Fantastic British Team Performance at Junior European Championships

Turin, 4-7 June 2008

For four girls from Great Britain it was the peak (so far) of their rhythmic gymnastic careers - representing their country at the Junior European Championships in Turin, Italy.

Competing alongside many of the world's very best gymnasts in an Olympic sized sports arena that held a large and enthusiastic crowd, it was a tough and daunting challenge. But the British girls rose to the challenge magnificently, putting in some truly excellent performances to achieve the best British team results in rhythmic gymnastics for many years!

Among the four members of the team was Bath's own Lynne Hutchison, who performed ribbon at the championships. The other three girls were Kezi Gore (ball) and Jo Matcham (rope) from Canterbury and Jade Faulkner (hoop) from the Esprit club in Swindon. All four girls had been training and preparing intensively for the competition in long sessions at Lilleshall over the last five months, and all that hard work paid off when it really mattered!

The team had set themselves a target of finishing in the top twenty overall and to each score 21.0 or better on their routines. It was a tough target that many thought might be over ambitious, especially as Britain had only managed to place 29th in the previous championships in Moscow two years ago. But Lynne, Kezi, Jo and Jade were determined to make it a reality!

First up for Britain was Jo, but any pressure she might have been feeling didn't show as she performed an excellent rope routine that gained a score of 21.600 giving the team a great start to the competition. Jade came next and performed a near flawless and very dynamic hoop routine that scored 21.775 and things were starting to look good for the GB team!

Lynne and Kezi had to wait till the following day for their chance to perform, when the ball and ribbon events were held, and both girls really grabbed that chance with both hands! Kezi's ball routine was quite superb - a wonderful display of elegance and control that fully deserved it's score of 22.675 moving the British team higher up the rankings.

And so it was just Lynne to go, with the very last routine of the junior team competition, and tension was growing among the British supporters in the crowd, wondering if she could maintain the high standard set by the other three girls. The answer was a resounding 'Yes'!

Despite a minor fumble on one catch (not to mention a large drop of water falling on her head from the ceiling high above in mid-routine!), Lynne performed with great fluidity and expressiveness to score a tremendous 22.875. That score moved the British team up to 13th place overall and put Lynne in tenth place in ribbon, just outside one of the eight places in the individual final held on the next day.

For all four girls it was a magnificent achievement at such a high level of competition, and a testament to the hard work and encouragement of national coach Nadya Aleksandrova and assistant coach Teodora Alexandrova, sending the coaches, family and friends that had made the trip out to Turin home very happy - despite the grey and wet weather that lasted for all four days of the competition!

As Steve Green, British Gymnastics Programme Manager for rhythmic gymnastics put it,

"This has been the most successful Junior Team in memory. The advances made from 29th Place in Moscow, 2006 to 13th place in Turino, is remarkable and an achievement that has come as a result of much individual hard work, team work and a unprecedented determination that the girls have all shown.