TWO teams of Splitz gymnasts travelled to Belfast for both the Regional and Northern Ireland Championships. With 116 partnerships entered, the competition had over three hundred gymnasts in attendance.
The Splitz team started strongly in the morning with the regional competition, with grade one women’s pair, Eabha Keown and Clara Reilly, earning a bronze medal position.
The grade two trios were up next with Honor Leonard, Jessica Maher and Aoibhinn McCaghery performing an upbeat routine to a Lion king medley and Lucia Allen, Sadie Clendenning & Roisin Rice edging into the bronze medal position.
Next was the turn of the grade three pairs with Annie-Kate Dillion & Saoirse Sliman, who had an energetic routine to a Shakira mix and Maddie Martin & Laoise Corrigan performing their acrobatic gymnastics to an Elton John medley.
Kate Nugent, Lexi McElwaine and Laoise Fogarty also performed a strong grade three trio routine in a highly competitive category.
The final performers for the regional team were Niamh Breen & Emma McElwaine who need to be commended on their performance after Emma sustained an injury but finished her routine achieving fifth place.
The afternoons competition saw the National Development Squads battle it out for the prestigious title of Northern Ireland Champion.
The NDP squad did not disappoint with our grade 1 Women’s pairs of Claudia McKie & Imogen Gallen securing silver and Sofia McConnell & Lorenna Kennedy being crowned Northern Ireland Champion for their grade 1 routine.
Next up was our grade 2 trio of Maire Mulholland, Cori McConnell and Mollie-Kate Brewster performed a high energy routine to a Meghan Trainer mix , securing another Northern Ireland title with their fantastic performance.
The grade 3 partnerships battled it out in the biggest category of the day, with the Splitz women’s pair of Aoife McCullion & Emily Hanna finishing just out of the medals in 4th with their highest score of the season.
Alia Kennedy, Eva-Rose McCluskey & Mena O’Reilly were also just out of the medal positions in 4th place with their high energy Eurovision medley routine.
Meanwhile, grade three mixed pair, Annie-Rose Bannon & Dualta McNabb, wowed the crowds with their Forrest Gump inspired routine, earning them the Northern Ireland Champions title, only a few weeks after they represented the country at National finals in England.
The club’s highest level partnerships had to perform two routines.
First up were Poppy Corr, Poppie Beddard & Phoebe Rutledge with their grade five trio, who were 4th with their balance routine and 2nd with their dynamic routine which secured them a brilliant silver medal place overall.
Next were the IDP trio of Erin McGoldrick, Jessica Hanna & Aoife McGuigan who like their grade five companions also placed 4th in balance, but then managed to secure the gold for their dynamic routine, earning them a bronze medal overall.
IDP mixed pair, Sarah Wilson & Dale Fisher, had a clean sweep for both of their routines and earned the title of Northern Ireland Champions for the second year in a row.
The final competitors of the competition were the grade four pairs where Splitz’ Women’s partnership of Sophie McGrath and Alicia McElwaine were just outside the medals in 4th place only 0.233 off the bronze medal position.
“What a fantastic season. I am so proud of each and every one of our Splitz gymnasts,” said head coach Jennifer Hanna.
“The standard in NI is rising each year and our gymnasts here in Fermanagh continue to rise to the challenge. I would like to say a huge thank you to all judges, coaches, volunteers, and parents for their amazing support throughout this season and can’t wait to do it all again next time!”