A Crumlin-based gymnastics academy is celebrating after winning two awards the British Gymnastics National Awards ceremony.
Valleys Gymnastics Academy (VGA) beat competition from more than 250 clubs to win the National Club Award 2019 at the ceremony in Telford, Shropshire on Saturday, January 25.
The club also won the British National Award for Equality and Inclusion – which is awarded for ongoing commitment to widening access and reducing inequalities within the sport.
VGA becomes the first Welsh club to win each award, and the first club to win two accolades at a British Gymnastics National Awards ceremony.
The success comes a week after the Welsh Gymnastics Awards, where VGA coach Jaz McLellan won the Gymnastics For All award, and gymnast Bethany Paull won the Disability Gymnast of the Year award.
In 2019, Paull represented Team GB at the Special Olympics in Abu Dhabi, winning three gold and two silver medals. She was also nominated for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award.
VGA head coach Melissa Anderson said: “We’re very very happy and proud. We were shortlisted for the National Club award three times previously, so we’re delighted to finally win it.
“We’ve had a fantastic year. It goes to show the hard work day-in-day-out from the staff here.”
Ms Anderson also explained that the club has recently invested £25k for gymnastics equipment and is working with charity Street Games to create a family engagement project to get local families more active.”
Former Prime Minister John Major, who is patron of British Gymnastics, was at the awards ceremony in Telford and said: “Gymnastics is an art as well as a sport and every single one of our successes is a reward of dedication and of high-quality coaching.”
Also at the awards were Olympic medal-winning gymnasts Louis Smith and Beth Tweddle.