British Olympic gymnast opens Newbury facilities

Voluntarily run club praised as "amazing."

A British Olympic gymnast officially opened the new facilities of a Newbury gymnastics club on Saturday, helping to raise £3,000 for the community club, run by volunteers, which she described as “amazing”.

Bronze medal winner at London 2012, three-times Olympian Beth Tweddle opened the KD Gymnastics Centre, in Bone Lane, then judged the poems and drawing entries in an I Love Gymnastics competition, organised by Paula Amorelli, the mother of one of the club’s gym squad members.

Ms Tweddle, who then presented the competition prizes, before providing top gymnastic tips for the youngsters, said afterwards they had been: “Really hard working and enthusiastic.

“Everything that I have asked them to do this morning they’ve really tried hard at.

“It has been a pleasure working with them.

“It is great to see this amazing gymnastics facility and the enthusiasm of the coaches and gymnasts.

“Good luck to them all in the future with their dreams.”

Squad gymnast Anabelle Carruzzo, aged 10, said the training session with the Olympian proved “fantastic”.

She said: “She gave us tips and wished us luck for the future. We all got her autograph and had our photo taken with her.”

Tony Horne, of the club’s coaching directors said it proved a “wonderful and very special day”, which all the coaches and gymnasts would long remember.

He said: “Beth was very good with the gymnasts and I am sure has inspired them to continue to work hard and enjoy gymnastics.”

Winners of the I Love Gymnastics competition included: Six years and under – Liam Sadler; age seven – Mya Cahoon; aged eight – Poppy Braovac; aged nine and above – Lucy Braovac.