Young gymnast counting the days

There are 586 days to go until the start of the 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.  That's how long a young gymnast (one of our S2 pupils) has to hone her skills in the hope of putting in a top quality performance.

The 13-year-old - who is a pupil at Harris Academy in Dundee, is celebrating after being chosen to represent Scotland.  She has already won a string of medals at various competitions and has been a member of the national squad for four years.  She will be up against some stiff competition when the games get under way in March 2006, but she is well used to the hard training needed to achieve success.

She started her gymnastics career aged just five, when she took recreational classes at the city's council-run Lynch Centre.  Staff quickly realised that she had a special talent that  deserved to be nurtured and approached Perth Gymnastics Club to ensure she was given the right training,  Those years of effort have paid off, with her taking two silver medals at the Scottish championships in July and a gold medal at the mini-Olympics staged in Perth recently.

(In order to comply with child protection guidelines, it is not possible to name the pupil - webmaster.)