India McPeak
India, 17 from Lisburn in Northern Ireland trains at the City of Lisburn Salto Gymnastics Club. She competes for both Ireland and Northern Ireland internationally. India has compete at Senior & Junior European Championships, Northern Europeans, Celtic Cup, World Cups, European Youth Olympic Festival, UK School Games and World Championships. Recently India, an All Around gymnast, accepted a full scholarship to Western University of Michigan in the United States beginning in 2014.
The 2012 – 2013 season has been a busy year for the gymnast. October 2012 saw her compete for Northern Ireland at Northern Europeans, here she placed 14th in the AA. In November 2012 she was part of the gold medal winning team at the 2012 Irish National Team Championship, winning the competition by a near 10 point gap. In January of this year she was selected as a member of the Irish Rio 2016 Olympic Squad.
India competed at the Irish WAG AA Senior Championships in March but could not compete floor due to an ankle injury. Despite note being eligible to win the 2013 AA title she scored top scores on Vault, Bars and Beam.March saw her compete at the Cottbus Cup, competing on Bars. Soon after she travelled to Moscow to European Championships competing AA. Due to conflicting schedules with exams she was unable to compete at the 2013 Irish Individual Apparatus Championships in May but did compete at the Tony Byrne Cup in June winning the AA, gold on Bars and Beam and silver on Floor and Vault.
This weekend, she will compete at the Hungarian (Magyar) Grand Prix, ahead of the World Championships in Antwerp. Many gymnasts such as Krizstian Berki, Epke Zonderland, Alexander Shatilov and Jana Sikolova will be using this competition as a warm up event.
Emma Lunn
Emma,16, trains at Excel gymnastics club in Kildare, in the Republic of Ireland, trained by Russian Stanislav Sevostyanov and Deirdre Farren. Emma is the reigning Irish National All Around Champion. Like India McPeak, she has competed in Junior and Senior European Championships, Northern Europeans, World Cups and Celtic Cup competitions and is also a member of the Irish National 2016 Olympic Squad. At the 2012 Northern Europeans she placed 19th AA and 4th in the Floor final. She competed at the Cottbus Cup earlier this year before heading to the European Championships in Moscow. Antwerp 2013 will be Emma’s first World Championships.
Nicole Mawhinney
Nicole,17, trains alongside India McPeak in Salto Gymnastics Club. Both gymnasts were trained by Chinese Coach Sun Jie. Sun Jie competed for the Jilin region in China from 1971 to 1981. He then coached the Liao Ling team from ’86 to ’02 and had 4 gymnasts on the Chinese National Squad.He coached in Egypt for some time before coaching in Northern Ireland. Nicole has competed internationally for both Ireland and Northern Ireland in Northern Europeans, Junior Europeans, Commonwealth Youth Olympic Games and Celtic Cup. She did not compete at this years Irish AA Championships or the 2012 National Team Championships. In May of 2013 she competed at the 2013 Apparatus finals, as she did not compete at the earlier Championships, she did not qualify to compete in the Senior competition but competed in the Open competition. She came second on Floor, first on Beam and Bars and third on Vault. Nicole was chosen to carry the London 2012 Olympic Flame through Newry and Portadown.
Image via Irish Gymnastics