Gabby Jupp - UK School Games

Gabby has been selected to represent England in this weekend's UK school games in Gateshead.

If you would like to follow her progress, please click the link below:

http://www.ukschoolgames.com/

Sapphire Club Championships - Saturday 17th July 2010

More than 250 boys and girls from our recreational classes competed in our annual event, medals were awarded in each age group and all gymnasts received participation certificates in recognition of all their hard work.

Please see below a selection of Sapphire winners.

If you would like to see or purchse more photos from the event, please contact Sapphire's office on 01442 230077 for the website and password details.

Please click here for medal winner results. 

Another Sapphire medal sweep at Hertfordshire Level 5 Championships.

 Sunday 11th July was the Herts Level 5 Championships for all age groups. In the 8/9 age group, May Withey placed first with a score of 43.85 with Peri clayton close behind with 43.65.

Following this was the 10/11 age group where Emma Hurley placed first with a score of 44.80 with Ellie Boad closely following with 44.65.

In the same age group was Isabelle Gibbons who placed 7th with a respectable score of 40.70.

Well Done girls !!

Emma Hurley	Maya Withey

Gabby Jupp - British Espoir Beam Champion 2010

On Saturday 3rd July, Niamh Ryan and Jessica Barfoot competed in the Brtish Championships. This was Jessica's first year at this event having qualified through in November last year. Despite a couple of falls, she finished a commendable 20th place. Niamh Ryan also competed in the junior championships for her 1st year and placed 19th overall.  On Sunday, its was the apparatus finals for all age groups. Niamh qualified for the beam final and placed 7th. Gabby Jupp who had previously qualified for all 4 apparatus finals last month placed 3rd on the floor and a fantastic 1st place on the Beam.

                   Baskervilles Cup Hat Trick

On Sunday, the boys from Sapphire's squad competed in their 4th Baskervilles Cup, a national level invitational competition held yearly at Baskervilles Gymnastics Club in Bath.   The boys from the 2000 year of birth category, Sakyi Acquaah, Charles Adeleke, Arthur Hardman and Lewis Irons, were competing in the team event together for the third year running. Despite a few minor setbacks with their routines, they managed to pull together as a team to win the trophy for the 3rd time in a row. In the individual competition, the top 10 boys were very close, with only a few tenths between them. Arthur finished 8th overall, very closely behind Sakyi in 6th place. Charles was 3rd overall, with a silver medal for floor, and a bronze for rings. Lewis's tidy performances of his highly tarrifed difficult routines, earned him the gold medal overall, and also apparatus golds on floor and rings, and a bronze for pommel.   In the 2001 year of birth age group and the 2002 and younger age group, Nicholas Gurteen and Kyle Kerr-Miller respectively,  were competing in their first Baskervilles Cup competition. Nicholas performed his routines well, and managed to finish in 9th place overall, with a bronze medal for P-Bars. Kyle was competing against boys a year older than him, and still managed to beat most of them, finishing in a highly commendable 6th place. He also vaulted well enough to earn a silver medal for his handspring over the vaulting table.   Michael Fryer was the lone competitor in the 1999 YOB category from Sapphire. Michael competed with a superb level of maturity and artistry to win by almost a whole mark. He also won gold on floor, pommel and vault, and his gold medal winning performance on rings literally wowed the crowd. He also won a silver medal for his P-Bar and High Bar routines.   Sapphire's final age category of competition was the under 14s in which James Fryer and Connor Dutton were competing. For both of them, it was their first full under 14 voluntary competition. James was competing his new and more difficult vault for the first time, and at least one new element on every apparatus. Connor was also competing many new elements for the first time. James finished in 2nd place overall, and won a bronze for his routines on the pommel horse and the rings. Connor completed a hat-trick of individual titles for Sapphire boys, winning the all around gold medal. He also won golds for pommel horse and rings. After 3 falls on high bar, it was noticed that there was a problem with the apparatus, and he was allowed to re-do his routine. He showed great courage to get back on and perform cleanly 2nd time around, even sticking his dismount, to win the silver medal for the high bar.   Congratulations go to all the boys that competed for their hard work and we hope they can repeat some of that success when they compete next weekend in the Pegasus Open.

