Print This PostToday Mr Tolii got his first (we hope it is just the first!) medal: a Silver on the Hampshire Recreational Gymnastics Competition, Year 1. Tosha, being Year R, was not allowed to join the competition (yet).
So the super task for a 6 year old was to perform a jump and then a routine of 9 exercises in front of the judges* and spectators. In case a future Olympic champion forgets what to do next, a coach was sitting behind the judging table to whisper (or if whisper didn’t work to show) what the next move is. *really cute judges who loved Tolii’s curly hair!
Surprisingly, Tolii remembered his routine and didn’t need any help (for three evenings before he was not allowed an ice-cream before he got through his routine at least three times!). He only forgot to do his “straddle sit” (a pity, because he was rather good at it!).
In fact, he was going to chicken out of the competition an evening before. A horror of performing in front of so many people started to outweigh a desire to get a shiny medal and a couple of extra colourful badges on his T-shirt. However Mummy and Daddy picked up on that dangerous mood swing just in time and offered an extra incentive: a treat of his choice if he goes for it which was decided on the spot – bowling!
So Tolii gathered his courage and went for it!
Mummy and Daddy were substantially impressed: Mummy’s recollection of herself at 6 year old was of rather a silly pig-tailed character playing dolls and not being able to do anything of the sort in front of any congregation whatsoever, never mind having any ideas about things like “split sequence” or “Sideways rebound”.
Six year old daddy was probably too deep into programming on his new apple computer to bother about Olympics achievements. ARH: ahem, I’m older than you think, I didn’t get my TRS-80 until I was 12.
In the morning before the competition Tosha said he was not going to have anything to do with it the next year when he is allowed to join. However as soon as he saw Tolii getting his medal he changed his mind and declared he was going to get Gold for year 1 the next year. Well, watch the space on our blog in about 12 months!
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- Salto Centre, Andover
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- Tolii’s first jump of his first competition
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- Tolii’s Jumps into 2nd Place
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- Tolii on 2nd Place Podium
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- Rightfully Proud Tolii
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- Tolii’s Silver Medal
Toli, congratulations! That is quite a feat – I can’t even touch my toes. Daddy, the TRS-80 Model 1 Level 2 with 16k RAM was my first computer as well.