Nishida's boys top Whitlow Gymnastics Invitational

Saturday, January 28, 2012

The boys from Nishida's Gymnastics & Fitness Center won the team title at the 2012 Sand Dollar/Whitlow Gymnastics Invitational at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Florida.

Nishida's Gymnastics topped Level Nine with a score of 217.1 points, beating Faleur's-Tampa 209.6, FGTC 207.8, Harpeth Gymnastics 202.55, Great Northern 200.75, and GK Gymnastics 194.95.

"Our Level Nine team won the team title again," said an excited Shin Nishida, the school's director and chief coach.

In the Boys 14-16 age category, Nishida's Gymnastics swept the top four places all-around, with 14-year-old Daniel Williams of Norman Manley High earning gold with 73.8 points.

With 16 competitors in this age category, Williams triumphed in the floor exercises (13.8), rings (12.05), and vault (13.3), and was joint first on the pommel horse (11.3), second on the horizontal bar (11.5) and seventh on the parallel bar (11.5).

Adding the 11-13 and 17-18 age groups in Level Nine, Williams's individual performances put him third overall at Whitlow, while his marks on the floor exercise was the best out of 52 competitors.

Sixteen-year-old Jamin Melbourne of St George's College was second all-around with 71.75, after winning the parallel bars (12.9) and horizontal bar (11.6) and taking third in both rings and vault.

Nicolas Tai, who graduated from St George's College, scored 70.50 points for third all-around, ahead of compatriot 14-year-old Jiovannua Jackson of St Joseph's High School, who tallied 68.75 points for fourth all-around.

"In all Daniel collected five medals, Jamin four, and Nicolas and Jiovannua one each," Nishida noted.

"For the first time three young male gymnasts aged seven years competed. They did not place as a team but Atario Brown came first in the vault event out of 100 boys between the ages of 6-9 years.

"In their six to seven-year-old age group, where medals are awarded to the first 10 in each event, Atario, Justin Watts and Shane Williams received five, four and two medals, respectively," Nishida explained.

Brown and Watts tied ninth all-around and Williams finished 14th all-around from 24 competitors.

One of the largest meets in the United States, the Sand Dollar/Whitlow Invitational hosted over 600 boys and 2,000 girls in 2012.

As Level Nine gymnasts, Nishida's boys are just two levels away from becoming elite gymnasts who are able compete at World Championships and Olympic Games.

By next year, Nishida is hoping that his young men would be competing at Level 10 in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In January last year Williams, Jackson and Melbourne ensured that Nishida's Gymnastics won the Level Eight category.