Herts Level 7 and 6 Teams

Sapphire once again dominated the medal table on Sunday 13th June at our Level 6 and 7 County Teams event.

At Level 7, the team of Rhiannon Thomas, Lizzie Rowlands, Annabel Pidgeon and Sophie Strelling placed third overall.

At Level 6, Sapphire A Team, Tilly Hedges, Milly Gall, Emily Dixon and Alyieana Rahim placed 1st overall.

Sapphire B Team, Eloise Lenihan, Jessie Boad, Tara Hudson-Ballard and Madeleine MacDonnell placed 2nd

Sapphire C Team, Molly Jeffries, Elizabeth De Jongh, Issey Marsh and Rosie Fisher placed 4th overall.

Congratulations to all the girls. 

Sapphire Espoir Girls shine at British Championships

See Gabby and Imogen's Routines  →→→

Gabby Jupp and Imogen Davies competed in the British Espoir Championships on Saturday and exceeded all expectations. Gabby was 2nd Overall and qualified for individual apparatus finals on all 4 pieces of apparatus due to take place next month. Imogen meanwhile in her 1st year in this age group placed 13th overall.	Tanita Ketchen and Lucy Warner competed in the British Espoir Challenge Cup. Lucy was 3rd overall with a 1st place on vault and 3rd on Bars. Tanita was 6th overall.

Sapphire Medal Haul !!!

8 Boys from Sapphire's squad travelled to Birmingham to represent the East Region at the annual national setwork championships. Day 1 of the competition was the national club grades competitions, levels 1 to 4.   Nicholas Gurteen represented the East for level 1 (Gymnasts born in 2001). He helped his team take the silver medal overall, and with a very high score of 63.60, finished in 4th place. He also managed to impress the judges on high bar and PPP, scoring 9.5 and 9.4 respectively, which were the highest marks for the whole level on those apparatus.   In the level 2 competition (Gymnasts born in 2000), 2 boys from Sapphire took their place in the team of 6 to represent the East. In an even tougher competition, Arthur Hardman managed to finish in 3rd place overall with a very high score of 64.35. He was only 0.05 behind the silver medal position. Sakyi Acquaah finished a very respectable 6th position in the all-round competition. Not only that, he managed to score a perfect 10 on floor, making him the national floor champion for level 2. Sakyi and Arthur both scored 9.45 on P-Bars which made them equal P-Bar champions as well. The boys also helped take their team to the gold medal position, with a team score of over 10 marks above the second place team from the South-East.   Michael Fryer represented Sapphire and the East Region in the Level 3 competition. Michael managed to perform beyond expectations and finished in 4th place. This is a steady improvement from his 11th place in the level 1 competition 2 years ago, and 9th place last year in level 2.   All these boys that finished in the top 10 have been given an invitation to train for a week at the national squad centre in Lilleshall to train with the GB national coaches.   Mitchell Bagley was Sapphire's representative for the level 4 East team. Normally 6 boys make up the team but due to withdrawals, only 4 boys competed, so every routine from every gymnast had to count to the team score. Mitchell performed to the absolute best of his ability, and helped his team to a national silver medal.   Day 2 of the competition was for the older boys in level 5-6 club grades and all levels of the national performance grades.   James Fryer was competing for the East in the level 6 competition. His hard work over the last year helped him earn his best ever result of 8th place. His routines were performed to a far higher standard than ever before, helping him to beat one of his team mates who beat him in the qualification round.. James helped his team win the national gold medal for Level 6.   Finally, 2 sapphire boys were competing in the East team for the National Performance Grades. This was a team only event, with the boys having competed in the Elite Grades the previous week. Charles Adeleke and Lewis Irons were part of the gold medal winning team, helping their friends from the East region retain the title they won last year in Level 1. Even though this was not an individual event, scores and positions were published, so it was good to see that the boys were placed higher than the Elite Grades last week, with Charles finishing in 5th place, and Lewis in 6th place.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Teal Grindle was competing in the Compulsory 3 National Finals, also in Birmingham. Teal stormed through the competition to finish in 2nd place overall and was 1st on Beam. She too was in the East Region team and they placed 1st overall.