GB call-up is a silver lining for Deerness gymnasts

GYMNASTICS

A SILVER medal at the British Championships has resulted in a call-up to represent Great Britain at the forthcoming Senior World Championships for a trio of girls from Durham’s Deerness Gymnastics Academy.

Acrobatic gymnasts Caitlin Owston, 19, from Belmont, Amelia Palmer, 18, from Great Lumley near Chester-le-Street and Bethany MacDougall, 14, from Newton Aycliffe, finshed second in their first competition as senior gymnasts.

They had made the successful transition from junior level, where they had previously struck gold at national level and won bronze at European level.

They will now compete at the World Championships as part of Great Britain senior team in Antwerp, Belgium, between April 13 and 15.

The trio will be ranked as the leading women’s group in the team by virtue of attaining the highest overall score at the British Championships - although they picked up the silver medal in the final performance.

Theirs is part of a trio of national call-ups for the Ushaw Moor-based Academy.

Head of acrobatics Stuart Thompson - a former winner of British Gymnastics Coach of the Year Award - has been named as a coach for the senior Great Britain team while Katie Lawton, another highperformance coach at the club, will be a judge on behalf of GB. Thompson said: “This is great news for the trio, the club and British Gymnastics to have such hard-working, committed and talented people representing them on the world stage.

“Making the step up from junior to senior level is never easy but this trio has worked exceptionally hard to achieve it.

“To be ranked as GB’s No 1 women’s group is a tremendous achievement.

“We are all hoping the girls can build on their succes and continue to inspire more young gymnasts.”

Deerness Gymnastics Academy is a high-performance centre for British Gymnastics.

The club, which also has former gymnast and BBC presenter Matt Baker as its patron, has become one of Britain’s top gymnastics clubs over the past 30 years with more than 100 international gymnasts and more than 80 world and European medalists - including 15 world and European champions - on its roll of honour.

It is not only one of the most successful clubs in Britain but it is also recognised as one of the top clubs in the world.