THE Roche Caïman Omnisports Gym hosted another exciting gymnastic competition on Saturday December 14 – the National Championship – which saw talented Therance Vidot retain his men's advanced category title.

Men’s champion Vidot, who has been practising gymnastic for 10 years, was first in all three exercises – floor, vault and pommel horse –  accumulating 24.82 points. He amassed 8.7 points on the floor after a brilliant performance, much to the appreciation of the small crowd which had come to watch the local gymnasts in action. On the vault, he triumphed with a jump straddle worth 8.3 points while on the pommel horse, despite making some technical errors, he still managed to score 7.82 points.

Vidot, Seychelles' best representative at this year's Sixth African Gymnastic Championship in Algeria, started the day in second position in the overall classification table with 70 points, 20 less than then joint-leaders Denis Laporte and Barry Duval.

The 20-year-old needed to win this end-of-season event to be crowned best male gymnast of the year.

Vidot, who during the whole of the championship, kept his calm and concentration to produce a rather good demonstration of both strength and flexibility, finished top of the overall classification table with 145 points.

“I was not a 100% fit for the competition but I managed to win and for that I am grateful,” said Vidot, who added that he was satisfied with the level of competition throughout the whole season.

Denis Laporte, the only other male gymnast competing in the advanced category, had to settle for the runner-up spot with 23.26 points overall (8.5 on the floor, 7.36 on the vault and 7.4 on the pommel horse).

Only two female gymnasts – Keryl Elizabeth and Brigitte Confait – who usually compete in the advanced category, were present at the Gym last Saturday but did not take part in the competition.

They were both assigned to a more difficult task, to judge the other gymnasts.

Despite not competing in the National Championship, reigning female gymnast of the year 2001 Elizabeth, who has won all the local competitions she participated in this year, finished in first position on the classification table with 100 points to claim the title for the second year running.

Confait finished second with 70 points while Sylvie Valentin, who has shown tremendous progress this season, claimed third position with 60 points.

Demelzia Philoé triumphed in the girls’ Novice Division with 13.95 points after dominating both exercises on the floor (7.5) and on the vault (6.45). Her total was 0.13 more than runner-up Shabella Mothé, while Lisa Robert was third with 13.12 points.

Outright favourite Julius Agathine, who was second on the floor with 7.5 points, was untouchable on the vault with the same score (7.5) for an overall total of 15 points to win the boys’ Novice category.

In second place was up-and-coming Trevor Payet who was making his debut (14.95) and third Collin Zelia (13.90).

The Beginners’ category was won by Agnesia Payet with 10.26 points while her only opponent, Marie-Hélène Rose, collected 8.2 points.

All third-placed finishers in each category were presented with a shield while the top three gymnasts on the overall classification table received cash prizes.

The winners got R600, the runners-up R500 and third-placed finishers R400 sponsored by the Seychelles Gymnastic Federation (SGF).