2006 News Archive
2006 Barbórka Cup
Wayne Healy represented Ireland at the Barbórka Cup
International where he
finished 13th overall in the men's all-round competition. The
competition which was in Zabrze, Poland featured teams from Poland, Ukraine,
Finland, Slovenia and Ireland and was held over the weekend of December 8th
- 10th 2006. Wayne's excellent
performance qualified him for the team-gym competition where he was teamed with
a female gymnast from the Ukraine. In team-gym each team consists of a male and
female gymnast. Each gymnast does a routine on a
chosen apparatus (men on the men's pieces, Women on the women's pieces) with the two scores
combined to give a team score. In subsequent
rounds the gymnasts choose a different apparatus to that done in the previous
rounds. Lying second after the first round,
they were eliminated in the second round following a fall by the Ukrainian
gymnast on floor. Congrats to Wayne on his performances both in the men's all-round
and the team-gym competitions.
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2006 National
Individual Championships
30 gymnasts from Phoenix GC
took part in the National Individual Championships held in Colemine
on Sunday, November 19th 2006. The boys brought home an impressive
haul of 12 medals (2 gold, 2 silver & 8 bronze medals). This included a clean
sweep at level 7 where Geoff Rellis won the national youth title with Rory
Caffrey second and Danny Cooney third. At senior level Wayne Healy came
third being piped by two gymnasts from Belfast, this reaffirms his
position as the #1 gymnast in the Republic of Ireland. Luke Coward took bonze at
Level 6. At level 4, Kieran Murphy took gold at under 12 whilst Alan Fleming and
Brian Leader won silver and bronze respectively at over 12. In level 3 Adam
Crossan, Connor Kennedy and Colm O'Reilly all won bronze medals in their
respective ages. Hugh Allen took bronze in level 2 under 12. Additionally a number of
others narrowly missed out on medals. For many of the boys it was there first
major competition. Well done all!!
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Club Benefit Night
Phoenix Gymnastics Club held two fund raisers in November 2006. Many thanks to
parents, gymnasts and local companies who gave generously of their time, money
and spot prises to support both our bag pack and benefit night. The money raised
will go towards the purchase of new equipment.
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2006 North European Championships
Wayne Healy and Geoff Rellis represented Ireland at the
North European Championships in Norway. On September 30th. Over 10
different nations took part in this major championships. Both performed very
well. Wayne's top score was an vault where he scored an impressive 13.5. Geoff,
who competed on three pieces in what was his first senior competition, scored
11.55 for a very clean P. Bar routine.
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UEG Training Camp -
Tirrenia
Danny Cooney (gymnast) and Adam Smith
(coach) travelled to Tirrenia in Italy for the UEG training camp which ran from July 23rd
- August 2nd. The camp, which is held annually, is for gymnasts aged
13-16 and is one of the top training camps for juniors. There is a
heavy focus on physical preparation at the camp. This year gymnasts and coaches
from over 15 different nations were in attendance. Valery Belenky, winner of two
Olympic medals in 1992 and world champion on pommel horse in 1991 & 1997,
was one of the coaches present at the camp. A good time was had by all.
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Club Training Camp - Largs
2006
Sixteen
gymnasts and five coaches from Phoenix Gym Club travelled to Largs on July 3rd
for our annual training camp. Once again Mr T. (Mike Talbot) and Pat McGrath attended as guest
coaches. Gymnasts from Excel GC also accompanied us on the trip. A good week was had by all with many new skills being learnt by the
boys. Plans are already afoot for our camp in 2007!
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2006
British Team Championships
Wayne Healy of Phoenix
GC and Leeds Metropolitan University was part of the Yorkshire team that came third at British regional team
championships held in Ispwich on May 21st 2006.
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2006
European Championships
Wayne Healy of Phoenix
finished 23rd on Vault at the
2006 European Artistic
Gymnastics Championships which were held in Volos, Greece from May 4th-7th. Wayne
along with Luke Carson (Salto GC) took part in the Junior (Under 18) competition
whilst Mathew Cosgrove (Salto GC) competed in the senior competition. For both
Wayne and the club this was a major milestone as it was the first time a gymnast
from the club had competed at European Championship level.
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2006
NDP Championships
Owen Hunt and Luke Coward of Phoenix
represented Ireland at the NDP finals in Newcastle over the May
bank holiday weekend. Lisa Hunt travelled as coach. The NDPs is one of the most
important developmental competitions in the UK. Both boys turned in some fine performances with Owen
finishing 25th in the Primary 4 section where he competed against
over 70 gymnasts from throughout the UK.
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2006
National Team Championships
Phoenix GC finished a close second to Salto
GC of Belfast at this year's National Team championships held on April 22nd.
In what was the the first National team championships in almost 15 years teams from Belfast, Cork and Dublin all took part. We missed out on team gold by
just 3.5 marks. This was a great performance
given that the boys in Salto train in a full-time gym 6 days a week. Well
done!!!
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2006 Appenzeller Memorial Shield
The inaugural Appenzeller Memorial Shield
was held in Phoenix GC on March 25th
2006. This South Dublin regional competition was for gymnasts competing at
Levels 3 or 4 of the MTC program. Over twenty gymnasts took part in the
competition with Phoenix gymnasts winning three gold, three silver and three
bronze medals. Additionally Brian Leader won the Appenzeller Shield.
Charles Appenzeller (pictured above right) who passed away in June 2005, was a founding member of Olympian Gymnastics Club and a leading light of men's gymnastics in Ireland for over forty years. To mark Charles's contribution to the sport a perpetual shield was donated by Olympian and Phoenix gym clubs to be presented to the gymnast with the top combined score on Floor, Vault, Parallel Bars and High Bar irrespective of age or level.
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2006 Level 2,3 & 4 National
Championships
Ten gymnasts from Phoenix GC took part in the level 2,3 & 4 national
championships in Cork on February 19th. Our Level 3 and Level 4
boys won five medals including two Level 4 national titles at under 12 and under 14 with
John Fleming being crowned the Level 4 National Champion! At Level 2, four
Phoenix boys were on the South Dublin team that took Gold at Under 8 whilst there were two
Phoenix gymnasts on the South Dublin team that won Silver at Under 10. In the
individual section of Level 2, Conor Kennedy missed out on an Under 10 individual bronze
by just 0.05. Well done
all!!
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2006 Celtic Cup
Three Phoenix gymnasts were part of the Irish team which took part in the Celtic
Cup in Wales in February 2006. Geoff Rellis and Hugo Kieran were on the Under 17 team
with Danny Cooney on the Under 13 team.. It was Hugo's first ever international. Geoff Rellis was Ireland's top
performer on the Under 17 team finishing 11th overall. Also on
the team was Rory Caffrey, who at that time trained with Phoenix GC but was a
member of Olympian GC, Rory officially joined Phoenix GC in October 2006.