It’s all about Gymnastics Ireland this week. On the back of the new identity launch, Kieran Behan is set to compete in the Osijek Grand Prix today.  Kieran will be aiming for Ireland’s second ever FIG medal when he takes to the arena. You might remember that in September, the 22 year old secured Ireland’s first ever FIG medal at the Salamunov Memorial Cup in Slovenia.

Best of luck to Kieran, everyone is rooting for you!

Find out more about Kieran’s bid for a medal here.

Find out more about the Osijek Grand Prix here, including live streaming and participants.

Irish Gymnastics have made a big announcement today. They have finally completed their search for a Marketing and Events Manager.Kathryn Catney will take up the new position in August.

Kathryn is a fully qualified journalist graduating from Manchester based News Associates, one of the UKs busiest and most respected press agencies. While at News Associates she specialised in media law, public affairs, news writing & sub editing. Since graduating in 2008 Kathryn has written a vast array of articles on a variety of topics for local, national and international press outlets including the Belfast Telegraph, Sunday World, Glamour Magazine (UK),  More than the Games (UK) & Sports Beat (Intl).

Specifically in terms of gymnastics, Kathryn has acted as gymnastics correspondent for ‘More than the Games’ at the 2009 Glasgow Grand Prix, 2009 World Artistic Championships, 2010 European Artistic Championships & 2010 European Tumbling Championships. Kathryn has also acted as national federation journalist for Irish Gymnastics at the same events (with the exception of the 2009 Grand Prix), writing articles for the Irish Gymnastics website, ezine & magazine while also issuing press releases to national media.

Prior to taking up position at Irish Gymnastics Kathryn has worked as a manager in one of the UKs largest hotel chains and was highly involved in the development, implementation and roll-out of various marketing and events strategies of which the key aim was to boost restaurant and room sales within this difficult economic climate, ultimately successful campaigns.

2011 also saw Kathryn take up a voluntary position in one of Northern Ireland’s leading political parties as a Campaign Officer with specific responsibility for the development and implementation of a social media engagement strategy for a select number of candidates within a key constituency.

A former gymnast herself, Kathryn competed at national level within the British system in the discipline of Women’s Artistic, she is a qualified coach and has tutored on various coaching courses focusing on areas such as anatomy and physiology due to her  graduate status with BSc (Hons) in Genetics from Queens University Belfast. Kathryn has also acted as events organiser for the Northern Ireland Women’s Tehnical Committee and has a general passion for all things gymnastics.

Kathryn sounds like an excellent choice and Full Twist wishes her well in her new post. I’m glad that Irish Gymnastics have appointed someone with such a fantastic background and also someone who is involved in gymnastics who will fully understand the sport whilst carrying out her new position. I’m excited to see what Kathryn can bring to Irish Gymnastics, hopefully engaging in Social Media and a revamp of the current website will be on her to-do list. Onwards and upwards IG!

Read more Irish Gymnastics.

In February this year, we reported that Irish Gymnastics was to receive an increase in funding from the Irish Sports Council (ISC). Funding to sports has always been an issue in Ireland with GAA, IRFU and FAI (Gaelic Athletic Association, Irish Rugby Football Union and Football Association Ireland) being known as the three big sport governing bodies in the country. They receive the most funding compared to the other 65 recognised  sports governing bodies in Ireland.

According to an article in Ireland’s Sunday Business Post newspaper, funding for the ISC – which distributes government funds to member organisations – has dropped 5 per cent year-on-year to €46.7 million. The fears are that continued cuts to the budget will begin to take affect on the great work the sports governing bodies have done so far. The article is a great read, for those in Ireland and also to those who are not.

