Forest of Dean gymnasts had a great day at the Gloucestershire Apparatus Championships with 8 out of the 9 gymnasts winning medals. Both the senior and junior gymnasts of the club are looking strong at the start of the new competition season.

15 year old Rachel Stephenson became the Modified FIG county champion with club mates Coral Prout and Lowri Scrivens in third and fourth place. Rachel's top beam score of 12. 6 pushed her ahead of Coral on the last piece. Full of difficulty, including a strong free cartwheel, her favourite piece of apparatus helped her clinch the title.

Leading from the outset Coral Prout had one of her best competitions. A high strong straight Tsukahara vault put her straight in the lead, she followed this with full twisting front and 1½ twisting back somersaults on floor to win this too. On asymmetric bars, with strong skills on both bars, Coral stayed in the lead until her last piece, beam, when Rachel Stephenson's high score just beat her into third place.

Lowri Scrivens, also in the Mod FIG group, lacked some of the more difficult skills on bars but showed off her flair for choreography on both floor and beam. Her vault was well flighted and secure but lacked the start value.

In the level 4 competitions nine year old Sophie Simpkins won floor and vault but was narrowly beaten by Laura Westcott from Fromeside, who took first place. Anna Courtney had a good all round competition but had two unfortunate falls from beam.

Sophie Akers and Megan Crook won silver and bronze medals competing in the age 10 /11 group. Sophie narrowly missed the gold medal by 0.1 of a mark. She won the floor with an outstanding performance and went on to also win vault. Megan's best piece was bars.

Sophie Taylor and Beth Tudball took silver and bronze in the age 12/13 level 4 group. Both scored high on floor with Sophie a joint winner and Beth only 0.1 behind. They did well on bars with strong flowing routines but were beaten by Antonia Joy from Bristol overall.

The gymnasts are now preparing for the forthcoming regional and national competitions.