Sunday 26th February saw the Northern Ireland Schools’ Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships. It has been a few years since this event has run, but it was back with a bang and so were we!
We have known from our previous experience of this competition how hotly contested the under-11 section is and how difficult it is to place in a medal-winning position, so we practised incredibly hard and tried to put our best foot forward going into the competition, feeling accomplished regardless of what the outcome would be.
However, the girls absolutely blew us away on the day and had fantastic performances in every routine they competed. AMPS had entries in the under-11 pairs section, the under-11 team section and the under-11 tumbling section and managed to come away with medals in all three!
In the pairs section, which involved the girls competing a 2-minute floor routine as a duo, we secured both a silver medal and a bronze medal, as well as a very respectable fifth place finish.
In the team competition, a particularly fierce section whereby the girls competed a two-minute routine to music as a group of six, AMPS rose to the challenge and came away in second place!
Finally, our under-11 tumbler competed all three of her tumbling passes brilliantly and managed to secure a bronze medal.
We are so incredibly proud of all eight of the girls and the work and commitment they have shown in preparation. The excitement in their faces and the enjoyment that shone out of them as they performed their routines was the greatest reward of all. We had a brilliant team of parents and siblings there to support them from the stands, too.
Next up, catch our gymnastics team competing alongside our dance team at the Ulster Fitness and Dance Championships at the end of March!
We’ll leave you with some footage…
Next up came the Ulster Fitness and Dance Championships held at Queens PEC on Friday 24th March. The gymnasts competed again, this time adapting their team routine with more ‘dance moves’ and three additional members! They competed in the Acro small group category, whilst our wonderful dance team competed in the Musical Theatre large group category. Additionally, we entered three Acro duos to the competition.
The girls involved had an absolute ball, but the day was made even greater when the presentation of awards took place!
AMPS did brilliantly, securing gold, silver and bronze in the Acro duo category as well as gold medals in the Acro small group category and the Musical Theatre large group categories.
To add to this, our Musical Theatre large group were announced as the overall large group winners in any genre! Then, as if we weren’t chuffed enough, we were finally announced as having the highest overall score of any Primary School performance. This prestigious shield was awarded again to our Musical Theatre large group who performed to ‘Revolting Children’ from Matilda the Musical.
Mrs Broadbent and Miss Alexander were absolutely thrilled with the girls’ performances on the day, and with their hard work practising in the run-up to the competition. A massive thank-you goes to the fabulous team of parents who were there cheering on the girls and helping with quick-changes and hair!
