President of Jamaica Gymnastics Association (JAGA) Nicole Grant had a lot to celebrate over the past week.

On one hand, she was celebrating Olympian Toni-Ann Williams’s return from injury, as the American-based gymnast added another prestigious award to her list.

Williams, who was out with a major Achilles injury, returned with a bang, earning NCAA All-America honours after ending seventh in semi-final two all around with a score of 39.4250 and 13th overall at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships.

This secured the 22-year-old a second team All-America honours, as the top four gymnasts on each event including the all around, in each semi-final received first team honours, while fifth through eighth place winners earned second team status.

On the other hand, Grant was left jubilant with the continued development of the sport locally, following a successful staging of the Jamaica School of Gymnastics (JSG) Spring Fling Gymnastics Challenge at the gym located at Shortwood Practising Auditorium.

The three-day event, which ended on Sunday, saw some 271 gymnasts in action, including a record 18 boys in the competition. That was the highlight of the event for Grant as it was the first time in the history of the sport that they were able to have a session only for the boys.

“The meet was a very successful and well-ran meet. On Friday we had the Primary schools, Saturday we had the Kinder and Prep schools and on Sunday we had a mixture of kids from all schools doing the more advanced USAG Levels.

“I am most impressed and excited about the significant improvement in our boys’ increasing interest in gymnastics. We want to motivate all our parents to accept the fact that gymnastics is the foundation for all sports and they must encourage their children to do gymnastics as early as two years old to help develop their motor skills. And as they grow in the sport, they can then branch out to other sports,” Grant told the Jamaica Observer.

Mona Heights was the top primary school, finishing ahead of Hope Valley and St Richards Primary, with Vaz Preparatory bettering Mavisville and Lannaman’s in their category. Bethel Basic topped the kindergarten division over Sunrise and St Richards, respectively.

Kadean Martin of Mona Chapel was named the top kindergarten performer, while Selena Jones of Mona Heights and Kristen Brown from Excelsior, were the top primary school performers. Naje’ Brown of Vaz finished tops in the preparatory division.

Meanwhile, Mesari Henry of Excelsior was named top boy performer and McKenna Virgo took home the ‘Never Give Up’ prize. Porter Centre for Knowledge won the newly introduced Pre-Competitive Level.

“We were very amazed by their performances, as they do not have a beam at the school and competed on the high beam for the first time and showed such good balance and confidence,” Grant said of the Porter Centre.

“Our Kinders were impressive as they were so tiny doing levels way above our expectations. I must express how excited we are to see our prep and primary schools competing in separate sessions demonstrating that our numbers are growing.

“The USAG gymnasts displayed great talent which offers us so much hope that Jamaica in the next couple of years will have excellent gymnasts competing at the highest levels,” she ended.