Recently level 6 gymnast, Allie Hardimon was selected to represent the State at the 2019 Trans Bass Challenge in Geelong. Allie represented Tasmania to the best of her ability, and gained some new friends as well as some experience from competing inter state. Her coaches are very proud of all that she has achieved.
Allie has shared with us her experience:
“On the 31st of October I woke up at 5:30 am to get ready to travel to Melbourne. I was feeling very excited, but also nervous about meeting the other gymnasts as I had only seen them at competitions; I was worried that we wouldn’t become friends. We met up with my coach Leanne at Latrobe and travelled with her to Launceston where we met north/west level 7 gymnast Zoe, and Emma our Tasmanian judge. We boarded our plane at 8:40am and few to Melbourne where we met our head coach Alyssa, and my two other teammates in level 6, Abbey and Hannah. The girls were really friendly, and we talked a lot, but I think I talked the most.
We then drove to our hotel and we all got ready for our training session with gymnasts from Victoria, South Australia and the ACT, led by a special coach, (National talent development coach) Regan Molyneaux. We practiced Vault first and I was very nervous as it isn’t my best apparatus. My favourite part about the training session was making my giants better and getting corrections on them by my coaches Leanne, Alyssa and Regan. At the end of the training session we all got a group photo with Regan.
After the training session was over, we headed back to our hotel. Luckily there was a pool because it was very hot in Geelong. We all got into our bathers and had a cooling swim.
The next day we all woke up pretty late and had a relaxing morning, but the anticipation and nerves grew as the day went on. We went for a swim before we had to get ready for the competition. Then at around 3pm we started preparing our hair, bags and gifts for the competition ahead of us. As we got our leotard and tracksuit on the excitement and nerves started to kick in and everything started to feel real.
When we arrived at the venue, I got even more nervous, but I was still overwhelmed with excitement. We went into the stadium and walked through to the back where the athletes prepare. We said hello to some of the other teams before warm-up started. Once I was on the floor my nerves calmed down and I was ready to compete.
Once we finished our warm-up, we had to go to the marshalling area and lined up in height order. Tasmania led the march with me leading the team. Standing in the competition floor, I felt quite intimidated with hundreds of people in the crowd watching us. Everyone in the stadium rose to the Australian flag while the National anthem played throughout the arena. We were introduced to the audience before moving to our first apparatus.
Our first event was vault and I was up first. I was very nervous at first, but I felt great about my vaults I performed. On each apparatus at the competition, a gymnast was chosen to do an encore routine. Hannah was chosen to do the encore for vault. Our next event was bars which I was quite excited for because bars is my favourite apparatus. When we competed on bars, I felt happy about my routine and I felt I did a good job. Abby was the person chosen to do the bar encore. Then we had beam which I felt I did good on, but I could have done better but I was still happy with my performance. I was chosen to do the encore on beam which I was really nervous for, but I think I did very well. After I finished my encore we had floor which was our last apparatus. I did my floor routine which I was really excited to perform. I believe I did really well and I was very proud of the routine I performed. Abby did the encore on floor and did an amazing job.
Over-all I had an amazing competition, and everyone did really well. After presentations we gave our presents to each state. South Australia gave us a slinky and a badge and from Victoria we got a drink bottle.
Hannah and Abby won a place overall on beam they came sixth, and on floor Abby also placed sixth. All around our team came fourth. We all had an amazing competition, I’m very proud of myself and my teammates, and we all had an amazing time.
I would like to say thank you to both of our coaches Leanne and Alyssa for giving up their time and taking us to Melbourne.”
Devonport Gymnastics Club 