Community & Business
15 September, 2022
Gymnasts reach for Amsterdam
NEXT year, 22 of Mareeba’s finest gymnasts will travel 14,794 km across the seas for their first ever international event and are calling on the community to help get them there.
World Gymnaestrada Amsterdam is held every four years and is one of the largest non-competitive gymnastics events in the world.
Alongside 627 other affiliated clubs in Australia, Mareeba gymnasts are hoping to put Mareeba on the map whilst proudly representing the green and gold colours.
Coaching director Kelly Tulloch was in shock when she found out her team had qualified and is ready to take her team to the next level.
“We went down for the Brisbane competition in 2021 where we performed a series of displays and came second, but little did we know we qualified for World Gymnaestrada,” she said.
“This is the first time we have ever been to any event like this, so it is all very new to us.
“We are so very excited and a little nervous.”
Gymnasts have been preparing for the big event next year, including level 7 gymnast Andrew Hawthorne.
The highly trained gymnast said he was excited to head overseas for the first ever and to doing it alongside an incredible team.
“I found out we qualified the day after we did the display event in Brisbane and it was a pretty cool feeling to hear we are going to compete in an international event,” he said.
“It isn’t competitive, and it is essentially a series of artistic movements on a large floor as well as tramp and track apparatuses.”
In order to make it to Amsterdam, the gym have been fundraising to support all 22 of their gymnasts.
Gymnastics mum Beth Fleming has set up a GoFundMe on behalf of the team in hopes the meet their target of $10,000 before they depart in August next year.
“It is about $7,000 per gymnast and we have about 22 of us going and the club is not funding any of that. Individual athletes have to fundraise themselves and that’s why we have a GoFundMe page set up,” Ms Tulloch said.
“We won’t only be representing Mareeba gymnastics; we will be representing Aussie Gymnastics in green and gold.”
To support Mareeba gymnastics next big adventure, go to https://gofund.me/2aa9a824
