SPORT

Gornal Girl Goes for Gold A Gornal schoolgirl will be competing in national gymnastics competitions in Newcastle and Guildford later this month. 13 year old Laura Thomas, an Ellowes Hall School pupil, already competes for Wolverhampton Gymnastics club under coach Bob Jones. She has been training for eight years and is no stranger to high level competition. Laura is competing at Elite level, which means that she will be appearing at national competitions in Guildford in Surrey on the 5th and 6th July, and the Bill Slater championships at Newcastle on 21st and 22nd June. These include clubs from all around the country. At Elite level, competitors must show their skilful moves on the four pieces of apparatus - Bars, Beam, Floor and Vault. Laura will also be competing for the Inter County championship on the 12th July at Birmingham University, which will take place just a day after her birthday and will be her third major competition in only 4 weeks! She says ‘I am very confident, as I have been county champion before.’ Proud mum Bev said ‘Laura trains at the national sports centre at Lillishall every Monday until 10pm straight from school , as well as balancing her home work. We think she is brilliant.’ And Dad Mark added ‘we spend lots of time as taxis to and from training and competitions, and it is expensive for us to support with travel costs, clothing, entry fees and so on, but Laura has proved that she has a genuine talent and is worth every penny.’ PE teacher, Kerry Bunce, said ‘Laura is simply remarkable, we couldn’t be happier that she is competing at this level. I am sure she has a bright future ahead of her in the sport.’

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