Columba College was well represented at the NZCAF Aerobics Nationals in Dunedin. Read on to see how they went!

The NZCAF Aerobics Nationals were held in Dunedin on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th September. Columba College was represented by a group of 19 students competing in a wide variety of levels and age groups who all qualified to compete from the Regional competition. Training started early in Term One or even last year for some of our senior athletes and the Nationals qualifiers finally got to showcase their talents and how hard they have all been working at Nationals!

Everyone competed in heats on the Saturday starting with our Intermediate Pre Choreographed Teams. This consisted of Just Two More (Ruby Jones and Tayla Brough), Pink Panthers (Lula Joseph and Matilda Sutton) and MJ and Aiv (Maddy Foote and Aiva Pattinson-Trent). Tayla and Ruby came in fifth qualifying for finals with Matilda and Lula coming in sixth place narrowly missing out and Maddy and Aiva coming in seventh place. Tayla and Ruby performed their best routines of the year in finals on Sunday and moved up to third place to receive a medal! Next up we had Charli and Maggie compete in Intermediate Teams who came in seventh place in a tough category. Two of our coaches, Olivia and Jo were up next in Secondary Open Teams and our last competitors for the first session of the day. After performing a clean, high standard routine, they came in second place in heats but came back fighting and moved up to first place in finals gaining a national title.

The second session of the day consisted of Aiva Pattinson-Trent, Olivia Wallace and Matilda Sutton competing in Intermediate Pre Choreographed Individuals. Aiva, Olivia and Matilda all performed their best routines ever, embracing the moment to compete at Nationals having heaps of fun. In heats, Aiva came in fifth place with Olivia coming in sixth and Matilda coming in ninth. This is an awesome achievement for these three girls in their first year of aerobics especially Matilda and Olivia who are only in year seven. Aiva and Olivia both qualified to compete in finals on the Sunday where they stayed the same placings they received in heats. Josie & Lucy and Ellery & Zara were up next competing in Secondary Pre Choreographed Teams where Josie & Lucy looked like one person staying in perfect unison for the whole routine and Ellery & Zara had heaps of fun making huge improvements from Regionals. Josie and Lucy came in third place in heats qualifying for finals and Zara and Ellery narrowly missed out and came in sixth place. Josie and Lucy bought their all for finals knowing it would be the last time they ever performed this routine together and they came in third place.

In the second half of this session Bridgette and Emily were up next for Novice Teams performing the best routine they ever have over the last two years as being a pair together coming second in heats and also second in finals! Finally in this section was Madison Logan-Ferris and Charli Sinclair competing in Intermediate Individuals. This was an extremely tough category for our up and coming intermediate athletes where in heats Charli performed an energetic and very entertaining routine coming in sixth place and Madison performed a very clean and also energetic routine coming in first place! Both girls qualified for finals and Charli moved up to fifth place and Madison held onto her first place to win the Intermediate Individual category.

To start off the last category of the competition we had Lucy Quill competing in Secondary Novice. For Lucy’s first year of aerobics even making it to nationals as an individual in this category is an amazing achievement! She performed the best routine she had all year and came in fourth place in heats qualifying for finals. In finals she performed an amazing routine with clean skills, having heaps of fun and came in fourth place! Next up we had Olivia Ferris competing in Senior Open, this was an extremely tough category and Olivia’s routine was upbeat and everyone enjoyed watching her and it consisted of complex skill moves that are very hard to perform! Olivia came in seventh place narrowly missing out on a spot to compete in finals. To finish off our National competition we had our third coach Emma McCaughan compete in the Adult Fitness Team category. With the theme being Spice Girls, everyone loved watching this routine and Emma had an enjoyable and memorable time competing on stage at her last ever National competition representing Columba College.

Overall, it was an amazing weekend for Columba College where we came away with three national titles, one silver medal and two bronze medals. A special mention goes to Lucy Quill for being the only Columba athlete to make finals at Nationals for both of her routines and placing the top four for both! This is an amazing achievement for Lucy with it only being her first year of aerobics! Also special mention to Madison Logan-Ferris for coming away with the trophy for winning the Intermediate Individual category and being awarded the trophy for Technical Excellence!

A massive thank you to Mrs Sinclair for everything she has done throughout the year, aerobics at Columba College definitely would not happen without her doing all of the organising behind the scenes!

Written by Emma McCaughan