Gymnast takes on Aussies

DYLAN Biggs is on the right path to the top level. The 17-year-old gymnast is part of the New Zealand team to compete in the Australian Gymnastics Championships next month. He will be a part of the level eight team for the competition. He said it was important to focus on your own thing when competing at the top level. Dylan said the event would be his biggest so far. “You are in a team, but really it is just about what you are doing. You have to concentrate on your own routine.” He said although the team score was ultimately what decided success, how his teammates, and opponents, did was out of his control. Dylan is coached by his brother Jordan and they said they had forged a good coach-athlete relationship, devoid of the usual brotherly bouts. “We are both into gymnastics and grew up together at the gym,” Jordan said. “Dylan lives with us and we talk about it a lot and watch clips of gymnastics – my partner gets a bit sick of it.” Dylan said he would compete on all six apparatus at the Australian event and felt he had improved on the high bar the most in the past year. Aside from the hours of training, Dylan also has to raise funds to get to the competition. In a challenging fundraising effort he and Jordan will walk 40 kilometres from Waiotahe to Whakatane carrying 20-kilogram packs on April 14. He said some people had sponsored them per kilometre while others had made a donation. They will also hold the ever-reliable sausage sizzle at the Eastern Bay Gymnastics Club at the end of the walk. All money raised will be used to help Dylan to travel to the competition as well as his training costs.
He needs to do some of his training in Tauranga, where he can make use of a landing pit. To train for the vault, he needs more than 20 metres of runway and a large landing area – those facilities are not available in
Whakatane. While Jordan will not coach Dylan at the Australian champs, the combination will be in action at the Maroochy Beach Invitational on the Sunshine Coast in July.