MEMBERS of a West Fife gymnastics club are once more the pride of Scotland after claiming silver medals at two major national competitions.

Gymnasts from Acrobay headed south recently to compete at two of the biggest competitions on the British Gymnastics NDP (National Development Plan) calendar; the NDP British Acrobatic finals in Stoke, and the Southampton Inter-Regional Competition.

The 18 acrobatic partnerships involved were selected to represent their country back in March after their medal-winning performances at the Scottish NDP Championships, with the gold-medallists heading for the British finals over the weekend of May 18-19, while the silver- and bronze-medallists travelled to the inter-regional event earlier in the month.

A total of 11 Acrobay partnerships – Emma Burns and Malin Begg (Grade 1 Women's Pairs); Arran McNicoll and Dylan Wilson (Grade 1 Men's Pairs); Kaela Drummond and Imara Beattie (Grade 2 Women's Pairs); Adam Broadbent and Matthew Sinclair (Grade 2 Men's Pairs); Emma Nelson, Imogen Barclay and Emma Stollery (Grade 2 Women's Groups); Sean Habrovitksy and Kamila Denicka (Grade Four Mixed Pairs); Charlotte Hodge, Clara Davidson and Poppy Green (Grade 4 Women's Groups); Jasmine Parris, Mia Logan and Isla Rourke (Youth Women's Groups); Nephele Idehen and Daisy Campbell (Youth Women's Pairs); Lewis Cullen-Young and Katie Hendry (Grade 5 Mixed Pairs); and Amy Byrne, Orla O'Neill and Eilidh Park (IDP Women's Groups) – joined gymnasts from the top clubs across the UK, 10 English regions and from Northern Ireland and Wales at Felton Manor for the British finals.

Although faced with fierce competition, Acrobay's gymnasts performed beautiful, accomplished routines and ensured that the scores were extremely close, with many of the Scottish partnerships narrowly missing out on a podium place.

But, at the end of an exciting weekend, two partnerships – Lewis and Katie, and Charlotte, Clara and Poppy – returned home with impressive silver medals.

That success followed more medal wins at the inter-regions, in which the club had eight partnerships joining more than 200 others to compete.

Representing Acrobay were Lainey McKilligan and Myla Love (Grade 1 Women's Pairs); Emma Tait, Caitlin Allen and Skye Archibald (Grade 2 Women's Groups); Aimee Arnott and Neave Burns, and Ffion Smith and Clara Joyce (Grade 3 Women's Pairs); Catherine Hillis and Poppy Jones, and Annaleece and Melissa Parris (Grade 4 Women's Pairs); Eve Ormiston, Amy Middleton and Hannah Johnston (Grade 5 Women's Groups); and Nicole Paltiel and Ava-Violet Daglish (Grade 5 Women’s Pairs).

In a large competition that featured some tough categories, the Acrobay partnerships ended the weekend with well-deserved silver medals for Lainey and Myla, Emma, Caitlin and Skye, and Eve, Amy and Hannah.

Proud coach Debbie Wilson said: "These were two great competitions for the club.

"All our partnerships were incredible, with strong performances and lots of experience gained. Great Britain is currently one of the world’s top nations in this discipline, so they faced some very tough opposition.

"Our gymnasts did extremely well in some tough categories, and the silver medals were very well deserved.

"They all did the club and Scotland proud."