Jaycee has been preparing to enter her first competition for some time now and today she represented Hertfordshire Gymnastics Club at the SAADI Gymnastics competition in the Redbourn Recreation Centre just outside St. Albans.

It was an earlier start than usual as we needed to be in Redbourn for 8.45am which is 45 minutes away from home and me being me I like to get to places on time, OK anally early so I built in plenty of contingency time just in case we got caught up in traffic or got lost, we didn’t do either which meant we were almost 20 minutes early, so early that we had to go back and sit in the car to keep warm as they wouldn’t let us in.

So eventually when we did go back to head into the centre to see what things were all about, being a first neither of us knew what to expect so it was the blind leading the blind so they say, I think Jaycee on that basis was feeling quite nervous and quite frankly I really don’t blame her.

In the hall we found a seat and sat and assessed the situation, the apparatus were all set out so we took things in and started to get familiar with what was about to happen, before long Jaycee headed over to the group where I think they received a bit of a pep talk to fire them up for the competition then it was time to get started!!

All the judges took their seats at the various bit of equipment and settled in ready to spectate the contenders and there were certainly a few of those, probably about 50 or so.

After a good warm up by all the contenders it was time to get things moving, first up for Jaycee was the vault and that set the tone for the rest of the competition, it was a practise run followed by a live attempt (2 for the vault), all of Jaycee’s attempts to me (the untrained eye) looked good, she approached with confidence, got some good height followed by sturdy well controlled landings with perfect balance, the only thing that let her down was her rushed exit after her presentation to the judges but perhaps that was down to nerves and confidence.

After the vault came the beam where Jaycee again performed a well balanced, sturdy and controlled performance and this was the one she was worried about, again her eagerness to get away and sit down out of the limelight perhaps let her down a little.

Finally she completed her first competition effort with some choreographed floor work, quite frankly she performed this beautifully, again with control balance, strength and finesse, I think her ballet training really paid off it really shone through here but was apparent in all of the pieces she did.

After all the pieces were complete by all the contenders and a short deliberation took place while the medals were set out on the tables ready for the presentations and the winners were announced, Jaycee won a Gold and a Bronze medal, I’m not 100% sure what for as you couldn’t hear a thing when they announced the results but either way ALL of what she did was simply amazing all things considering, even with the nerves she held it together and gave a star performance, all she needs to do is brush up on a few things and get over the confidence issues and she will be unstoppable, one to watch for in the future.

So her Gold medal won her a place in the Regional finals in Ipswich in June so we have a few months to work on her and brush up the little things, overall though simply amazing, I was a very proud father today, roll on the Regionals!!

Check out the gallery of some images from the day.