Head coach Walid Mustafa praised his gymnasts after what he termed "the best Bermuda Triangle Challenge yet''.

Mustafa was pleased with the way his girls at levels seven, eight and nine upped their performances from Thursday night's USA International Gymnastics Club meet to the age group competition on Saturday. And he was happy that a whole bunch of younger gymnasts, making their competitive debuts, had shown their abilities at the Recreational Optional level.

He said: "On Thursday the younger ones were not fighting for every tenth of a point. They were in too much of a hurry on the floor and beams. But by Saturday, they were making little corrections and that was nice to see.'' So good were the level sevens, in fact, that three of them placed in the the floor routine against clubs from Virginia, Georgia, Ohio and Nebraska. Top honours went to ten-year-old Brittany Repose, who scored a 9.1, while Casey Lopes, 10, and Alex Furtado, eight, tied for third with scores of 8.825.

Shauntiah Rawlins was first on both vaults and floor in the level nines, while fellow 14-year old Alexandra Froncioni was first on the beam.

At level 10, 12-year-old Maria Darby managed a fifth on bars and sixth on beams while Christina White was third on both vaults and beam, scoring 9.025 on the latter.

Mustafa had spoken earlier in the week of his interest in seeing how the Recreational Optional gymnasts performed on their debuts in front of a crowd -- and he was not disappointed.

"We went over their goals with them, made sure they were setting realistic goals -- and for the most part they met those,'' he said. "That sort of thing gives them a sense of accomplishment. Their success didn't hinge on whether or not they went home with a medal.'' And he added: "One girl who stood out was Caitlyn Mello.'' The seven-year-old, he said was "a fierce competitor. She does a little bit better if you have a crowd there.'' The college meets on Thursday and Friday had "inspired the girls' imaginations, he continued.

"They kept coming to me over the weekend asking if they could try what they had seen,'' he said.

One other useful spin-off from those meets was that they helped to wear in the new gymnastics floor which was installed for the fourth annual Challenge.

"The floor was great,'' said Mustafa. "It was nice having the college girls on it first because they are considerably bigger and tumble harder than our kids. It would have taken our kids six months to break it in -- these girls did it in a weekend!'' Fierce competitor: Caitlyn Mello impressed gymnastics coach Walid Mustafa at the Bermuda Triangle Challenge.