Published: Friday, 19th March, 2010 12:56pm

Gymnastic Fantastic as Allanah is Scottish Champ

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Allanah Bunyan has become the first Largs based female gymnast to win the Scottish Championships.

In what would be Allanah's first Scottish Championships she and her coach Claire Rankin, travelled to Perth, more in hope than expectation of winning as she competed in the espoir age group which has girls aged 12 and 13 participating.

Twelve year old Allanah is a member of Largs gymnastics club and was one of the youngest gymnasts in the competition.

She was not expected to overcome her older competitors but with a performance which displayed poise, grace and fantastic acrobatic ability, Allanah belied her young age and came away with the gold medal and the title of Scottish Champion 2010.

Allanah, who is based at Inverclyde Sports Centre, has came through the gymnastics development programme where she started at age 3 in the pre school classes.

Turning age five she attended the recreational one hour per week classes, where her talent and natural flair for the sport was quickly spotted. She was then invited to join the club section of the Gymnastics Initiative and placed in a development group for young talented gymnasts. Allanah continued to progress and is now part of the elite arm of the Gymanstics Initiative where she trains 4 times a week as well as her National Squad commitments at the weekend.

Allanah has had lots of success in her gymnastics so far and as part of the Scottish National Squad has competed for Scotland 9 times including 3 international competitions. The club would like to wish Allanah good luck for the British Championships in June where she will travel to Gloucester to compete against the best girls in Britain.

For more information on gymnastics classes available to the community, contact 01475 674666 or check the website www.nationalcentreinverclyde.org.uk