AVONBOURNE Gym Club has scooped gold and bronze medals at the South West Championships for acrobatic gymnastics in Taunton.

Golden girls Lauren Ponchaud, Lauren Finnigan and Lydia Golden won top prize in the grade two trios.

They were closely followed by club-mates Imogen Hirdle, Nancy Pearson and Eva Connolly who finished in third place. Also winning bronze medals were Mia Spittles and Phoebe Smith in the grade one pairs competition.

The community gymnastics club has been in existence for 10 years and for the past seven years has competed in the South West region, improving each year on their placing.

Other Avonbourne results: 4th grade one trios – Marcie Kimber, Poppy Johnston and Emily Harris, 5th grade one pairs – Eleanor Robinson and Lucy Simpson, 8th grade one pairs – Lily Goodship and Suree Rossiter, 19th grade one pairs – Tess Trach and Katie Morrison, 5th grade two trios – Megan Whitney, Sophie McCammon and Georgia Read.

Avonbourne Gym Club is one of the success stories of community sport with more than 180 gymnasts regularly taking part in acrobatic gymnastics across a number of sites in the Bournemouth area.

Head coach Pat Mathie, said: “Our coaching team are so pleased that all the hard work has paid off and we are very proud of all the competitors “If we can repeat this performance in February at the preliminaries we will have gymnasts heading to national finals which would be a great experience for all of us.”