Gymnaestrada 2003

In July of 2003 I went to Gymnaestrada in Lisbon, Portugal, with the Great Britain Gymnastics team. I went with my coach Vivien Gourlay and two other Gymnasts from my club, Zoe Clements and Claire Masterton.

When we arrived in Lisbon airport it was really early and I was shattered. I could not believe the amount of Great Britain bags! We collected our bags and set of in a taxi to our beds. We were sleeping in a school with lots of other gymnasts. When we got to our room I was too tired to worry about anything that I fell almost straight to sleep.

Over the next few days we rehearsed our routines in the school basketball court. It was really hot and you got tired very quickly. We had missed a couple of rehearsals back in Britain so we had a bit of catching up to do.

                                                                                  Katrina, Zoe and Claire doing one of our group balances

As well as doing the Great Britain routine Claire, Zoe and I had our own routine to practise. We were going to perform the routine later in the week with another group of people from Scotland in a shopping centre. We were going to be doing two different routines to some Scottish music and a mix of music that we had chosen. We had ribbons for our routine to Scottish music.

A couple of days of training and we were ready to perform the Great Britain routines. For the first time we had to take a few trains to get to where we needed to be but I didn’t really mind that. The Gymnaestrada was a very big event and there were a lot of flags and posters advertising it. It was quite exciting to know that I was part of that.

The routine went by really quickly but we still had two more to perform. They were both at the bigger centre .we had a couple of days where we had time to watch other amazing shows and check out the gymnastics and ice-cream stalls at the bigger centre.

Vivien managed to get us last minute tickets for some of the big shows in the main hall. We were going to be in that hall on the floor doing a routine at the end of the week, it was so strange, but I felt proud. Before the closing ceremony we went to see a Japanese show with men and women, it was good but slightly bizarre. We saw these special wheels that people used. They were holding onto the bars around the outside and then used their bodies and gravity to move the wheels. It was amazing to see what they could do. The gymnasts were doing forward rolls on the wheel while it was moving and they were able to make the wheel drop like a penny, it was really great. That was a very good night.

Finally the day when we were performing in the big hall came. We had a whole day of practising. It was amazing to see all the countries join together to make these routines. There were representative clubs from each country and then at the end it was our turn. We performed two routines. Our first performance was done in the light but our second performance was done in the dark, using glow sticks. I couldn’t wait for our final routine.

We were all really tired at night and it was sometimes hard to get to sleep, especially when you were sleeping on a marble floor, but we managed. We were sharing a classroom with another team from Great Britain and they were really nice to us. We were lucky as we had hot running water for us to have showers. The only thing that let us down was the food.

                                                                Katrina, Zoe and Claire outside the school where we stayed.

Finally the finale came and we were ready to perform our ‘Smile Routine’ to a massive crowd. The ‘Smile Routine’ involved us wearing bright yellow or black tee shirts and making smiley faces when we bent over. It was going to be performed outside at night. Every country practised their performance during the day. We were all very tired and wanted to get as much shade and sleep as we could.

When it finally started to get dark people began to arrive, the size of the crowd was unbelievable. The ceremony started with the organisers (‘The young ones!’) from Portugal doing a routine using blocks. They were meant to be toys and it worked really well. There were loads of things happening and you were always looking from one place to another. In one section there was a massive spider net, it was really cool.

Every country performed their routines. The night was a success and our routine went really well. The night ended with each country marching in and at the same time ‘The young ones!’ had blocks with letters on them and they spelled out the names of the countries as they came in. People began to show off, doing balances and tumbles, some of the balances got really high even though they were only on grass. We then listened to ceremonial speeches, (or read in our case as the speech was in Portuguese). The night ended with a massive party, it was great.

I had a great time in Lisbon and was sad to leave. We had a long flight home. When we eventually got back it felt good to be home to see my family and be in my own bed. I would definitely go to another Gymnaestrada and would recommend it to anyone who is thinking of going next time. It is hard work but fun and it’s definitely worth it. I would also like to say thank you to my coach Vivien for giving up her time and taking us there.

By Katrina Allen