Skelmanthorpe sisters Ellie and Olivia Procter starred at the British Acrobatic Gymnastic Championships.

Ellie (17), who was competing in the 13-19 years Women’s Trio section with her partners Emily Wardman (18) from Leeds and Morgan Daniel (17) from Wakefield, performed some difficult routines and were delighted to secure bronze medals.

Olivia (15), who competes in the 11-16 years Women’s Pair section with her partner Jessica Gledhill (14) from Sheffield, performed beautiful, fluid routines and became British Champions. As a reward they have been selected to compete for Great Britain at the European Championships to be held in Riesa, Germany at the end of this month.

Olivia said: “We felt very happy with the way our training had been going during the build-up to the competition and, having performed clean routines, we were thrilled to gain the British title as well as being selected for the GB team.”

Ellie and Olivia manage to combine a 20-hour week of acrobatic gymnastics training at Wakefield Gymnastics Club with studying for A levels at Greenhead College and GCSEs at Shelley College.

Olivia Procter of Skelmanthorpe and partner Jessica Gledhill who are British Champions at Acrobatic Gymnastics
Olivia Procter of Skelmanthorpe and partner Jessica Gledhill who are British Champions at Acrobatic Gymnastics

Their hard work, dedication and commitment paid off at the Championships at the Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Acrobatic gymnastics is not yet recognised as an Olympic sport and is therefore self-funded. The girls are hoping that this will change in the near future as the sport is becoming more popular around the World.

The sisters, along with other teammates from Wakefield, were lucky enough to perform at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games last summer, where they spent the week performing in many of the sporting venues to capacity crowds and to rapturous applause.

Acrobatic Gymnastics was also included in the recent European Games in Baku, which is all a step in a positive direction.

Olivia and her partner now have four weeks of intensive training before they fly out with the British team to Riesa. She and her sister thanked their choreographer, Alexandra Houghton, and coach Beth Miller for their continued support and encouragement.