delivered two great runs and continues to showcase outstanding form and execution as a great technician of his craft. Cian took the All around title next to teammate Darragh within the FIG Senior Men’s group. The FIG Team rounded off the weekend perfectly with the Team Gold bringing home to Galway another trophy for their performances.
On reflection of the weekend’s performances, RGC wants to congratulate all of their athletes and commend them on such a wonderful display of gymnastics. It was a true celebration to see so many commendable achievements across all levels. For the athletes it is also very rewarding to see their dedication and hard work paying off. For our passionate coaches, dedicated club officials and highly supportive parents it was a rare opportunity to come together at an event and get behind our Galway gymnasts. For anyone interested in trying out gymnastics, RGC runs programmes right through from pre-school to adult classes, please visit www.renmoregymnastics.org or email hi@renmoregymnastics.org for more information. Move – Grow – Thrive