Durham Acrobats Head to British Championships

Seven gymnasts from Deerness Gymnastics Academy will head to the British Championships this weekend aiming to become British Champions in Acrobatic Gymnastics.

One of the most jaw-dropping disciplines in gymnastics, acrobatic gymnastics heads to Echo Arena, Liverpool, on the 28, 29 & 30 July as part of the 2017 British Gymnastics Championship Series.

They will all compete against the best in the country in three different combinations:

• Caitlin Owston, Amelia Pamler & Bethany MacDougall will compete in the 13-19 Women’s Group. The trio is the reigning British Champions after winning Gold last year.
• Katerina Dubov & Tatiana Dubov will compete in the 12-18 Women’s Pair. The pair who are sisters recently won the bronze medal in an international acrobatic competition in Geneva.
• Cara Winship and Georgia Hewison will compete together as women’s pair in the 11-16 category. The pair recently came fourth in an international competition in their first competition ever performing together.

Although this years team from Deerness is all female, both men and women participate in acrobatic gymnastics which is amongst the oldest known sports and was even practised by the ancient Egyptians. The name comes from the Greek word ‘acrobateo’, meaning to rise or go forth.

Acrobatic gymnastics is a modern and artistic discipline, which requires an extraordinary amount of courage and trust amongst gymnasts. Routines are choreographed to music and presented on a 12 x 12 metre sprung floor surface.

The routines presented in competitions are up to 2 minutes and 30 seconds in length and must include a number of required collective (partnership) and individual elements of three different types: balance, dynamic, and combined.

Great Britain is one of the most respected nations in the world in acrobatic gymnastics and has achieved success at World and European level with medals in all categories. Many of whom have come from Deerness Gymnastics Academy.

“It’s great for Deerness Gymnastics Academy to have more young talent coming through the club and heading to this year’s British Championships. It is a great achievement for any gymnast to compete at the British Championships and all of our competitors this year have shown such commitment and put in hours of hard work in training with their coaches to develop to a high enough level to compete at a national championships,” said Stuart Thompson, head of acrobatics, Deerness Gymnastics Academy. “We are all hoping they can build on their recent success and inspire many more young gymnasts at the club.”

Deerness Gymnastics Academy in Ushaw Moor is a high-performance centre for British Gymnastics. The club which also has its former gymnast Matt Baker as its patron and has become one of Britain’s top gymnastics clubs over the past thirty years, with over 100 international gymnasts with more than eighty World and European medallists, including fifteen World and European Champions in its roll of honour. It is not only one of the most successful clubs in Great Britain but it is also recognised on the International scene as one of the top clubs in the world.