William Cresswell
WHETHER it be in the gym or in class William Cresswell is always striving to improve.
The 18yearold always enjoys learning new things and pushing himself, an attitude which has seen him reach national success in gymnastics.
He started the sport when he was 9 and quickly found himself enjoying it.
He enjoys going to competitions and tries to master the floor, pommel horse, vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar and the rings, which are his favourite.
Each of the different apparatus provide a different skill to perfect with a different set of muscles to hone.
Although training requires a lot of repetition, having six different apparatus to work on means he can change up what he is focusing on and never get bored.
As it is an individual sport, he is able to focus solely on his own improvement.
This year he came first overall nationally in his skill level, along with first in the rings, floor, parallel bars and second in the pommel horse.
There is always a higher level of perfection to strive for in gymnastics and even though he is seeing national success he does not plan to stop striving to improve.
His passion for improvement also extends to his studies, with maths being his favourite subject.
Maths comes naturally to him and he always finds solving equations interesting.
He enjoys the definitive nature of the subject, as the correct answer is not up for interpretation.
It is why he also enjoys physics, economics and chemistry.
He puts a lot of effort into his academics and plans to study mathematics at the University of Otago next year.
As a way of sharing his interests he helped organise the Academic Olympics at school this year, where studious pupils competed in general knowledge, maths and science quizzes along with a spelling bee.
He helped write the questions and was proud of the end result.
It was the first time the event had been held at Taieri College and he hopes it will continue as a tradition.
Achievements: Academic prefect (2022); junior class leader (2022); Academic Olympics committee (2022); gymnastics nationals overall 1st, rings 1st, floor, 1st, parallel bars 1st, pommel horse 2nd (2022), rings 1st, overall 10th (2021); Level 1, Level 2 excellence endorsement. Role model: Gymnast Carlos Yulo. Hopes for the future: To study mathematics at the University of Otago.