Winterfest rounds off a superb year
The trio will be part of large Bermuda delegation to the Isle of Man in July hoping to improve on even last year’s performance when they won 36 out of a possible 40 medals in Shetland.
Head coach Tina Billington said: “We want to take all the medals.”
Bermuda narrowly lost out in the team event to the Isle of Man but the set up has changed this time around with the squad split between the 11-13 age group and the 14 and over category.
Joining Griffith, King and Mello will be Riann Ming and Catherine Araujo while the junior group consists of Taylor Cleave, Morgan Beckles, Rosie Finnigan, Amber Lopes and Rebecca Forgesson.
Billington is in confident mood following Bermuda’s Commonwealth Games performance where Bermuda reached the individual finals.
“That was the first time we have ever done that before. It was excellent,” she said.
But no surprise given the time spend on the road including appearances at the Fort Lauderdale and the attendance at a Texas training camp run by world renowned Olympic coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi, who trained Nadia Comineci to glory.
“It was a really tough camp with training twice a day — three and a half hours at a time. There was a Russian and a Romanian coach working with them giving them a lot of encouragement.
“It gave them great motivation to be working alongside the American national team who showed them their skills.”
Dance classes and strength and conditioning classes also helped beef up routines.
And there is no let up in the schedule next year as the squad focuses on the Island Games.
First up is a trip to Chicago in February when Griffith, Beckles, Cleave, Rosie Finnigan and Tabytha Hofheins could take on some of the best US teams in a huge multi-gym.
Two months later the squad will head out to Trinidad and Tobago for a USA v Caribbean Islands meet.
“It’s the first time we have entered. We are taking a junior team.”
It’s part of tactic to groom the next generation of athletes as well as prepare the juniors for the Island Games.
Completing a busy 2007 is the World Championship in Stuttgart, Germany where King, Griffith and Mello will compete.
Recently the girls held a cartwheel-a-thon to raise money for new gymnastics equipment — some performing their cartwheels on a four-foot high and four-inch wide balance beam.
Leading the team were Caitlyn Mello successfully completing 20 out of 26 cartwheels and Kaisey Griffith who made 23 without falling (25 total).
[obox] The Winterfest runs tomorrow at the Whitney Institute Gym between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Entrance is free.
