Kona Aerials Level 8 gymnasts Savannah Udac, Nicole Cristobal & Kaili Yuen (Photo courtesy of Kona Aerials Gymnastics)

Special to Hawaii 24/7

Honolulu, Oahu – Jan. 8-10

Kona Aerials Gymnastics has started its Optional Season. Optionals are for gymnasts who have been training for approximately five years and design their own routines for the competitions performing difficult skills and exciting routines. Optionals are split into levels from Level 7 to Level 10 gymnasts.

Hawaiian Island Twisters Gymnastics hosted this meet at their gym in Honolulu. The meet included teams from Australia, Canada and the mainland making it the first international sanctioned meet of the 2010 season.

Kona Aerials Gymnast Tianna Morimoto, Level 7, performed an outstanding beam routine taking home a third place medal.

Level 8 gymnast Kaili Yuen received second place medals for both her vault and floor routines.

Level 8, Nicole Cristobal scored 8.9 in vault, 9.0 on bars for two second place finishes. She scored 8.8 on floor for a third place medal and 9.0 on balance beam for first place. Cristobal captured the first place all around trophy with a score of 35.7 topping her age division.

Level 8 gymnast Savannah Udac received a first place medal for her vault, a third place medal for floor, a second place medal on bars with a 9.3 and first place medal on beam with a 8.9. Udac also captured the first place all around trophy in her age division.

The girls also joined together as a team and won the third place team trophy for Level 8. Team awards are decided by adding the top three scores on all events for the athletes. Teams with more than three athletes have a big advantage so for a team of only three girls to capture a third place trophy that means that every score from every athlete counted.

Kailua, Oahu – Jan. 15-17

Kona Aerials Gymnastics Team competed at the 34th Annual Aloha Gymfest in Kailua, Oahu. This is one of the longest continuously held gymnast meets in the country.

The meet is hosted each year by Kokokahi Gymnastics and this year the event was Jan. 15-17 at the new gym at Le Jardin Academy. Competitors came from Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, New Jersey, California, Washington and all over the Hawaiian Islands.

This is a multinational competition that gives our local girls the chance to meet and compete with athletes from all over the globe. There were more than 250 athletes competing in various levels and age groups.

Kona Aerials gymnast Tianna Morimoto, Level 7 placed sixth place on vault and eleventh in the all around.

Gymnast Kaili Yuen, Level 8, captured a ninth place all around finish.

Savannah Udac placed well in the rankings with a 8.9 on vault for a third place, 9.3 on uneven bars for second place, 9.125 on floor for fourth place and a 36.025 all around score giving her a second place finish.

Kona Aerials gymnast Nicole Cristobal received a 9.05 on vault for first place, 8.95 on bars for first place, 8.8 on beam for 4th place, 9.325 on floor for first place giving her a 36.125 and a first place all around finish.

Kona Aerials Gymnastics next meet is Feb. 6 at Pantheon Gymnastics in Hilo. For further information, visit http://gymnasticshawaii.com/Kona_Aerials_Gymnastics/Home.html