The Irish Acrobatics team and two club teams (Carlow gymnastics club, and Westgate gymnastics club) competed in the Czech Open International in Prague recently, and came home with 5 bronze medals!

The full group consisted of 19 acrobats, their coaches and one judge. There was a large entry in all sections from 7 countries in total, including Ireland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria.

In the schools category, the trio from Carlow gymnastics club (Shannon Geoghegan, Katya Farrell & Ciara Carew) performed an excellent combined routine to claim the bronze medal. They were Ireland’s only representatives in the schools category. This was a great achievement for the girls as they had just moved up from level 2 and had to put in a lot of hard work to attain the qualifying standard to compete.

In the Age Group trio category, the Irish team had one trio competing (Emma O’Byrne, Rebecca Holohan and Aine McGoff, from Carlow), who narrowly missed out on a medal by only 0.2, coming 4th overall out of 15 groups in total. The Carlow team also had a trio (Kitty Hackle, Sine McGoff, Amber Dowling), who did two great routines, especially as they had only been working together for 2 months, finishing in 7th place.

In the Age Group pairs category, Ireland had three pairs (Sara Rennick & Trisha Sloyan; Marianne Quirke- Bolt & Lauren Holohan from Carlow CG; Amy Egan & Stephanie Gilmore from Tuam GC), and the West Gate team had one pair (Aisling O'Mahoney & Sarah Byrne). Sara and Trisha claimed the bronze medal, adding another great competition after their success at the European Championships in Portugal a month earlier (8th in Europe). The other Irish pairs (Stephanie and Amy; Marianne and Lauren) finished in 9th and 14th place respectively. Sarah & Aisling from West Gate finished in a very credible 12th place, especially as this was their first competition at 11-16 Age Groups. There were 18 groups altogether in this category and this competition was made harder than normal as the women’s pairs had to compete against the men’s and mixed pairs.

In the Master class section (juniors & seniors had to competed against each other); Ireland has just one pair (Grace Miller and Anya Farrell), representing the Carlow club. This was the pairs first major competition at Junior level and they competed their balance and combined routine and finished the competition in 5th The standard of the competition was very high, with competitors from some countries having competed in the European Championships in Portugal only a month previously.

Over all it was another very successful international for teams from Ireland. Thanks to all the coaches for their hard work and to Anne Rennick (our judge) for putting in a great performance as the team judge.

Team
Judge:
Anne Rennick

Coaches:
Liz Gray, West Gate
Fionnuala Dooley, Tuam All Stars
Mick Hughes, Carlow
Aimi Baker, Carlow

Gymnasts:
Ireland
Sara Rennick & Trisha Sloyan (3rd place)
Emma O’Byrne, Rebecca Holohan & Aine McGoff (4th place)
Amy Egan & Stephanie Gilmore (9th place)
Marianne Quirke- Bolt & Lauren Holohan (14th place)

Westgate
Aisling O'Mahoney & Sarah Byrne (12th place)

Carlow
Shannon Geoghegan, Katya Farrell & Ciara Carew (3rd place)
Grace Miller, Anya Farrell (5th place)
Kitty Hackle, Sine McGoff & Amber Dowling (7th place)