Gymnasts’sights on GoldCoastGames
THE cream of Glasgow’s gymnastic talent hope to set off a gold rush when they fly the flag for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games down under.
City of Glasgow Gymnastics, based at Bellahouston Leisure Centre, will send four competitors to the Gold Coast event – which gets under way in April.
Kelvin Cham, 19, David Weir, 19, Cara Kennedy, 20, and Shannon Archer, 19, represent the city at the competition which kicks off on April 5.
The club, run by head performance coach Rod Smith, attracts around 200 members to train at the facility every week cover four gymnastics disciplines – Men’s Artistic, Women’s Artistic, Acrobatic and Disability.
The club has produced gymnasts representing Scotland in the Commonwealth Games since 2002 with five participating in Glasgow 2014.
The talented bunch are fresh from their recent wins at the 2018 Scottish Artistic Gymnastics Championships where they picked up 24 gold, 23 silver and 19 bronze medals overall in what has been described as the best performance to date.
Rod, who joined the club in 2012, praised the team spirit and hailed the support of Glasgow Life for their success.
He added: “The gymnasts have a done a fantastic job.
“There is a great sense of team spirit, everyone works together to help and support each other.
“They make the most of the time they’ve got to train and the great facilities.
“We are so proud of our gymnasts and coaches heading out to the Games on the Gold Coast.
“Each of them has fulfilled the required criteria to be selected as the best in Scotland and are now doing everything they can to prepare and be their peak when they step onto the podium.
“They have all shown they can cope with the pressure that is part and parcel of performance sport and we know they are looking forward to getting out there.
“The team will be having a final preparation camp at Inverclyde later this week before heading to the Gold Coast on March 21 for acclimatisation ahead of thfirst day of competition on April 5.”
Also representing Scotland (and City of Glasgow) on Gold Coast will be Marius Gherman (MA Lead Coach at CWG) and Sandra Stevenson (WA Lead Coach at CWG) and Pauline Smith (international Judge selected by Organising Committee judging at her 8th Commonwealth Games). Coaches Marius and Sandra will also be offering their expertise having both coached at Glasgow 2014 and Marius in Dehli 2010.
Pauline is well established as an international judge and has lots of Commonwealth Games experience.
City of Glasgow Gymnasts have close links with the Glasgow Life Performance Sport Programme and a significant number are also pupils at the Glasgow School of Sport.