Third place for gymnasts

Having progressed through county and East Midland rounds, they were faced by a new challenge which would potentially have the best teams from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as nine English regions competing.

Dan Martin (14) Tom Martin (13) Max Aslin (13) and Will Ray (12) were unfazed by the size of the complex and standard from the other teams and entered the arena brimming with confidence.

They had been selected to perform on vault in the first rotation and Max got the team off to a flying start with two strong vaults, both with superb landings.

The others followed suit with all boys scoring well and very few points between them.

The second rotation brought them to the floor where they had to compete not only against talented gymnasts, but also the blaring music being piped out at incredible volume for the girls performing on the adjacent floor.

Dan set the standard with a well-controlled, powerful routine which scored an impressive 14.003.

As the rest of the team duly went through their sequences with few mistakes, the gymnasts seemed to be happy with their work and thought they’d done enough to find a place on the podium.

Pictured, from left, are Tom Martin, Max Aslin, Will Ray and Dan Martin.