Young gymnast on a golden streak

Ten-year-old Sammie Williams’ goal is to get a perfect 10 on the bars.

The Blenheim gymnast isn’t far off it. At her latest competition she thought she might have even had it, but just fell short.

Nevertheless, Sammie still nabbed the gold.

In fact, this year alone, the recreational bronze level gymnast has won first place overall at the Top of the South Championships held in Nelson in April, first place at the Marlborough Championships in May, and second at the West Melton Competition in Canterbury in May.

She carried on her winning ways at the Te Wero Gymnastics Competition in Christchurch earlier this month.

Sammie first took up gymnastics in 2019.

‘‘I had a friend that did dancing, and then she started to talk about gymnastics, and then I decided to join,’’ Sammie said.

When she started, she couldn’t even do a forward roll. Last month, she perfected her back-handspring.

‘‘I started doing it on the tramp, from watching tutorials on YouTube,’’ Sammie said.

Sammie said her favourite apparatus was the bar, mainly because she found it easier, and it was where she found herself getting the most points.

‘‘Beam is hardest because it’s wobbly and if I jump too high I fall off.

‘‘Sometimes it takes maybe a couple of months to learn something.’’

She said competitions could sometimes make her nervous at the start, but when she saw her scores she ‘‘starts to feel good’’.

‘‘I like doing competitions and having a chance to do my routines,’’ she said.

Sammie said she her favourite gymnasts were retired New Zealander Courtney McGregor, who Sammie had met, and world number one, American Simone Biles.

Earlier this year, at the Top of the South Gymnastics Competition held at the Trafalgar Centre in Nelson two gymnasts from the Blenheim Club scored a perfect 10.

It was the first major competition since Covid, and saw Greta Foote, 8, and Emelia Eteveneaux, 6, both score 10 in their bar routines.

The competition attracted some 500 gymnasts from the top of the South Island.

Blenheim coach

Heather

Cresswell said the feat was very uncommon, with the last time it happened being about five years ago.

The Blenheim Club, which according to Cresswell is the only club in New Zealand still run by volunteer coaches, runs seven days a week and coaches around 200 local children between the ages of 5 and 15.