THE Hamilton Gymnastics Club ran an in-house competition last Sunday for girls in level one and level two categories, to make up for the significant number of competitions they have missed due to COVID-19.

Almost all of the girls in the two skill groups have been training for a couple years but never actually got to compete at an event because of the pandemic.

Hamilton Gymnastics Club coach and manager, Tamela Lowery said it was great for the girls to be able to put their many hours of training on display.

“They went really well, and all the girls absolutely loved it, there were smiles from ear to ear because some of those girls have been training for two years and have never even been to a competition,” she said.

The competitions which the girls usually attended in Geelong, Warrnambool, Portland, Natimuk, Mount Gambier and Stawell hadn’t been running since 2018 so the club took that into its own hands.

There were nine girls in the level one group and a further five who competed in level two.

While both groups train together and learn different things from each other, Lowery said it was a good way to split them up based mainly on their skill level.

The lack of competitions to go to meant for lots of the younger girls, last Sunday was their first ever taste at what a competition was like and how it ran – despite being against their good friends.

“The level one girls have never had a competition and some of them have trained for two years,” Lowery said.

“They needed something to keep them interested, it’s a long time to train without it actually going towards anything.

“They competed in one standard event, they compete on the four apparatus, vault, bars, beam and floor, at the moment, they are training one day a week … it’s a very involved sport and it’s not for every kid.

“Our gymnastics club has been closed down more than it’s been open I think, because we fall under the category of recreational sport.”

Lowery said the girls loved dressing up and getting out and about last weekend; it was a great day out and to have family and friends there watching topped it off.

“They just loved it and it was so good for them, they had their grandparents and parents there watching on, so they had a great time,” Lowery said.

“The parents were so thankful because the kids were so happy.

“It (the in-house competition) is something we do every year before we start competition season but every time we organised it, we had to shut it down.

While they are now taking a small break from training, Lowery said the girls never really stopped and loved doing cartwheels and handstands at home to stay active.

Despite the impacts COVID had, she said their dedication to their training had really benefited them in terms of their skill level progression.

“(Their development) has been quite good actually, I train them pretty hard, but they have a really good program that they follow,” Lowery said.

“We have a season which runs from July to November, so they will start to work on their next level, the level two kids will be going up to level three next year.

“We are on break now until school comes back, but then we will have another in-house competition before the actual competitions start back up.”

Level one was split up into two Hamilton teams for the event with Hamilton Blue taking home first place and Hamilton Silver trailing closely behind in second.

In the overall standard event, it was Navvii Thomas who won the level one section while Olivia Schulz finished second and Shayla Francis-Evans finished third.

In the level two group, the top five were Mischa Thomas, Jorja Hardy, Gabriella Bennett, Annie Colliton and Grace O’Sullivan.