Top skills on display at NW regional gymnastics comp

Gymnasts flipped, vaulted and tumbled their way to success at the annual North West regional gymnastics competition in Karratha last weekend.

Now in its 23rd year, the North West Regional Gymnastics Championships returned to Karratha Leisureplex for two days of competition featuring more than 210 gymnasts from Karratha, Port Hedland, Broome, Exmouth and Carnarvon.

The overall highest scoring female gymnast was Hailey Moyle from Karratha, who also won the highest score on an apparatus.

Jacob Thompson from Exmouth was the overall highest scoring male while Hedland’s Nicholas Wilson won honours for highest apparatus score.

North West Regional Gymnastics Association president Krystal Cilia said the event gave gymnasts in the region a valuable opportunity to showcase the skills they had been practising all year.

“We want them to succeed and we would like them to win, but at the same time it’s more important that they get out there and actually get to display what they've been working so hard to do and get competition experience, because competing in an important part of our sport and we only have two competitions a year in the North West,” she said.

“These girls and boys train for hours a week, so it’s important to give them that opportunity.”

She said the competition could help gymnasts to qualify for State championship events.

Janet Nicholson, president of the Karratha Gymnastics Association which hosts the event each year, said North West gymnasts trained hard for the competition.

“Other sports have games each week but gymnasts don’t, so this gives them something to aim for, something to work towards and the chance to see what the other North West clubs are doing,” she said.

“Gymnastics in each individual region is small but if you join them all together then they can see that there are still teenage girls, still boys and still other kids doing it across the region.”

The North West Regional Gymnastics Championships is one of only two annual regional competitions for North West gymnasts, the other being the Broome Invitational on later this year.