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2008 News Archive Gymnast Of The
Year Awards Back to Top2008 North European
Championships Back to Top2008 Carnegie
Rose bowl Back to Top2008
Dublin Squad Selection Back to Top2008 Club training camp -
Largs Back to Top2008 Level
2-4 National Championships Back to Top2008
European Championships Back to TopXXV Trofeo Internacional
de Gimnasia de Huelva Back to Top2008 Regional
Squad Selection Back to Top
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Our
annual awards presentation was held during our Christmas party and the awards
were dominated by the gymnasts from our intermediate squad. John Binchy was
named Gymnast of the Year, a year that saw him win the Appenzeller shield and
take gold at the Level 3 National championships. David Ryan was named Under 12
gymnast of the Year with Robert Farrington taking the Intermediate award. Harry
Byrne won the Best Junior category with Shane Lyndon our best beginner.
Rory
Caffrey concluded a very busy international season at the North European
Championships in Iceland. Rory was part of an Irish team consisting Rory, Rohan Sebastian
(Oklahoma & Salto GC), Adam Dalton (Douglas) and Chris O'Connor (London &
Douglas GC).
Wayne Healy travelled as coach. Rory, for the second year running produced the
cleanest Parallel Bar routine of the competition for a score of 12.1. The men's competition was won
by Scotland who had two of GB's medallists from the European Championships last
April.
As
part of part of his build up for North Europeans in Iceland in November.
Rory Caffrey took part in the Carnegie Rose bowl in Leeds Metropolitan
University on October 11th
2008. Competing alongside Rory was Daniel Fox of
Douglas GC Cork. The competition also featured, amongst others, Jordan Jovtchev (former world champion and
five times Olympian). Rory had an excellent performance on P. bars for a score
of 12.6 and a new personal best on this apparatus.
As
part of Wayne Healy's brief as the MTC grass-root development officer,
trials for the new Dublin Squad were held in Phoenix GC in October 2008.
From the Dublin squad an elite squad will be selected. The elite squad will
attend some of the national squad training weekends and will act as a feeder to
the national squad structure. The Dublin squad will meet very two weeks and will
be ran by squad director Ciara Palmer with able assistance from Andrew
Healy. Congratulations to the TWELVE Phoenix boys who were selected on
the squad.
Seventeen gymnasts from our competition
squad along with five coaches travelled to Largs, Scotland in July for our
annual training camp.
Additionally we were joined by a number of gymnasts from the South Dublin
Regional Squad. Mike Talbot (Mr T.), Pat McGrath and Lisa Hunt joined us as
guest coaches. For many of our Under 10 squad it was their very first time away
from home without their parents! A great week was had by all with all gymnasts
learning new skills. In addition to 5 days training the boys all went swimming
in Largs and 'joined' the aqua aerobic class. A big thanks to everyone for
all their hard work during the trip. 
Phoenix GC hosted the Level
2 - 5 National Championships on Sunday 25th
May. Almost 100 gymnasts from throughout the country took part. This was our first
time to host a national competition marking another stage in the club's
development. There were excellent performances from some of our Phoenix boys -
at Level 3 Under 10 John Binchy took Gold with Curtis Winkelman third., whilst
David Ryan won silver at Level 3 Under 12. Additionally we had one or two other
gymnasts who were very close to medals. Well done to all our gymnasts and a big
thanks to everyone who helped organise and run the event.
Geoff
Rellis and Rory Caffrey were part of the Irish Junior Team for European
Championships. The other members were Chris O'Connor (Tolworth GC in London and
Douglas GC) and Rohan Sebastian (Oklahoma and Salto GC). Wayne travelled with
them as coach and Irish Team Lead. Geoff and Rory were the only team members not
based in full time facilities. The other junior team members are based in gyms
overseas. The Championships were held in Lausanne in Switzerland from 8th-11th May.
Some excellent performances by both boys with Geoff scoring over 49 for the four
pieces he competed with Rory achieving personal bests on Pommel Horse and vault.
The Irish team was accompanied around the competition arena by Ivan Ivankov (who
is personal coach to Rohan) and Alexi Nemov. 
Geoff and Rory travelled to Huelva in Spain with Wayne as coach on April 18th
to take part in what was their final warm-up prior to European
Championships. This competition featured gymnasts from Spain, Dominican Republic and the UK.
Performing their routines for Europeans, both narrowly missed out on medals with
Rory placing 4th on pommel horse and 6th on P. Bars whilst
Geoff finished 7th on P. Bars and had a top 10 finish on vault. 
As part of the Appenzeller Shield, new Regional Squad Director (Ciara Palmer) and
one of our National Squad Coaches (Wayne Healy) selected a new regional squad. Several
gymnasts from Phoenix GC have been selected on the squad. The squad will meet
twice a month with the hope of many of the boys progressing to National Squad.
John Binchy won the 2008 Appenzeller Shield completing a hat-trick of victories
for Phoenix GC in this event.
Phoenix GC hosted the Appenzeller Shield on Saturday, March 8th. This
Regional Level 2-5 competition was one of the largest boys events to be held in
Ireland in 2008 with 34 gymnasts taking part. 20 of the boys were from Phoenix
GC. In addition to John
winning the overall title the club won 15 medals (6 gold; 5 silver and 4
bronze) - a great days performance from the club. Additionally several boys from the club were selected for the new
regional squad. See our 
As part of their continued build up towards the Junior European Championships
in May,
Geoff Rellis and Rory Caffrey took part in the London Open on March 1st.
Both performed very well and competed all of their Junior European Routines with
some excellent scores. The boys should be in great shape for Europeans in early
May. From a spectator standpoint it was a chance to see the GB boys take part
in what was one of their final trials for European team selection.
Congrats to
Luke Coward and Rory Caffrey on their performances at Celtic Cup
on February 23rd. Luke went clean on all pieces he competed
whilst Rory got in some important competition experience prior to Europeans
testing his new pommel routine under the pressures of competition. He finished 9th
on pommes. Well done boys.