Female gymnasts in top competition

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 16

Female gymnasts in top competition

Gymnasts from throughout the South Island and Wellington will compete in the first major artistic gymnastics competition of the season for females, at the Bryndwr Y.M.C.A. this week-end. It is the fifth annual Damax inter-club competition and will cater for girls from elite grade to grade eight. Seventeen clubs and 270 gymnasts will be represented, including a group of 42 from Nelson. The senior gymnasts will use the competition to attempt to qualify for the New Zealand championships in Auckland in August, and juniors will be endeavouring to improve their rankings for the Canterbury championships. There will be team and individual titles and the Burrows Shield will be

awarded to the club accumulating the most points during the two days of competition on Saturday and Sunday. The voluntary exercises in grade three will provide interesting competition. The most notable entry is Kirsty Strong, of Nelson, who was the national grade four champion last year. Others who will be prominent in the race for the title in this grade are likely to be K. Knight, S. Queree, T. Cook, K. Vaughan and S. Rudkin. Competing in grade one will be five members of the New Zealand under-14 team which recently competed in Australia. They are K. Nicholson, K. Trott and T. Sinclair from the Christchurch School of Gymnastics, and K. Bray and S. Fazio from Avonhead.