April proved to be a busy month for the Boys Development Squad at Writhlington Gymnastic Club this year, with a Floor, Vault and Trampette competition on 1st April at Swindon School of Gymnastics (SSG), and the South West Intercounties Festival at Falcons Gymnastic Academy, Barnstaple, on the 14th.

At Swindon in round one, we had Albie, one of our reception-age gymnasts who we are extremely proud of, showing so much confidence at such a young age. He gained a bronze medal on the trampette, fourth on floor, with fifth on vault and overall.

In the second round, we had four gymnasts competing in the same group, with all four receiving medals and taking the top three spots overall. Oliver gained a bronze on Trampette, Cypress a silver on vault and third overall, Rhys a bronze on floor, gold on trampette and silver overall and Ollie received silver medals on floor and trampette, gold on vault and gold overall, so a very successful round.

Round three brought a medal haul for Thomas, with bronze on vault, silver on floor and trampette and bronze overall, and another medal haul in round four for our oldest competitor, Zac, who gained a very respectable bronze on floor, gold on vault and silver overall. So overall, a very successful competition for all of our competitors.

The Intercounties is our toughest competition of the year, as our gymnasts compete against other boys who train a lot more hours, but they rose to the challenge and worked really hard to put on the best performance of the year so far.

Jacob Hobbs Simpson, who competed in the Open competition for fourteen-plus, performed extremely well, managing to successfully complete two very difficult vaults with somersault rotation off the top, gaining himself a gold medal against some very experienced older gymnasts. His solid floor performance gave him a score that secured a fourth place overall, a position to be proud of considering he has only just gone up to this age group.

Laura Jardine