What happens if you win regional comp? Independent entry?

[Uglybetty]

Do the winners of the regional grades go to a national final?

One of DD's team mates missed a move on beam and lost two whole marks. But for that she'd have gotten first place. She didn't place, but they announced that her and another non placing gymnast can enter as individuals (represent club not region). Can anyone explain what this means?

 

[chocolate]

In my region the top 4 or 5 I think get on the county team that then go to the region final held on the same weekend as the compulsory levels and the national grades. There is no national final for regional grades only national grades and compulsory levels . Girls can enter the regional final comp as individuals with a chance of becoming the region's champion for their particular grade.

 

[Flossyduck]

There isn't a national final for regional club grades - that's 14-9.

There is a national final for national club grades. The top 4 (plus one reserve) go to the final to represent the region. They disregard the range and conditioning score when they work out the top four, so it might not be the same girls as those who medal and this happens quite a bit. The girl who wins may have an excellent range score, which helped her place, and if the scores are close she might not make it to nationals as part of the team. So they will announce the medalists and then announce the team and they may be different...

Also, any girl who passes with the qualifying score for nationals can enter as an individual. Quite a few gyms wouldn't let that happen, as they only want to take girls who they think are going to do well and I guess the thinking is that if they didn't make the regional team, they wont do so well at national level. Other gyms are happy for the girls to go and compete at a national final for the experience (and why not is my feeling), or if they know the girl was unwell or injured at regionals and can do better they might take up that option.

When you see the results from the national finals, most of the names will have the regional team next to them but there will be some with the club name. Most of the results I have seen, the individual girls do tend to be towards the lower end of the table, but you do also see some much higher up.

This year they have said that compulsory girls who finish top four but don't pass will be allowed to go to nationals too. That's unusual and I suspect it's because they are still working out if they have set the pass mark for the new routines at the right point and don't want girls to miss out if they decide late that they've set it too high.

 

[Jenny]

Also, any girl who passes with the qualifying score for nationals can enter as an individual. Quite a few gyms wouldn't let that happen, as they only want to take girls who they think are going to do well and I guess the thinking is that if they didn't make the regional team, they wont do so well at national level. Other gyms are happy for the girls to go and compete at a national final for the experience (and why not is my feeling), or if they know the girl was unwell or injured at regionals and can do better they might take up that option.

quote]



This only applies to compulsory grades. There is no independent entry for national grades finals . Only the top 4 from each region are eligible to represent the region and compete.

 

[Frase]

I hadn't realized about the dis-regarding range thing. It really came into affect yesterday - the girl who ended up winning wouldn't have come anywhere near if range had been included - she was nearly 3 whole points lower in range than the girl who came third however when range was taken off she was only 0.3 above the third place girl and 0.05 above the second place!

I also hadn't really taken into account the fact that the age range was pretty much 'open'. It was comical seeing dd line up next to the older girls in her group. Apparently after the first line up dd went up to her coach and said "um, are we all competing against each other? It's just that they are 15 - I have checked"

Made me really chuckle at the thought of her age checking all her competitors!

 

[Jenny]

National grades are usually open age. It is normal to see 10 year olds competing against 16 year olds in grade 8. A few regions do split the ages down further but it is open at nationals so not much point.