More medals for Manx gymnasts

The Isle of Man rounded off a successful week at the 2007 Inter-Island gymnastics competition on Friday with several more medals.

In the FIG junior men's competition, all three overall medals went to the Manx team. Brandon Garrett took gold on three pieces to become the champion, Colin Furner won silver with a consistent performance including gold on the vault, and third place went to Anand Patel with another steady round, only just edging out Charlie Marshall who took the apparatus gold for floor.

The Manx senior men took on strong opposition from Jersey and the Faroe Islands with the Isle of Man's Alex Hedges proving too strong for the rest to take the overall gold over six pieces- winning on pommel, rings, parallel and high bar. His brother Adam came home in bronze medal position. Joe Smith performed well on his return from injury with a gold medal on floor and also a very tidy vault.

The women's FIG competition in the afternoon saw the Manx juniors again going head-to-head with Bermuda. Lyndsey Beynon and Grace Harrison showed first with gold medals on the vault and beam respectively. Lyndsey also took the final gold on the floor seeing her to a bronze medal, and Grace claimed the overall silver- just pipped to the post by Morgan Beckles from Bermuda.

The senior women had all five nations to compete against but it was another Bermudan, Kaisey Griffith, who showed strongly in the first rounds with gold on beam and silver on floor. An unfortunate tumble on her second vault, after a gold winning first effort, sadly ruled her out of the bars competition and the overall final standings.

The Isle of Man's Olivia Curran capitalised on this and added a gold on the floor to her three silvers for the overall gold. Silver and bronze went to Bermuda.

The Isle of Man Gymnastics Association is very grateful to everyone who helped with the organisation of what has been a very enjoyable competition for all the gymnasts and coaches of the participating islands.