Bermuda's national gymnastics team are hoping to get off the Island today to compete in the IGI Chicago Style Gymnastics Invitational this weekend.

The team were supposed to leave yesterday for their fourth appearance at the show but because of the nasty weather their flight was cancelled.

Now they are keeping their fingers crossed that the winds will subside today to get their flight to Atlanta and then on to Chicago.

The IGI Chicago Style Invitational is the largest gymnastics meet in the world for women and will start today. But Bermuda's competition is scheduled for Saturday.

Last weekend national coach Duke Nelligan held a competition between Bermuda's gymnasts at their base at Southside.

Nelligan said: "It is good to have competitions among our own gymnasts. Training is great but we have to learn to get in that competitive mode.

"It is a different frame of mind when you are competing as opposed to just training.

"We need to get that extra edge. Also I was very pleased to see some of the parents come out and actually see what their kids are doing.

"Even though the weather was very bad last Saturday they came out and I think they appreciated what we are trying to do down here."

Nelligan was the head coach for the University of Maryland team for 30 years before coming to Bermuda last year to take up his post.

And while Bermuda's young gymnasts have had success overseas like winning the gold last summer at the Island Games in Aland, Nelligan wants them to get even better.

He has spoken about Bermuda's easy going attitude and while he likes that, he also wants the Island's gymnasts to become more competitve.

"We have been to this Chiacgo meet three times already.

"It is great for our girls. There is a lot of competition there and they also meet gymnasts from all over which is good. They see how other gymnasts approach the sport. Hopefully we can go to more meets like this."

And Nelligan would also like to see Bermuda host international competition.

"It would be great for teams to come to us occasionally as opposed to us always going away to compete," he said.