This year the Christchurch Girls High School Aerobics team had many obstacles to overcome, but were still able to compete Regionally and Nationally in 2020.

The start of the Aerobics season at Girls High started off great in Term 1 with a whole bunch of new members joining and starting to learn new routines. This luck ran out when we had to go into lockdown at the end of Term 1. Coaches had to make up their routines in quarantine, with girls having to learn them so they would be on track for the Aerobics season. This difficulty of learning and making up routines in the garage or lounges of our houses created an obstacle for all of the members.

Our luck started to get better with coming out of quarantine and starting training after school, which eventually went to 2 hour trainings on Saturdays. Thank you to Emily Lawn for helping open the gym for us and providing support and help during training. We were then able to begin training on our skills, push-ups, holds and flexibility so we were ready to compete.

On 11th August we had Regionals for the NZCAF Aerobics Competition which was held in our very own school's auditorium. There we had 12 girls competing in all different categories. We had a successful competition with all girls placing on the day. We were also able to win the Regional Cup for the best school, which is something that we have won over the past few years.

From there 7 girls qualified to go to Nationals in Dunedin on the 19th of September, with one girl qualifying for the finals the following day. Everybody competed to a higher level than regionals, with cleaner routines and skills, showing how strong the CGHS team is.

Throughout this season we had a lot of obstacles to get through but the perseverance of the girls to continue working and training meant that the Aerobics season was still a competitive one.

We would like to thank all of the coaches Zoe Lynch, Claudia Wright and Eve McCarthy for all they did for their athletes throughout the season. Thanks also to Mrs Brown and Emily Lawn for the support and help throughout the season so we were able to do what we did.

We hope all the girls have a successful season next year.

Kate May and Taylor Lowson