Regent’s Sophie Marshman, Heidi Cabot, Laura Woodley, Lisa Luce, Amy Laurent and Ellen Marett took the honours when they won the overall shield and gold medals in Division IV which in turn has led to promotion to Division III.Afterwards coach Julia Falle was delighted with the outcome.”We haven’t taken part in the competition for some years,’ she said, ‘and didn’t know what the standard would be like, although we knew that the Isle of Wight has competed before in the Island Games.’I think the reason why we did so well was because all of the girls were so focused.
The standard for this competition is always very high and once you get to Divisions I and II you’re competing against gymnasts at national level.’The competition, at Waterside Gymnastics Club, featured 80 gymnasts representing 16 clubs from Hampshire competing throughout the four divisions.
The Regent girls were competing against teams from Splitz, Rushmoor, and Fairways (from the Isle of Wight) on four pieces of apparatus, vault, bars, beam and floor which were judged on the full FIG code of points.The team’s combined score of 77.50 placed them in first place, six marks ahead of Splitz with 71.05.
Rushmoor were third with a score of 65.35.Not only did the girls do well in the team event, but they also had some excellent results on the individual apparatus.
Eleven-year-old Laura Woodley finished third on vault with a score of 6.85, with Sophie Marshman (15) finishing fourth by scoring 6.80, Heidi Cabot (14) was fifth and Amy Laurent (12) sixth.On the bars the Regent girls dominated, with Woodley and Marshman finishing in first place and second place respectively.
On the beam all the girls performed well with Marshman once again having an excellent competition to finish second, with Woodley placed joint third.On the floor Cabot came out on top with a good performance, just in front of teammate Marshman, with Lisa Luce (11) finishing third.The Regent girls also took the first four places in the individual event with Marshman first, Woodley second, Cabot third and Luce fourth.’I was pleased for the girls; they didn’t make any mistakes,’ said Falle.
‘I’m hoping that next year we take part in more mainland competitions, and probably some in France as well.’
