Welsh Gymnastics enjoyed considerable success during last weekend’s Northern European Gymnastics Championships.

The competition, hosted in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik, saw the Welsh Women winning the team competition against quality opposition such as Norway, Finland, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Denmark and hosts Iceland.

On day one of competition, the Welsh female team of Lizzie Beddoe, Bethan Mercer, Olivia Bryl, Jessica Hogg and Venus Romaeo won the team competition in a convincing fashion, leaving the closest rivals, Scotland, a full 5 points behind. In the individual All-Around event, Lizzie Beddoe secured a silver medal, with team-mates Jessica Hogg and Venus Romaeo placing fourth and fifth respectively.

On the Men’s front, a strong third place finish highlighted the ongoing developments of the men’s programme in Wales; the team, made up by Nathan Mullett, Connor Lewis, Clinton Purnell, Matthew Hennessey and Grant Gardiner, achieved their best performance in many years, placing just behind very strong teams from Scotland and Denmark. This strong showing by the Welsh team was confirmed also by Clinton Purnell’s creditable fourth place in the All-Around individual competition.

Day two of competition saw further success for the Welsh squad, with Jessica Hogg and Clinton Purnell becoming Northern European Champions in the floor exercise and vault respectively. Purnell went on to collect further medals, with a silver in the floor exercise and a bronze on rings, while the rest of the Welsh team enjoyed more success: Lizzie Beddoe won silver on floor and bronze on the uneven bars, and Connor Lewis and Nathan Mullett were awarded a bronze in the pommel horse and high bar competitions respectively.

Success for Welsh Gymnastics, however, didn’t stop to the competition in Iceland. As her sister Venus was competing in the Northern European Championship, Angel Romaeo was crowned 2008 British Champion at the British Championships in Guildford.