South East Regional Qualifier

[Dave]

Well done to all the organisers of the south east qualifer at the weekend i felt the day went smoothly enough apart from the floor which ran a little a late due to a few mix ups in the music early on........

a Big well done to all Gymnasts who competed especially to all those from Bagshot gym club where i train !

i was however a little annoyed that one of our tumblers didnt get a gold medal even though he got the same score as the young lad who got the gold, i know he couldnt go through to the finals at stoke but he worked his little socks off and was very nervous i personally thought he desereved the gold but rules are rules so he got the silver ( Shame )

[*Sarah*]

Knowing nothing about acro........:o


If they both got the same score, why did they not both get gold or was there something in the comp criteria about ties?

[Anita]

The region abides by national rules - no tied positions. There are tie break rules in place which does always seem unfair in the "losers" in the tie break. Someone from our club was in that position between silver and bronze: she got the bronze.

[Dave]

I Totally agree with the rules - but surely the so called "Losers" could at least get the same medal as the winners but be told afterwards why they cant go through to the finals........

It would at least make the kids feel that little bit better about how well they did

[Kelly Jordan]

I don't know anything about Sports Acro either, but this whole medals thing - it's the same in trampolining ... No ties.
Fair enough if there is one position for someone to qualify to, then obviously two people can't share it, but i think the medal thing is unfair.
What happened to little ones enjoying the sport?
Two girls from my old trampolining club scored exactly the same marks in one comp, they are both only little tots and they won out of 30.
It was really upsetting to see the one girl told she couldn't share the gold, after being told she was joint first.
They both got to stand on the podium 1st position together though, so that did make it a little bit better.
But i really felt for her, and it knocked her confidence a lot - could have put her off the sport - and how can you explain to a 7 year old why?

[Dave]

I totally agree with you there Kelly, i think for the sake of the kids they should at least get the same medal but be told in a clear manner as to why they can't go through to the finals, at least this way they won't take it so badly......

[Anita]

As a region we run our competitions by National rules which have a "no tied positions" policy. This is stated in our handbook and clubs should explain this to the gymnasts: this isn't just for medal positions but for all positions. All our competitions, not just the national qualifier, is run on these rules for consistency. One of the gymnasts from our club ended up with bronze under these rules: I'd love to have given her a silver as well.

I understand what you're saying but if we were to then give him a gold as well people would be questioning how we could do that and not let me go to the finals. No matter what we did someone would be unhappy.

As an aside, I can remember the days when only gold medals were awarded for classes with four or less in them: my daughter once missed a gold in such a situation by 0.01 and came away with nothing. She was 8 years old in her second competition but understand that those were the rules of the competition.