Those who are familiar with Irish Gymnastics will agree that the governing body has undergone a huge amount of developmental change in the last few years. Notably that the long awaited newly developed coaching courses have been rolled out over the  last three years thus increasing the coaches knowledge significantly which in turn has a major impact on the gymnasts talent. The coaching ladder structure has changed again over the last year, although the information is currently not available on the website. There are also other factors that have contributed to changes within the sport,the amount of full time gymnastics facilities has increased hugely in the last few years, something that most clubs could only dream of for years. With approximately 2,000 newly qualified coaches within the last two years and the talent is gradually rising to meet other European standards. Irelands Luke Carson and Charlotte McKenna competed well at the 2010 Dehli Commonwealth Games, Kieran Behan placed 8th on floor at the Cottbus Cup,  Charlotte Mc Kenna, Chris O’Connor and Anthony McDonnell all competed at the 2011 European Championships.  This helps to show why Irish Gymnastics was one of only eight sports to have it’s funding increased in 2011. The demand for gymnastics in Ireland is high, many clubs have long waiting lists of children waiting to join.

There are nine disciplines covered by the organisation and, in the last two years, around 2,000 coaches have qualified and been certified by Irish Gymnastics. Gallagher said that a new administration system had been developed, along with a welfare policy and education programme. Next year, a marketing and events department, along with high performance policy, will be developed.

‘‘We have created some new initiatives such as Springboard and GymStart [for coaching gymnastics], and are in the final stages of rebranding the organisation,” he said.

‘‘The three core basic of gymnastics – strength, flexibility and spatial awareness – can be used in most codes of sport, and we have trained coaches to implement these in GAA and IRFU clubs. We are also partnered with the University of Ulster School of Sports Science and are involved in the local sports partnerships programme,” he said.

‘‘We are currently in negotiations with British Gymnastics about a collaboration with the North, which would see our membership jump to 20,000. Next year we will also look at the area of high performance, and we are in discussions with a major sports clothing company about generating income for the organisation from sales of its sportswear,” Gallagher said.

As the article says, state funding will always be vital for Irish Sports, which is partially the reason why the Why Irish Sport Matters initiative was launched in the run up to the general election. Funding is received by clubs through fundraising events, National Lottery Grants and Local Council / Sports Partnership grants.  Success stories in sports other than rugby and football are on the rise in Ireland. For example, Irelands cricket team recently competed extremely well at the 2011 cricket world cup, Ireland has many talented athletes across a number of athletic events and Irish swimmers have had 27 swims ranked in the FINA World Masters Ranking  for 2010. Sarah O’Connor, CEO of the ISC says that each sport needs to begin to think together, not just to highlight their own success but to highlight the success of Irish sport.

‘‘All sports organisations here – including the major ones – could not survive without government funding, but I think they need to be more innovative now about how they generate that income,”.

‘‘Sports organisations need to come together themselves to highlight their achievements, instead of perhaps focusing singly on their own specific goals.”

I  agree with Sarah, sports should highlight the success of Irish Sports and look to companies and firms to sponsor them. Irish Gymnastics is on the up, lets hope it keeps that way. It’d be great to see an Irish gymnast competing high up in Worlds or Europeans. Funding is a must for gymnastics in Ireland. It will be interesting to see what changes will be made when Irish Gymnastics is rebranded and relaunched in Ireland in the coming months.

Shawn Johnson’s stalker is sent to mental hospital

Trampolining gets a mention in todays Irish Times newspaper (good that gymnastics gets some sort of mention in the main stream news!)

Top FIG coaches visit Trinidad and Tobago for a 8 day Level 1 Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics courses

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all from Ireland!

Since I’m off to celebrate today, I thought I would leave you with a short little Irish themed post for the day that’s in it!

Five Facts about Gymnastics in Ireland

Full Twist has been shortlisted to receive an Irish Blog Award in the Best Sports/ Recreation Category. Finalists should be announced on Friday so keep your fingers crossed please!

And just to round this Irish themed post off, here’s an old routine from Dominique Moceanu to music from Riverdance

Dublin is the European Capital of Sport for 2010. You can find a calender of events for all sports on their website. There are some gymnastics events featured in the calender (those that are being held in Dublin / Dublin region). The structure of the calender is nice, very clear to see whats going on. Nicer than trying to hunt through the Irish Gymnastics website calender of events.