ACROBAY Gymnastics Club have two new British champions and two silver medallists after they starred for their country at a recent national competition.

Ryan McLaughlin and Kyran Thompson took gold while Sean Habrovitsky and Casey Cameron won silver medals as five Acrobay partnerships represented Scotland at the Acrobatic NDP British Finals.

Held in Stoke-on-Trent over the weekend of May 13-14, Acrobay’s contingent joined more than 560 gymnasts from 71 clubs representing the 10 English regions, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to compete for national titles.

The five West Fife partnerships were: Ryan McLaughlin & Kyran Thompson (Grade 1 Men’s Pairs), Ffion Smith & Eilish McNicoll (Grade 1 Women’s Pairs), Sean Habrovitsky & Casey Cameron (Grade 2 Mixed Pairs), Emma Gillies, Clara Davidson & Sophie Humphries (Grade 2 Mixed Groups), and Eve Gillies & Kayla Ballantyne (Grade 4 Women’s Pairs).

Each of the 11 gymnasts are already a champion in their own right, having won gold at the Scottish Championships in March to qualify them for the national finals, and for many of the younger competitors, this was their first performance at a British event.

Great Britain is currently one of the world’s top nations in this discipline so the Acrobay gymnasts faced some fierce competition but all five partnerships took it in their stride, performing beautiful, accomplished routines which scored highly with the judges.

After what proved to be a very close-fought and exciting competition, often with only a mere fraction of a point separating the top scores and medal hopes, there were gold medals for Ryan & Kyran and Silver for Sean & Casey, with Ryan & Kyran claiming the title of British champions, Grade 1 Men’s Pairs.

Eve and Kayla, Ffion and Eilish and Emma, Clara and Sophie also did extremely well, finishing high on the leaderboard in fifth, sixth and sixth places respectively.

Acrobay coach Debbie Wilson said: “It was a tough competition but all of our gymnasts were amazing; they all did themselves and Acrobay proud.”