NISHIDA’S Gymnastics Level 3 Girls placed third in the team category at the 2012 Gasparilla Classic held weekend at Lightning City Gymnastics and Cheerleading in Lutz, Florida.

Eight-year-old Kaela Kai Yen of American International School of Kingston (AISK) topped the individual performances for Nishida’s when she placed fifth overall with a score of 34.850.

Travelling for the first time, Yen scored 9.275 to finish second in the floor exercise and 9.200 for fourth on the vault from the 12 girls and six teams competing in group one.

Danyella Holmes-Richards, seven, of Creative Kids School was seventh overall after scoring 8.500 for third on the beam and 8.475 for fifth on the parallel bars for Nishida’s.

Barbara Malitano of CIV Gymnastics won overall scoring 37.475 all-around, beating Anna Gongas (35.725) of Lakewood Ranch and Jirehlis Chiclana of Mihai Academy PR. Performances were on the vault, bars, beam and floor.

“This competition was really tough. The standard of the athletes and the judging were really high,” said Shin Nishida, director and head coach of Nishida’s Gymnastics & Fitness Center.

“The girls did well but the other teams were a bit better than I thought. We took two teams from the gym and the Level 3 team came third out of five teams,” Nishida pointed out.

“The result was not as great as we wanted but now we know that we have to work even harder to win. I take this opportunity as great experience to step forward for the team and go further to reach higher level competitions in the future,” Nishida explained.

CIV Gymnastics of Venezuela won the team title with 112.800, clipping Lakewood Ranch of the United States, 107.375 and Nishida’s Gymnastics, 104.625.

Eight-year-old Chrystal Darling of St Peter & Paul Prep was the best Level 4 gymnasts for Nishida’s. She finished seventh in group three scoring 34.075 all-around, with the best placing in the parallel bars where she was fourth with 8.850 and joint fourth on the floor with 8.800.

“We would really like to thank our sponsor Gabriella’s Cosmetics who made the travel happened. We will keep our hard work for the next competition,” Nishida saaid.

NISHIDA’S GYMNASTICS GIRLS: (L-R) Rhe’anna Rodney (Wolmer’s Prep), Paige Burke (Mona Prep), Alyssa Chin (St Hugh’s), Ta-Cara Swaby (Wolmer’s), Danyella Holmes-Richards (Creative Kids), Milan Benjamin (Immaculate), Kaela Kai Yen (AISK), Chrystal Darling (St Peter & Paul Prep), and Magdalene Mitchell (St Hugh’s Prep) participated in the 2012 Gasparilla Classic in Lutz, Florida weekend. Standing behind are coaches Shin Nishida and Kareem Johnson.