SALFORD Gymnastics Club coach Lesley Hickey was beaming with pride after her students won both the pre-novice and novice events at the North West Team Championships.

The club entered four teams in the championships in Warrington. One of them, which was made up of 11-year-old Catherine Gregg, nine-year-old Ellie Birkett, eight-year-old Ella Clutterbuck and eight-year-old Madison Howard, excelled on the beam and the floor as they took the pre-novice title while another Salford team saw 11-year-olds Megan Sotheron and Rachel Hickey plus nine-year-olds Chloe Haynes and Rebecca Gosling beat Rochdale to the novice crown by just two points.

Hickey said: "We entered the competition for the first time last year and finished second in the two sections. We were hoping to do even better this year and, thankfully, we did do.

"The girls performed fantastically well and they had to because we were up against touch opposition from the City of Manchester, Rochdale and Sparks clubs.

"There were 21 teams competing in the novice section and 14 teams taking part in the pre-novice competition.

"All of the teams were made up of four girls competing on the vault, bars, beam and floor and a lot of our girls secured top three finishes individually in all of the disciplines, which is really good.

"The way that the girls performed will give them a lot of confidence going into the individual competitions in November."

Thirteen-year-old Zara Gallichan, 12-year-old Jessica Todosijczuk, 11-year-old Mariama Drameh and nine-year-old Siobhan Cheung came fifth in the novice section for Salford Gymnastics Club while nine-year-olds Mollie Smythe and Bethany McNamara plus eight-year-olds Hollie Gallichan and Laci Farrell finished in a respectable eighth position in the pre-novice category.