Level 10 National Medal Winners

A great weekend of competitions for all Renmore Gymnasts who travelled to Salto Gymnastics training centre on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th May. Following the success of the Level 8 Gymnasts on Saturday, 3 of Renmore’s Level 10 gymnasts competed on the Sunday in the National Apparatus final.

Ellen Hynes Level 10 U13 (age 11), showed huge progression from her debut level 10 outing earlier this year in February by upgrading the difficulty of her routines and performing with increased confidence and execution of all elements. Well done Ellen, she’s proving herself as someone to watch thats for sure! Ellen took the Gold medal across all four disciplines, Vault, Bars, Beam and Floor as she went head to head with team mate, Alice Fitzpatrick (age 11). Huge congratulations to Alice for such a good first competition at level 10, she competed her giants for the first time with total confidence proving herself also as someone to watch! Alice returned home after taking the Silver medal across all four disciplines. Great Job Alice and well done Girls!!!

Finally, Renmore gymnast Alanna Cunningham was given the biggest challenge of all, after an unplanned date change, Alanna was forced to upgrade her level from 9 to 10 with 3 days notice to prepare for an apparatus final. Competing at O13 category (age 13), Alanna gave a great performance with little time for nerves and with no visible impact on her confidence competing at Level 10. Good consistent routines were performed across Bars, Beam and Floor where she took the silver medal behind Trojan Gymnast Kristen McKenna. Moving onto the 4th and Final rotation Alanna stepping up to the challenge of Level 10, performs with total confidence her tuck Tsukahara vault for the first time in competition to land with a smile almost as big as the vault itself! Great comp Alanna and a thoroughly deserved Gold!

Total medals won from 8-10 apparatus final –

Gold = 7, Silver = 7, Bronze = 2

And a short video of a few of the routines:

Renmore Level 8 National Medal Winners

Congratulations to all three Renmore Gymnasts who took part in the All Ireland Level 8 Apparatus Championships. All three gymnasts returned home with medals after fantastic performances across all apparatus. Lauren Coyne made her come back to the competition floor after an injured spell with total style winning the gold medal on Bars, and placing 4th on Beam. Well done Laurie!! Following suit Renmore Gymnastics’ Erin Shimizu performed a beautifully confident Beam routine also taking the Gold medal position, an unfortunate touch down on dismount after a great routine left her in 4th place on Bars. Go Erin!! Finally Katie performed consistently across all 4 pieces, and won the Bronze medal on both the Floor exercise and the Bars. Nice job Katie!! All three gymnasts were challenged by very high standards within their groups and represented both themselves and Renmore Gymnastics admirably. Well done girls!

National Tumbling Championships

Congratulations to the Renmore Gymnasts who competed in the All Ireland National Tumbling Finals this past weekend. 13 tumblers traveled to Greystones, Wicklow for the competition and all had a fantastic day of tumble runs.

The gymnasts competed in the following levels:

NDP level 1

Lainey Lynskey

Ciosa Merchant

Katie Fallon- silver medal

Emer Shimizu

NDP 2

Amy O’Neill- silver medal

Roisin Curran- bronze medal

Emma Greene- gold medal

Dean Murray- silver medal

Patrick Flanagan- gold medal

NDP 3

Alice Fitzpatrick- silver medal

Ellen Hynes- gold medal

Nicole Shaw- bronze medal

Erin Shimizu- gold medal

Again an extra big congratulations to the gymnasts!

Renmore Gymnasts in 2-6 National All-Around Finals Results

Congratulations to all girls who competed in the National level 2-6 All-Around finals in Sugarloaf Gymnastics, Greystones Co. Wicklow this past Sunday.

It was the first national final for many of these girls and they all did an excellent job handling their nerves in front of a large audience!

The girls who competed were:

Level 4 u/9: Aisling Fuller, Kim Li Loke, Alex-Marie McDonagh
Level 4 u/11: Eimear Flanagan
Level 4 u/13: Jane Patterson
Level 5 u/11: Caoimhe Greaney
Level 5  u/13: Roselie Hynes, Jenny Cunningham, Maya Papin
Level 5 o/13: Hannah Pamplin, Honora Pamplin
Level 6 u/11: Amy O’Neill
Level 6 u/13: Lainey Lynskey, Maeve Hannon

Special congratulations to Kim Li Loke for her 3rd place finish, Amy O’Neill for her 2nd place finish and Lainey Lynskey also for her 2nd place finish!! Well done girls!

(If you have some photos to be posted, please pass them on to renmoregymnastics at gmail.com)

Medal winners – Level 7 – 10 AA Irish National Final

Sunday 27th March was the WAG (women’s artistic gymnastics) level 7-10 Irish National Final. A big well done to all the gymnasts that travelled and competed in this all around event to start of the competition season for the higher levels’ gymnasts. Renmore gymnasts represented the West of Ireland in the following ages/levels –

Level 7 Under 11 –
Roisin Curran (placed 7th)
Emer Shimizu (placed 5th)
Level 7 Under 13 –
Nicole Shaw (placed 10th)
Level 7 Over 13 –
Roisin Collins (placed 7th)
Emma Connolly (placed 5th)
Niamh Cunningham (placed 8th)
Level 8 Over 13 –
Katie Rathbone (Bronze medalist)
Erin Shimizu (Silver medalist)
Level 9 Over 13 –
Alanna Cunningham (Gold Medalist)
Caoimhe Connaughton (placed 5th)
Saoirse Higgins (placed 6th)
Level 10 Under 13 –
Ellen Hynes (Gold medalist)

All competing gymnasts performed fantastically, well done to all that represented the West of Ireland at this WAG event. Special credit to both Alanna Cunningham and Ellen Hynes for returning as National Champions in their ages/level. Alanna securing the Gold medal by almost 3 whole marks. Also congratulations to Katie Rathbone and Ellen Hynes for performing and landing new vault skills at this event! Well done girls.

