The Namibia Gymnastic Federation's Artistic Gymnastics Second Qualifying competition for Levels 4 to Senior Olympic took place on Saturday in Windhoek at the Excelsior Gymnastics Club's hall. This competition was gymnasts' last chance to string together a series of apparatus routines to achieve the necessary qualifying scores for the Nationals at the end of the year.
Overall, the competition in both the men and women's sections was tough and gymnasts had to focus to produce some outstanding routines. Spectators were riveted to their seats and treated to some spectacular high bar and rings routines by the boys in the more senior levels while some of the bar and floor routines by the girls had them cheering towards the end of the competition.
In the Men’s Artistic Section, Jean Vermeulen from Otjiwarongo was the best Level 5 gymnast with an average 8.23 in the 14 Years and under category. The competition for honors in the Level 6 section was incredible with a spread of 0.37 points separating the top five gymnasts. Sebastiaan Nevelsteen from Excelsior eventually walked away with the gold medal. Bjoern Nowack from Crete Gymnastics Club won gold in the Level 7 14 Years and under section while Marco Coetzee from Tsumeb took gold in the 15 Years and over section.
Namibia's two top senior boys also had a close competition in the Level 10 section with Morihei Anderson from Excelsior ultimately taking gold with a total score of 68.35.
In the Women's Artistic Section, Kaye-Lynne van Wyk from SKW (9 Years and Under) was the best performing Level 4 gymnast on the day with an average total score of 8.94 for the four apparatus she competed on. Tanita Human from Swakopmund took gold in the 10 Years and Under category while Lenha Jacobs from SKW and Nazley Losper from Keetmanshoop took gold in the 12 Years and Under and 13 Years and Over categories respectively.
In the Level 5 section, Samantha-Lee Gibbons from Swakopmund was the top scoring gymnast averaging at 8.91 in the 12 Years and Under competition for set routines. In the Level 5 voluntary routines section, Nicole Loubser, also from Swakopmund, received the gold medal with an average score of 8.51 while Schelechin Alberste of SKW and Panduleni Shikongo from Excelsior shared the silver medal, both with a average total score of 8.21.
In the Level 7 competition, Mari-Louise du Plessis from Excelsior took the gold in the 13 Years and Over section while Katja Serrer, also from Excelsior, took the gold in the 12 Years and Under section. Laetitia du Plessis from Excelsior stacked up the best overall score of 45.00 in the Level 8 competition while Walvis Bay's Lika Blaauw managed a respectable 34.30 to take the gold in Level 9. The Level 10 gold medal went to Michel'le Solomons from Walvis Bay and Chloe Hansen from Excelsior put together a solid performance to take the gold in the senior Olympic category.
All in all, the mini Nationals was very successful and gymnasts could benchmark their individual performances against the rest of the country and now know where to improve on their routines to ensure that they are at their peak when competing in the Nationals.