Maldwyn Dragons have been nominated for Montgomeryshire Club of the Year 2014 and will find out this Friday (23rd Jan) whether they have been successful. The Powys Sports Awards are a way of recognising and celebrating the sporting success of those involved in sport at all levels and is judged by the Montgomeryshire sports council panel made up of county councilors and volunteers representing a variety of sports. To win ‘Club of the Year’ you must have made a substantial contribution to the local community, have good links with schools and have committed coaches and volunteers. Previous winners have included Caersws Junior Football Club and Maldwyn Harriers but we’re hoping in view of the recent club developments, not least our new premises, winning this award will prove to be the icing on the cake for 2014.
Boys success in National Floor and Vault competition
Before Christmas five of our Powys Squad boys travelled to Cardiff to compete in a Men’s Artistic Gymnastic Floor and Vault competition and each of them came home with at least one medal. Particular congratulations go to Jack Nash, who won a gold medal on both pieces of apparatus and hence was the overall champion within his age group. Stan Blake and Stephen Thomas-Parkes also competed well, taking a silver and bronze medal respectively for floor. With all gymnasts having solid performances on vault, this resulted in Steve winning the overall bronze medal for the under 16 age category and together with Bob and Toby, they secured the team gold. Well done lads.
Gymspire Competition – Congratulations to our female gymnasts
In December’14, we held a Gymspire Competition within the club featuring three pieces of apparatus; floor, vault and trampette. Thirteen girls took part in two age categories and the results were very close.
Within the younger age category, Caitlin won gold on floor, with Katie in silver and Rosie in bronze position. On vault, Katie took gold, with Taylor winning silver and Caitlin bronze and on trampette Katie again won gold, with Kaitlin in second place and Eleanor and Megan sharing the bronze position. This gave an overall result of Katie winning the first place trophy, Caitlin second and Taylor third.
In the 14 and over age range, Millie won gold on floor, with Ffion taking silver and Buffy bronze. On vault, Ffion took first, with Buffy second and Millie third and on trampette Ffion again won gold, with Maggie taking silver and Millie in bronze position. When all the results were added up, this made Ffion the overall first place winner, with Millie taking the second place trophy and Buffy third. Well done to all the girls for a fantastic competition.
The regional Gymspire competition will take place in Sophia Gardens, Cardiff in November 2015. Please take a look in our gallery for more photographs of this club event.
Four girls enter Welsh Preparation Grades for first time
On 16th November 2014, four of our 5-7 year old gymnasts traveled to Llanelli to enter the Girl’s Welsh Preparation Grades for the first time. Each gymnast had to learn and perform 5 routines including floor, bar, vault, bench/beam and a range of conditioning. Our four girls were Phoebe Short, Libby Loxam, Megan Thomas and Francesca Humphreys.
We are extremely proud of all our girls, who were competing against 15 – 30 gymnasts in each age group from some of the largest clubs in Wales, such as Llanelli, E.G.A, City of Swansea, and Neath Afon.
Phoebe and Libby had a very good day for their first major competition. Phoebe had joint 5th place for bars and joint 6th for her bench routine. Megan Thomas had a great competition positioning on all apparatus, including winning a silver medal for vault and finishing 6th overall. Francesca Humphreys performed well and just missed out on a position for her bar routine. Congratulation to you all.
There are more photographs from the competition on our gallery page.
Julia is shortlisted for Community Coach of the Year
Our head coach, Julia Rees, has been nominated as Community Coach of the Year and found out this week that she has been shortlisted as one of the three finalists for this Sport Wales Award. The winner will be decided by their judging panel and announced at the Sport Wales Presentation Evening on Monday 8th December. BBC Cymru Wales will be covering the ceremony in Cardiff, so lets hope Julia comes home with the award.
For more information on Julia’s nomination (and all the other finalists) you can visit the Sport Wales Awards website on http://www.walessportawards.co.uk
Julia is delighted by this acknowledgment of her achievements over the past year but equally pleased with the fantastic progress and dedication shown by her coaches and gymnasts alike.
Maldwyn Dragon’s is a club that’s going places.
Cheerleading takes off on Thursdays
MDC Diamonds is a new Cheerleading club, taking place at Maldwyn Dragons on Thursday evenings. Coach, Jess Taylor, runs classes for all ages from pre-school
to adults.
At present, there is a waiting list for the 8+ age group but there are still some spaces in the younger and older age categories. Please check out the classes page for details and look on our gallery pages for more photographs.
Great success at Regional Tumbling Competition
Well done to all of the 25 Maldwyn Dragon gymnasts who competed at the Regional Tumbling Competition in Abersytwyth on Sunday. For many, it was their first regional competition and they managed to overcome the nerves and perform well, resulting in some very proud, happy coaches and parents alike.
There was a reasonable haul of medals too, with particular congratulations going to; Eddison who won silver in 8/9 aged boys, Rosie who came a close fourth in 8/9 aged girls, Henry taking silver in 10/11 boys, Caitlin winning gold in 12/13 year girls and Buffy who secured a bronze in 14+ girl’s category. In additional to the individual medals, the two younger girl’s teams won silver within the team events and the 14+ girls age group took the gold. Great result!
For more photographs from the day, visit the gallery page.
Boys compete in Welsh Preparation and Club Grades
Five of our boys travelled down to Swansea on Sunday to compete in the Welsh Preparation and Club Grades competition. Well done to Ashton, Ishe, Finlay, Jack and Stan who represented Maldwyn Dragon’s boys so proudly and particular congratulations to Stan to 
won a bronze medal in his grade three category. It was a great achievement to have learnt their routines on all seven pieces of apparatus (some of which are still very new to us) and compete against the bigger South Wales clubs. A wonderful performance and now that we’re established in our new premises, it’s just the start of greater things to come.
New floor arrives
The moment we have all been eagerly awaiting for has arrived, Tuesday 12th August saw the arrival of our brand new competition sprung floor, fitted by the great team from Gymnova with the assistance of parents and coaches, the new floor looks fantastic! Also fitted were a new competitive matting landing area for beams, vault, and bars, and coming later this week a new adjustable high bar, look for more photos in our gallery
Saturday boys club
We’ve just had our first Saturday boys club and everyone is excited to start using the new kit. There’s some spaces left during our regular classes so do contact us. Have you booked up your holiday classes yet?
