During the winter school holidays, Barron Valley gymnasts in our WAG and MAG Aspire Level 4-9 programs, travelled to Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast to take on the best gymnasts in Queensland at State Club Championships. Touring as a Team to State Clubs is a highlight for our Barron Valley gymnasts and coaches and a wonderful opportunity for our gymnasts to show the depth of gymnastics in far North Queensland. This year, the Barron Valley spirit was certainly alive and well throughout our State Clubs Tour! All teams performed beautifully and should be extremely proud of their efforts.  Certainly our gymnasts have gone back to Cairns with not only fantastic competition experience and success, but with wonderful memories of a fun, team focussed tour as well. Check out the highlights and photos from the tour below:

Day 1: Border Challenge

Our Barron Valley team had a huge couple of days to start the tour.  Arriving in Caloundra on Saturday after an early morning flight to Brisbane and long drive, we all settled into our rooms, had some fun in the park – and then headed off to the event venue to watch the Border Challenge Competition. The State Clubs Tour was kicked off this year with our superstar Level 9 gymnast, Ulrike Fehlberg competing as part of the Queensland Border Challenge Team.  Ulrike and her QLD Level 9 team mates came away with the silver medal against some great competition from across Australia.  Congratulations Uli, you were amazing and we hope you enjoyed representing QLD!

Day 2:

Day two (Sunday) saw our Level 4 teams competing bright and early. Our BV Cheer squad was in full force and our girls performed beautifully! Straight from the competition hall we drove back to Brisbane for a training session and some fun at the Delta Kedron venue. After training, we headed back to Caloundra and enjoyed another delicious dinner (thanks to our tour chefs - Heather & Deanne!), played a few games and had an inspiring talk with our Barron Valley Senior Gymnasts Monet & Uli.  We were extremely lucky to have Monet and Uli with us on tour, they are such inspirational leaders and role models for our younger gymnasts to look up to and aspire to be like.  As one of our amazing Coaches, Dianne pointed out, what Monet and Uli had to say about supporting your team mates and helping each other is so important – team BV were certainly ready to rock State Clubs!

Day 3:

Our Level 7 & 8 Barron Valley boys and our Level 5 girls took to the floor on Day 3.  We are so proud of each and every competitor - they all rocked it on the comp floor and the BV Spirit shone bright!  Our amazing MAG team placed 5^th overall in QLD and showed they are a force to be reckoned with! Even with such a big day at competition, we managed to squeeze in some beach and park time to relax and enjoy the winter sunshine in Caloundra.  It was such a gorgeous day a few of our team even hit the surf!

Day 4:

Our sensational level 6’s and 7’s hit the competition floor for our final tour day.  All of our girls looked stunning, supported each other the whole way and kept our BV Cheer squad in the stands very busy! Special mention to our Level 7 team (with a few Level 6 girls helping out at this comp to make our team) for winning the Qld Club Championships Level 7 Vault crown and placing 5^th all around in QLD! Great job girls! We had another busy day at the comp venue but found a little time for some fun between sessions & we all got to meet Australian international gymnast Rhianna Mizzen and see her perform her bar routine live! And with that, we wrap our Barron Valley State Clubs tour for 2017!  It will certainly be one to remember with many personal bests and champion performances! A huge THANK YOU goes to our wonderful Chaperones - Lucinda, Sharon, Karen, Heather & Deanne – and to Amy for her organisation and tour management - the tour wouldn't have been possible or so much fun without you all. Thank you for looking after us all so well! Thank you also to our team judges Monet and Sam for their commitment to long days of judging at this event.  To our Barron Valley Gymnastics Club Committee, thank you for youtr ongoing support of our gymnasts and for subsidising every tour member $50 off the tour cost. Finally, thank you goes to Dianne and Gabe for looking after our gymnasts on tour and to our team of coaches in Cairns who help prepare and support our team - Leanne, Bede, Mikayla, Dionne, Maddisonand all of our staff! After a good rest, our BV team are now back in Cairns, training hard, having fun in the gym and ready for the next Barron Valley adventure!