THE Sri Kuala Lumpur primary school girls’ artistic gymnastics team showed its calibre in its debut outing at the Selangor Schools Sports Council (MSSS) Under-10 Mini Olympic meet at the Selangor Sports Council gymnasium in Shah Alam recently.

The quartet of Ho Joey, Ryane Lu, Miki Koide and Yeo Suen Lin were in outstanding form to clinch the overall team title and also swept all four individual disciplines - vault, floor exercise, balance beam and high bar.

Ten-year-old Ho chalked up a memorable outing and emerged as the side’s top performer bagging a gold medal in the high bar and three silver medals in vault, floor exercise and balance beam to finish as the overall individual champion.

"I am happy because it was the first time I took home so many medals. I was quite nervous in the floor exercise and made several mistakes. But, I performed well in the high bar with my turning manoeuvres,” said Ho.

 
Helping hand: Volunteer coach Alina Yordanova (left) assisting Lu in a drill.

Pint-sized Miki, who is the youngest in the pack also sprung a surprise to take the top spot in the vaulting event.

In addition, Lu and Yeo completed the good run winning in the floor exercise and balance beam respectively.

Total Gymnastique chief coach Mike Ng said the girls from Sri Kuala Lumpur displayed their precision in the compulsory routines ahead of other participants in the off season competition.

“We selected the team two months before the competition and they trained regularly for three times a week. They won the judges’ approval with their graceful moves. Judging from the school’s continuous programme to encourage their pupils to take up gymnastics, they have a bright chance of defending the title again next year,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Sri Kuala Lumpur boys’ team settled for the second spot in the team event.

 
Riding high: Ho bagged the girls’ individual overall title.

Nine-year-old Kishen Singh Gill won the individual vault and Brandon Chung was third in the individual overall and floor exercise.

The two other members in the side were Thin Min Kai and Mohd Faisal.

“The high bar was the hardest discipline for the boys because of the difficulty to get the swing right,” said Ng.

This year, the Sri Kuala Lumpur also secured four gold, one silver and five bronze medals in the Under-10 and Under-12 categories at the MSSS meet.

“Two girls - Nur Sabrina Mohammad and Chong Shin Yee - in the Under-12 section were selected to represent state at the Malaysia Schools Sports Council (MSSM) competition.

From the boys’ Under-15 category, Bryan Ong also made the cut to feature at the national meet,” Ng said.