Talented gymnasts do us proud in Hawaii

Emily Rhodes, Olivia Buckerfield and Regan Molloy, three members of Orange Central West Gymnastics recently left Australian Shores for the beauty of the Waikiki - Hawaii coastline!

Joining 10 gymnasts from the (Bathurst) Aspire Gymnastics 2795 Hawaii tour team, they each returned home with some wonderful results!

The girls attended two competitions in Honolulu. ‘Gymnastics in Paradise’ competition was first where Emily Rhodes competed level six and Olivia Buckerfield competed level seven.

Both girls had a great competition with Olivia coming first on vault. The second competition was the ‘Aloha Gymfest’, Regan Molloy competed xcel Gold and received third on floor and was fourth overall. Emily Rhodes competed level six and received fifth on floor with a beautiful floor routine.

Olivia Buckerfield competed level seven, she was first on floor and beam (scoring 9.5 and 9.55 her personal best scores) and was first overall achieving the highest overall score out of all the level seven divisions. “I kind of just went over there for the holiday and experience, I didn’t think I would come back with some bling. I just wanted to have a go and get the experience of an international competition,” said Olivia. “I had to just believe I could pull it off, Mads (Gym Coach) does a really good job of making gymnasts believe.”

Regan added, “The competitions were a little different to the Australian ones, but I really enjoyed it, my parents were really proud of me.”

The girls competed against teams from Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, Alaska and Japan and enjoyed it so much they have already signed up to travel back next year.

“The competitions seemed to go very quickly, they are quite organised over there. I think our trophies are so cool, we have a lot of trophies and medals at home, though we’ve never received shells and pineapple ones before, they are good little souvenirs,” said Emily.

Madeleine Waters Central West Gymnastics Manager and Head Coach echoed, “It was amazing to be a part of the Aspire team, we had so much fun. The atmosphere and the experience for the girls was just amazing at the American level. They had to learn new routines and requirements. Sophie Hannah the owner of Aspire gymnastics coached the girls at both competitions, and I joined them for the last competition. I am very proud of them.”