In addition to her tsukahara vault Ellen Hynes performed a collection of other new skills within the level 10 minors group (under 13’s), considering the young age of this gymnast (11th Birthday shortly before the competition),  she should be very proud of her performance and the level of difficulty present in her routines performing in the highest category within the Irish Gymnastics Levels competition. Well Done Ellen!!! We can’t wait to see your next event!

Saoirse Higgins after a fantastic start to the event suffered a devastating blow way mid point through the third rotation when she over-rotated a front somersault during her floor exercise. With a good position at this point in second place, hot on the heels of Renmore gymnast Alanna Cunningham she suffered a dislocated elbow and had to leave the competition to go to the hospital. With the highest beam score of the whole group, and an impressively high bar score at that point Saoirse was having a fantastic performance. Her place on the medal podium was looking secured only moments before the tumble. Her presence to finish the competition was badly missed but good news from the hospital after the 4th rotation confirmed a dislocation and no break. Don’t worry your IG certificate is safe! Get well soon!!!

8 Keys to a Successful Gymnastics Club

Renmore Gymnastics Club has been around, on and off, for about thirty years since it was first established.

Over the past few years our club has really blossomed. We have grown from being a small club, then a medium sized club based in the local community centre, into now one of the largest gymnastics clubs in Ireland, training close to 400 gymnasts each week in a dedicated 8000 square foot facility. And we aren’t finished growing yet!

There is no single factor which has resulted in the club becoming what it is today. Rather, there are many things which have contributed to our success. These include, above all, proportional amounts of enthusiasm, dedication, hard work, and serendipity. Here are some of the key factors to which I attribute the current success of the club.

  1. An inspired and inspirational leader. The one constant through the past six or seven years of growth in our club has been this girl named Sally Batley who was blown into Galway on a storm that passed through England. Sally has led us, not through a leadership of authority, but one of exemplary enthusiasm and dedication. She has been a pillar around which we can rally (we should call her Rally Sally). Go Sally Go!
  2. A child-centric focus. Everyone involved in the club has the welfare of the children members as the primary concern. Renmore Gymnastics Club is not a commercial undertaking, but a non-profit community based organisation. We are interested not in making money, but in bringing out the full potential of every child who becomes a member of our club. The measure in which we are able to help each gymnast achieve her or his own potential is ultimately the measure of our own success. It’s about the kids.
  3. Dedicated parents and coaches. Gymnastics wouldn’t happen were it not for dedicated parents to bring their children to the gym week in and week out, and the dedicated coaches who receive them each week into the gym. Some of our parents bring their children three or four days each week. We have a great and international team of coaches, some of whom are in the gym five or six days each week. Both parents and coaches recognise the goodness of what is going on. This is dedication.
  4. A commitment to social justice. While this might not intuitively seem to be a factor leading to the success of a gymnastics club, I percieve it to be one of the essential elements. Coaches are as much needing and deserving of a fair wage and an assurance of livelihood as anyone else. Our coaches are employees with everything “above the board”. On the other side, we believe also that gymnastics should not be in the realm of the elite, and we try to keep the cost as minimal as possible to families in order to make this a non-barrier. Commitment by parents in paying term fees ensures the sustainability of the club.
  5. Separation of responsibilities. Our club directors don’t make coaching decisions, and our coaches don’t sign the cheques. Petty issues about “my child wants to train with her friend” don’t arise to directors level. Maybe they don’t arise at all. Coaches don’t worry about who is going to pay for the rent or the heat. Coaches coach, and directors direct.
  6. Volunteers. Without a significant amount of volunteer effort by parents and coaches, the operation of our club simply wouldn’t be feasible. We have volunteer directors who spend significant hours each month in running the club, coaches who put in many hours outside of the gym and sometimes on Sundays, parents who organise fund raising and other club related activities. Without these people the club would not survive. Three cheers for volunteers!
  7. Technology. It would be a nightmare to manually calculate and collect fees each term from over 300 families each having various numbers of children training different hours each week. We have made good use of technology to turn this into a manageable process.
  8. Local Community Support. We have received financial support from our local government, prizes from the local credit union, and raffle prizes from local businesses. Together with support of our fund raising activities by individuals, local community support has helped to ensure the club is viable. Thank you to all our supporters!

This list isn’t meant to be comprehensive – it gives an indication of some of the key factors which have contributed to the current success of our gymnastics club. Maybe you think it all comes down to something else? What works/doesn’t work in your club? Leave a comment!

Level 1 National Finals Results (13th February 2011)

Congratulations to the 7 Renmore gymnasts who competed in the level 1 national finals in Castle Island, Co. Kerry. These gymnasts had to qualify in the top 4 of their age group/level at regionals in order to be part of the West region team. At nationals, all of these girls competed very well. It was everyone’s first national competition.

Level 1A u/9, 4th Place team:

Laoise Dunne

Level 1A u/11, 2nd Place team:

Rachel Connolly

Level 1B u/11, 3rd Place team:

Ciara Mulgannon

Roisin Delaney

Level 1C u/9, 1st Place team:

Daniela Goluba, 2nd Place individually

Level 1C o/11, 2nd Place team:

Shauna Hartigan, 3rd Place individually

Niamh Melody

Congratulations girls! A great start to gymnastics competitions.