WAIS Gymnasts Clean Sweep National Club Champs

WAIS junior gymnastics athletes Aya Meggs, Darcy Norman and Franceska Fusha last week placed first, second and third respectively at the National Club Championships in Geelong, Victoria.

Over the last few months, these juniors have been training and developing new skills in the gym to help boost their difficulty as they strive towards national senior level. The National Club Championships was a great opportunity for these athletes to gain much needed experience, applying their new skill upgrades in a competitive environment.

“The girls competed much like they train,” explained head WAIS gymnastics coach Nicolai Lapchine. “They did many new upgrades and had to get use to a different environment.”

The young group are showing great promise for the future, and this competition was just one of many ways the WAIS squad is able to further their gymnasts career.

Outside of the gymnasium, a WAIS gymnastics workshop was recently hosted by senior elite WAIS athletes who discussed goal setting, work ethic and other developmental pathway elements with the WAIS junior groups. This was aimed at sharing their personal knowledge and experience and helping the junior athletes towards reaching their future potential.

This was staged in combination with a parent’s workshop that included presentations from WAIS gymnastics support staff to help identify the importance of the parent’s role in assisting their children’s athletic development.

Long term WAIS scholarship holder and gymnastics World Champion Lauren Mitchell said it was a good chance to impart knowledge to the emerging group.

“The girls seemed shy and a bit scared to speak up,” Mitchell said. “But I think they got a lot out of it and many ideas on how to handle the issues they are about to face.”

The workshop was a new creative opportunity thought up by WAIS psychologist Matt Burgin.

“It’s a wonderful idea and a good way to teach these girls the right way of doing things through our own personal mistakes.” said senior gymnast and dual national champion Olivia Vivian. “I only wish we had something like this in our younger years.”