First published 30 September 2005

‘Elite’ sports club for the community – it’s official

Esprit Gymnastics Sport Stars are set for a boost following the Inland Revenues and Swindon Borough Council’ s decision to recognise them as a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC). This decision is a fantastic boost for the 800+ children and adults who have made Esprit such a success in the last 18 months and shows that Esprit is now being taken seriously on a National level.

Esprit spokesperson, Katy Smith said, “we now don’t have to pay a near £2,000 per month rates bill which is a great help to a not-for-profit club like Esprit, but to be recognised as a CASC gives the club much more than financial help. The real benefit is in knowing that the government and the sports governing body British Gymnastics take Esprit seriously. It will help us a great deal when accessing funds to build Swindon a purpose built gymnastics, martial arts and dance facility – Esprit’s next ambitious project.”

Gemma continued, “There has been a massive amount of work done behind the scenes by our management committee and more exciting developments are in the pipeline. We hope to announce soon that we have secured a deal to provide gymnastic training to a significant number of local Primary and Secondary schools, where we will teach the schools teachers how to coach gymnastics and introduce children to the world of fitness and activity.”

All this excitement hasn’t diverted the clubs gymnast’s attention away from what they do best though. The clubs Rhythmic gymnasts recently attended the Welsh National championships and carried on where they left off last year – by winning medals and lots of them! Laura Halford (9) added the Welsh Under 10 intermediate and open titles to the Novice title she won last year and remains one of the top young gymnasts in the sport. She was backed up by Harriet Evans (8) another budding Welsh talent from Esprit, who won the title Laura relinquished as well as the Iris Parry and u10 trophies. Alicia Veveris matched Harriet all the way by winning the ‘Open’ title and several other esprit girls impressed with medal winning performances.

Jade Faulkner and Micia Falaki, (10) were both very impressive and along with Laura qualified for the British Championships later this year. Clarice Saloyedoff and April Coombes both qualified for the National Grades final at intermediate level and Kate Faulkner, Rowan Gregg and Elise Hale were all placed in the Gold or Silver medal position in the ‘Junior’ section of the competition.

Esprit once again proved the strength it has already has throughout the different age groups and what a future there is for Gymnastics in the town. Esprit’s head coach Deb Hows said “Swindon has already had one British Champion for rhythmic gymnastics in Rebecca Jose who won the title 4 times in recent years. She now stars in Cirque du Soleil in Canada and North America and I think we have the talent in Swindon to live up to the legacy left when ‘Beccy retired.”

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