Matie gymnasts dominated the senior’s podium at the recent Western Cape Artistic Gymnastics Championships held in Saldanha Bay.

In the Senior Olympic division for Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Stellenbosch’s Travis Giles, a third-year BSc Computer Science student, placed first overall and first on floor, pommel, rings and high bar and second on parallel bars.

Ellard Rademeyer, a first-year student of BEng Mechanical Engineering, placed second overall and first on vault and parallel bars, second on pommel and third on floor and rings.

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Representing the province

The Stellenbosch women also represented the Maties well. On the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) side first year Bsc Human Life Sciences Biology student, Mardean Harris placed first overall in level 9 (14 year and over). Mardean also came first on bar and vault and second on beam and floor.

Joining Mardean on the podium was Chantezé Coetzer whose stellar performance landed her second place overall.

Travis and Mardean will now represent the Western Cape at the National Gymnastics Championships, which started on Thursday 24 September to Sunday 4 October in Centurion, Gauteng.

Earlier this year Travis was the first Western Cape gymnast in two decades to be selected for the MAG Protea team. He was part of the artistic gymnastics team who placed third on the podium at the 19th Artistic Gymnastics African Championships in Cameroon in April.

In that competition, Travis placed ninth in all round, fourth in pommel and sixth in both rings and parallel bar.

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