Livingstone claims 11 medals in first time representing NZ
COMING back from the United States with one medal would make for a good trip.
Alex Livingstone returned with 11 last week.
It made for a highly successful international gymnastics debut for the 16yearold.
The Bayfield High School pupil was in the US for two weeks and won the medals in two competitions.
At the Valeri Liukin Invitational in Dallas, he was fourth in the vault, third on the parallel bars, second on the rings, first on the high bar and fifth overall.
Those placings were even better at the Houston National Invitational.
He finished second on the rings and high bar, fourth on the floor, first on the parallel bars, first-equal on the vault and second overall.
It was an impressive result in a field of about 25 competitors from around the US, while gymnasts from countries such as Japan and Ukraine also competed.
To make it even more impressive, it was his first time representing New Zealand.
Even he had not expected to go so well.
‘‘I’d looked at results from previous years at that competition,’’ he said.
‘‘So I definitely wasn’t expecting to do as well as I did.’’
While in the US he trained at various gyms, as well as going to an NBA game, visiting Nasa and going to the Six Flags theme park.
The training was good and he enjoyed training with top gymnasts he had met online.
‘‘I stuck to routines mostly because obviously competitions were coming up.
‘‘It was awesome training alongside other gymnasts that I’ve followed on Instagram and all that, seeing their progression.’’
Livingstone has been doing gymnastics since he was young, having become interested after watching videos of Olympic gymnasts.
He trains 17 hours a week, five days a week.
However, he said his coach, Andrew Forrest, was good at making the training fun.
Forrest added that Livingstone was very driven.
‘‘He’s very good at selfmotivation,’’ Forrest said.
‘‘He always turns up to gym knowing what he wants to train on, what he wants to work on, knowing his goals for the year and he works hard at reaching those goals.
‘‘At the same time, obviously he’s enjoying himself and makes a great environment for all the other gymnasts to train as well.’’
Having spent a long time working on routines, Livingstone will go back to developing his skills this year.
Next year, he will seek to get back to routines and going to more major competitions.