Barry Comprehensive School

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The team with their trophies, medals and certificates Thomas Clelland, Michael Netherway, Chris Newby Thomas Batte, Adam Peake, Bradley Haysham Andrew Mock, Joseph Hodgson, Jamie Davis

The Barry Comprehensive School Gymnastics team have had another very successful year at competition events.

They began the year with the eleven boys competing at the County Tumble and Vault championships. It was the first time that Adam Case, Kyran Farrell, Dafydd Frost, Joseph Hodgeson, Jac Jones & Aaron Pimm had represented the school. The under 13’s team, consisting of Jamie Davies, Bradley Haysham, Joseph Hodgson & Andrew Mock won the Silver Tumble & Vault team medal. Bradley Haysham also won the Silver individual medal. Both Jamie Davies and Bradley Haysham were selected to represent the County at the Welsh Championships in which their team won the Silver team medal. Bradley Haysham was also selected to represent Wales at the British Sports Acrobatics &Tumbling Team Championships.

The school team then competed at the Welsh Under 13’s and Under 19’s Floor & Vault Championships. Although the Senior Team included three boys who were young enough to compete as under 13’s, the team of Thomas Batte, Adam Case, Michael Netherway, Christopher Newby, Adam Peake & Kyan Shorney finished joint 1st with Cowbridge High School. However as a qualifying event for the British Championships only one team could win and on count-back the BCS team finished in Silver position, by just 0.1 of a mark!

The Under 13’s team, Thomas Cleland, Jamie Davis, Bradley Haysham, Joseph Hodgson, Jac Joces & Andrew Mock won their event, qualifying for the British Championships. The team, with the addition of Christopher Newby, competed at the British Championships and finished in 4 th position with just 0.1 of a mark splitting 3 rd & 4 th position and just 0.4 between 1 st & 4 th position! Bradley Haysham received the 2 nd highest mark in Britain in his age group for the second year running.

Michael Netherway competed at the Rotary Special Schools County Championships and won 3 rd position in the vaulting event. This qualified him to compete all six pieces of apparatus in the Welsh finals where he gained 3 rd position in the Floor competition.

The Team Adam Case, Joseph Hodgson, Jamie Davis, Jac Jones, Andrew Mock & Christopher Newby also competed at the Welsh Group Sports Acrobatics Under 13’s event and finished in 2nd position. Jamie Davis and Andrew Mock also competed in the Under 13’s Boys Sports Acrobatics pairs and won the Gold medal. Adam Peake and Thomas Batte competed at the Men’s Sports Acrobatics Pairs also winning Gold. Both of the Sports Acrobatics pairs qualified to represent Wales at the British Sports Acrobatics and Tumbling Team Competition along with Bradley Haysham. It was unfortunate that Bradley had to withdraw during warm up time at the tumbling event however Jamie Davis, who had just finished competing the Sports Acrobatic event stepped-in at the last minute to replace him. Despite no preparation for the tumbling event Jamie still managed to finish 9 th out of 15 and in doing so helped the Under 13’s boys pairs & tumblers from Wales win the Under 13’s team silver medal. The senior Welsh Team won the Gold medal helping to contribute to Wales winning the overall British Team Championships for the 3rd consecutive year.

Many of the team members are also currently fundraising and preparing to represent Great Britain at the World Gymnaestrada next year in Austria. Coach Emma Thompson is very pleased with the continued success of the team in such a wide range of gymnastic events and on behalf of the team would like to thank Bill Jones, Kathy Jeffries, Eileen Budd and Gwyneth Linguard for their support during the year.