By Carl Field
Welsh gymnasts Ruby Evans and Poppy-Grace Stickler proved they belong at the elite end of the sport at senior level with stunning performances at the British Championships.
Evans is the new British senior women’s vault champion while Stickler became a double British medallist on floor on the final day of the 2023 Artistic British Championships in Liverpool.
Evans, who only turned 16 on March 17th and was competing at this event for the first time as a senior gymnast, grabbed gold on the vault with an average score of 13.275.
Ruby Evans at the British Gymnastics Championships, 26.3.23. Pic: British Gymnastics.
Meanwhile Wales’ Commonwealth Games star Stickler, 16, secured silver on the floor with a score of 13.750, which was only beaten by Olympic, World and European medallist Alice Kinsella (13.900).
The medal for Stickler follows on from her bronze medal on this piece last year which was her debut year as a senior.
Yesterday, Stickler was fourth and Evans fifth in the senior women’s all-around competition – won by Kinsella.
With Mali Morgan eighth and Sofia Micallef 10th, it meant there were four Welsh gymnasts in the top 10 of the senior women’s all-around.
On the men’s side, Team Wales’ Joe Cemlyn-Jones won high bar bronze on Sunday having finished sixth in Saturday’s men’s senior all-around competition.
Joe Cemlyn-Jones at the British Gymnastics Championships, 26.3.23. Pic: British Gymnastics.
The day had begun with a Welsh gold medal on uneven bars in the Women’s Junior competition for Ellie Lewis.
Lewis would add bronze on floor while Clwb Cymru teammate Ffion Burgum would go on to collect gold on that piece and become a British Junior champion.
In the Under 18 Men’s competition, Alex Niscoveanu (South Essex) followed up on his All-Around gold yesterday with another gold – this time on floor.
https://twitter.com/WelshGymnastics/status/1639994839767867392?s=20
There was also plenty of Welsh representation across some of the other apparatus finals on Sunday in their respective age categories.
Cemlyn-Jones was fifth on Senior parallel bars and seventh on rings with Niscoveanu finishing fifth on parallel bars and high bar in the U18s.
Burgum was fifth in the Junior balance beam final while in the Seniors, Stickler was sixth on beam.
https://twitter.com/WelshGymnastics/status/1639968532132659201?s=20
Sofia Micallef (Clwb Cymru) was seventh in the Senior uneven bars final while on vault behind winner Evans, Mali Morgan (Clwb Cymru), Abi Roper (Pipers Vale) and Annais Kamanga were sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.
And on Senior floor Evans was fifth, Morgan sixth and Micallef seventh.
Meanwhile, despite having posted the top qualification scores on Junior beam and floor, Jemima Taylor did not take her place in those finals as she missed those in order to head out to Turkey with the Great Britain delegation for the Junior World Championships.
https://twitter.com/WelshGymnastics/status/1639999706569887746?s=20