Zippy’s girls take home gold

The girls, all aged between seven and fourteen, made the journey across the water to compete at the North Ireland Open Championships

The team were up against some strong competition on the day with around 150 gymnasts taking part.

However, the Zippy youngsters soon took the competition by storm, as all 13 members of the acrobatics section took home a medal after a series of top-class performances.

The event got off to a flyer as the duo of Brooke and Amy took gold in the Grade 2 Pairs category, after they were given a score of 26.64.

Their performance was then matched in the Group 2 Group section as the team of Olivia, Kiara and Eve took gold with a 26.85.

Then, in the Grade 3 Pairs, Megan and Rachel not only won the gold medal but tendered the single highest score of the entire event with a stunning 27.75.

Emily, Ashleigh and Rebekah then won the silver in the Grade 3 Groups on 25.64, with Niamh, Nima and Keje also taking the bronze with a score of 24.34.

Based in Thornliebank,the girls have been working with high performance coach Michelle Struthers for the last six months.

Nevertheless, it is the first time they have travelled for a major competition and

Michelle praised her group for coming out on top of what was an incredibly competitive event.

She told The Extra: “All the staff and coaches at the academy are very proud of the girls for their success.

“It was a steep learning curve to get them up to speed but they took on the challenge and won.”

The academy, founded in 2003 by Tzippi Cameron, runs weekly sessions at its base on Burnfield Avenue.

With qualified coaches for pre-school, general, and acrobatic gymnastics, the academy caters for many events, at different ages and abilities.

Ms Cameron says she looks forward to further success from the prodigious academy youngsters.

She said: “All the girls done very well, we are so proud of them.

“They trained very hard and I’d like to congratulate them, particularly for achieving the highest score of the event.

“We look forward to winning more tournaments in the future.”