Entrepreneurial sisters, Kia and Sky Ballantyne, helped their gymnast team somersault into first place at a national championships on Monday, January 25th.

Sky and Kia are well known to Ross Gazette readers for their invention and fledgling business, the Crikey Bikey. This is an aid for children to learn to ride a bike and has featured on the television programme Dragons Den.

The U19 group of gymnasts, made up of sisters Sky and Kia from Ross, Eliza Cripwell and Megan Linnell, who are all pupils at Haberdashers’ Monmouth School for Girls, were gold medallists at the Welsh Championships, qualifying them to compete in the British Nationals in March.

The competition, held at the Sport Wales Centre in Cardiff, also saw the U11s take second place in their age group, qualifying for the same event.

These fantastic achievements followed yet more victories on Sunday, when U11 team Elena Evans Small, Olivia Armstrong, Harriet McAninly, Savannah Griffiths and Kyra Dosmonu came second at the Independent Schools Gymnastics Association’s National Championships.

Held at Haberdashers’ Askes’ School for Girls in Elstree, the contest saw HMSG take home five medals in total.

Sky came fourth in the U13 individual round, Eliza came fifth in the same category, Elena was fourth in the U11 solo stage and Olivia was sixth in the same group.

Ceri Crawford, HMSG’s Head of PE and Teacher I/C Gymnastics, said: “This was a fantastic achievement with some tough competition, especially in the U13 age group.

“Many hours of training were put into these results, and I am very proud of the girls and the way they represented HMSG.”