BERMUDA gymnasts won second place in the team event at the nationals held in Fort Lauderdale at the weekend.

And the four-strong squad also brought home a slew of medals in a tough competition against more than 300 of America's best athletes in the United States of America Independent Gymnastics Club Nationals.

Two years ago the Bermuda team took first place in the platinum team division and had high hopes of reclaiming the title for Bermuda.

But Bermuda lost out to a team from New Jersey for top honours with coach Michelle Strenk blaming two falls from the balance beam and a couple of diversions from intended bar routines for the failure to get top honours.

As predicted the tiny size of the Bermuda squad proved crucial as larger squads had the luxury of putting forward only the best scores while everything counted for the Bermuda team.

Hannah King, 14, and 13-year-olds Kaisey Griffith and Riann Ming competed together to win second place as a team in the platinum division of USAIGC Nationals.

That performance qualified the team for the individual event finals the next day where Hannah and Kaisey both placed fourth all around in their respective age groups.

Morgan Beckles, (11) competing in the gold division also did well placing sixth in the all around and qualifying for individual finals on bars, beam and floor.

The final stretched out into a long and gruelling six-and-a-half-hour-long event in a chilly hotel ballroom said Strenk.

She said: "The girls stayed focused and came away with a total of eight medals."

Morgan Beckles led the medal count with an eighth place on beam, fourth on bars and fourth on floor.

Kaisey Griffith (pictured) took third on floor and second on vault. Hannah King took third on bars and fifth on balance beam while Riann Ming placed fifth on vault.

Strenk said the girls were still proud to return with their second place banner and did well in the circumstances.

She said: "The last two weeks these girls have been juggling their gymnastic training schedule with their school final exam preparations.

"They will return to Bermuda in time to attend the last three days of school."

Strenk says she is happy with the performance and is looking forward to summer training where the coaches can use the longer training hours to push ahead with new skills for the 2007 season.

The girls have been conditioning and doing strength work along with the drills for the next level of skills. They are now ready to learn some new tricks including release moves on the bar and more elaborate flips from the beams.

Next year USAIGC nationals will be held in the same location and will move to Texas for 2008.

The Bermuda team is also planning to take three girls to a Pan Am training camp run by famous Romanian coach Bela Karoly who coached Nadia Comaneci to Olympic glory.

Also on the horizon is another trip to England in the fall for the Rushmoor meet while Strenk said they would try to get to a meet in Chicago early next year.