By Carl Field
The 2022 Artistic Disability British Championships took centre stage at Sport Wales National Centre in Cardiff recently – with five Welsh gymnasts among the medal winners.
Between them, Bethany Paull (Valleys Gymnastics Academy), Mia Stockley (St Tydfils), Lilly-Ann Ridd (Neath Afan Gymnastics), Kieran Innes (Fusion Gymnastics Wales) and Ruby Allen (Neath Afan) walked away with a stunning 27 medals between them – including three new all-around titles.
The quintet were competing among 60 of the best gymnasts from over all the UK, across 23 different categories, in senior, junior and under 12 age groups.
Ukrainian gymnasts 🤝 Cardiff Met gymnastics🤸♀️ ⁰⁰We’re so glad to see the Ukrainian Gymnastic team training alongside our Cardiff Metropolitan University Gymnastics team during their 6 week stay at our facilities🤩 pic.twitter.com/sSW4HNJVNk
— Cardiff Met Sport (@CMetSport) December 6, 2022
Paull’s score of 38.550 saw her win all-around gold in the women’s senior A Class I competition. She also took the uneven bars, vault and floor titles as well as bronze on beam.
Allen was also at her best as she bagged women’s senior Open Class II all-around gold with a score of 43.650 across the four apparatus. She added three apparatus titles for good measure – on vault, uneven bars and floor in addition to a silver on beam.
In the senior men’s Open Class II category, Innes scored 58.583 across his six pieces to secure himself an all-around silver medal while also helped himself to gold on the floor, rings and parallel bars and silver on the vault, pommel horse and high bar.
Llongyfarchiadau to @WelshGymnastics on achieving insport NGB gold! Diolch for all your hard work in making inclusive developments within Gymnastics🥇 #insport
👉 https://t.co/bFKrUetEFf pic.twitter.com/GnBknJwugb
— Disability Sport Wales (@dsw_news) December 3, 2022
Meanwhile in the junior women’s B Class II competition, Stockley led the way with a total of 41.950 to bag the all-around the title in that category, just ahead of Ridd (40.550) in the silver spot.
Stockley also won gold on vault and beam, silver on uneven bars and bronze on the floor. Ridd grabbed gold on uneven bars and floor as well as bronze on vault and beam.