Gymfinity team member Paige Hogan is hoping to become the club’s first Queensland women’s artistic gymnastics representative at the state championships in Brisbane this weekend.
Since coming into existence nine years ago, Gymfinity has supplied several state representatives in men’s artistic gymnastics but has not enjoyed the same success in women’s competition.
However, that situation may be rectified if Paige can keep up her good form at The Arena, in Brisbane’s Sleeman Sports Complex.
Paige, 18, is backing up from victory in the Central Queensland Regional Championships at Bundaberg PCYC last weekend, where her routine scores were strong enough to have her in the running for state selection if she can produce a similar performance in Brisbane.
Paige’s mother and club coach Tracy Hogan said her daughter was performing admirably on the comeback trail from injury.
“Paige has worked hard to get back to where she is after undergoing an ankle reconstruction 18 months ago,” Tracy said.
“To be back competing and doing as well as she is – it’s quite a remarkable feat.”
As a level 10 competitor, Paige is eligible for selection for Queensland in individual and team competitions and a strong performance this weekend could result in her lining up for the state at the national championships on the Gold Coast in May.
Paige is not the only Gymfinity club member chasing state colours, with five of her clubmates eligible for selection in teams competition for the nationals.
Bailey Grigg, 15, Mia Wright, 14, Casey Giles, 12, (all level 8), and Lalana Lynch, 15, and Bella Glass, 14, (both level 7), also qualified for the state championships through their CQ regionals efforts and will push for Queensland selection.
Tracy said the Gymfinity team had met her expectations at the CQ regionals and she looked forward to seeing how they fared against stronger opponents at the state titles in Brisbane.
“There were some personal best scores by the team (last weekend) which is good going into the state championships,” she said.
“They have all trained hard for the event and qualifying for the state championships and state team trials is a credit to them.”
Tracy, who coaches the Gymfinity team alongside her husband Tony, said the younger members of the team were readjusting to competing in events following 12 months of being restricted to training only when the competition calendar was suspended last year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“We contested an invitational event in Brisbane a few weeks ago and it was good for the girls to see the standard of competition they will be up against this weekend,” she said.
“It will be a good experience for them and as they learn to compete again after 12 months off.”
The Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Senior State Championships and State Team Trials started yesterday and conclude tomorrow.
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