Oakley learning from wise heads
Gymnastics
Oakley Banks faces a challenging few weeks but he doesn’t have to look far for inspiration.
The 17-year-old from Rainham is representing Great Britain at the European Youth Olympics next week before then competing in the European Championships as a junior just days later.
Olympians James Hall and
Giarnni Regini-Moran - who will both be representing England at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham - train alongside the teenager at Pegasus Gymnastics Club in Maidstone. “Tobeabletolookuptothemboth helps me to move forward and be better in myself,” said the Howard School sixth-former.
“They are there for me if I need advice and to calm me down if I need it. They know what I need to do and help give me the tunnel vision that I need to see where I’m going.”
It’s been a busy week for Banks already, training at the South Essex Gymnastics Club for several days before picking up his GB kit and flying out from Heathrow to Slovakia on Friday. This summer’s festival takes place in Banska Bystrica.
Banks has represented Team GB in multiple competitions in the past, with multiple trips to Germany and Austria, as well as Switzerland, but this is his first event at European level.
Following the Youth Olympics he’ll then join his senior clubmates Hall and Regini-Moran in Munich, where he’ll be competing in the junior team at the European Championships.
He’s one of three GB competitors in Slovakia, firstly competing in a team event and then the individual allround format, which will see the top gymnasts in each apparatus progress to the finals, with the chance for more personal honours.
Banks will be confident of progressing in the floor event but admits it will be close, saying: “A lot of the junior competitors have the same routines so it will be about neatness and landing and so it will be tight.
“I’m feeling excited and as ready as I can be.”