Stalybridge played host to Open Gymnastics Championships

Date published: 07 July 2010

The Copley Recreation Centre, Stalybridge played host to the Greater Manchester Open Gymnastics Championships from 19-20 June.

Gymnasts from throughout Great Britain travelled to Stalybridge but they were no match for the gymnasts of Heywood Sparks Gymnastics Academy who proved themselves as the leading North West Club.

Sparks finished with four overall champions and 42 Individual medals.

Eight-year-old Poppy Fletcher stood out for Sparks in her first Voluntary competition taking first place in the Novice Aged 8 category. Winning gold on all four vault, bars, beam and floor categories she finished with scores of 11.5, 13, 13.8 and 13.6 giving her a total of 51.9, five points clear of second place.

Leah Fletcher went home with second place in the Novice Aged 9 category, missing out on first place by just 0.6 points.

In the Novice Aged 10 category Abbie Whitley’s score of 49.499 was good enough to earn her third place, just behind her team mate Rachel Winterburn who was second overall with a score of 49.666.

In the Novice Aged 11 category a Spark’s 1-2 occurred with Megan Traynor and Jade Goddard taking gold and silver respectively.

The Novice Aged 12+ category saw another Spark’s first place as Sophia Housley finished with a 0.783 point advantage over Rochdale Olympic Gymnastic Club’s Philee Ang-Chen who was second competing in her first Novice event.

Natalie Morris took first place in the Level 3 Seniors with a total of 48.149 giving her a 0.825 point advantage over second place.

In the Level 4 Seniors, Megan Sotheron walked away with second place and a score of 45.332.

The Regional Level 4 Juniors category saw Spark's Courtney Witter finish third with Rochdale’s Mercedes Miladinovic taking gold with scores of 45.866 and 48.299 respectively.