New Zealand's Best Gymnasts Flock To Tauranga

More than 900 gymnasts from around country will compete for national titles in aerobics, men’s and women’s artistic, rhythmic, and trampoline gymnastics at the 2023 New Zealand Gymnastics Championships, at Mercury Baypark, Tauranga this week (5-8 July).

"The championships are the highlight on the calendar for so many gymnasts, and a chance to support each other and see their heroes in action." says Chief Executive Andrea Nelson. "It's great to be bringing this landmark event to the beautiful Bay of Plenty." Nelson adds.

International stars in action in Tauranga this week include current world champion Bronwyn Dibb on the double-mini trampoline. Brownwyn’s goal this year is to compete her pike triple back at an international competition—only time will tell if we will see that here in Tauranga on Thursday. World cups take her back off-shore soon after, as she heads to the USA and Bulgaria in August and October respectively, with plans to defend her world championships title in Birmingham in November. Bronwyn also continues with rugby, having been selected for the Canterbury FPC wider training squad and for the NZ Universities 7s team that is off to France in September.

Men’s artistic gymnastics fans are in for a treat, with one of our most decorated men’s artistic athletes Misha (Mikhail) Koudinov—current Oceania champion, two-time Olympian, and Commonwealth Games veteran—returning to the Championships as both coach and athlete again this year.

Fellow Commonwealth Games teammates Sam Dick and William Fu Allen will be competing alongside Misha on the Auckland team. Misha and Sam then head to Antwerp in October for the artistic gymnastics world championships.

Rhythmic gymnastics Oceania champions, and Birmingham 2022 athletes, Havana Hopman and Paris Chin will be putting up their best performances fresh from qualifying for the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships next month.

Aerobics athlete and longstanding New Zealand title holder Brooke Davies also returns to defend her ninth consecutive national title.

Gymnastics New Zealand has worked closely with Audio Visual People to create 13 livestream channels where, on the artistic floor, you can get closer to the action than spectators. You can watch live and on-demand for 12 months at watch.gymnasticsnz.com . The competition kicks off on Wednesday and finishes on Saturday 8 July.

Tickets are available from iTicket and start from $20. Find more event info on the website at bit.ly/2023nzgymchamps.
 

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