Bill McLoughlin National Apparatus Team Championships

Team Champions Southern Region: Lili-Mae Snuggs, Amelie Morgan, Jessica Castles, Rachelle Flambard

The annual Bill McLoughlin National Apparatus Team Championships took place on Saturday 10th September at Lilleshall. For this competition gymnasts compete in regional as opposed to club teams, with gymnasts being eligible from the year they turn twelve, so first year Espoirs and onwards. In a change to the 2015 competition structure, this year no British senior squad members were allowed to compete, there were junior squad members in action though.

The format was also slightly altered this year, going from a 5-4-1 to a 4-3-1, so four team members, three up on each piece, one score to count.

Each team also has a ‘JOKER’. The joker can be ‘played’ once – this will double the team score on that apparatus. The JOKER must be ‘played’ at registration and cannot be changed once the competition has started.

Team medals are awarded, as well as individual apparatus medals.

Regions may enter more than one team should they wish, and this year the North West, and East Midlands opted to enter two.

Results

The Southern Region team took the title, led by British junior Amelie Morgan who also took gold on vault, bars, and beam, and silver on floor. Another great competition for her following on from her School Games success last weekend.

The South West took silver with British juniors and Academy team mates Amelia Knight and Zoe Simmons back on the same team once more having competed for Wales and England respectively at the School Games. Zoe also took gold on floor, and bronze on vault, bars, and beam.

North West A took the bronze with Abigail Morris taking the silver medal on bars.

What is not available in the results, is which gymnast was used as a joker on which pieces, this is a shame, as last year it made a difference to the team standings, and would be interesting to know whether it had again this year. Amelie’s vault was the joker played by the Southern Region, a wise choice with her full twisting Yurchenko. Other than that, at present I don’t know any more.

1. South 66.400

Amelie Morgan
Rachelle Flambard
Jessica Castles
Lili-Mae Snuggs

2. South West 64.400

Zoe Simmons
Amelia Knight
Phoebe Jakubczyk
Caitlin Lochhead

3. North West A 62.100

Katie Meadow
Abigail Morris
Eleanor Green
Leigha O’Donnell

4. East Midlands A 61.025

Yoana Yankova
Naomi Wright
Ruby Straw
Chantae Wilson

5. Yorkshire 60.050

Megan Bramley
Megan Bridge
Hannah Cowell-Jones
Jessica Healy-Jacques

6. North West B 60.000

Beth Giles
Lauren Jones
Kara Heaton