For the second year running, Armidale City Gymnastics Club has hosted country NSW's best gymnasts.
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The Gymnastics NSW Country Championships took place for six days, finishing Sunday.
![Armidale City Gymnastics Club's Ice Cream team. Armidale City Gymnastics Club's Ice Cream team.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/T7RGn6Wqupu9DPpBgesVjF/b58f78af-8f74-46e5-aa89-c48d5112b6be.JPG/r0_307_6000_3694_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
While the local club hosted a successful event, they also experienced success on the mats, finishing as runner-up in the overall champion club competition.
Armidale City Gymnastics club coach Wally O'Hara was proud of the achievements of his team.
"The whole event has gone really well. Our kids have done very well," he said.
"Gym New South Wales and, and all the the clubs who have attended, always remark on Armidale City Gym Club and its community.
"It's not just the facility, it's the people who are involved.
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"We've had so many volunteers from our families that the running of something like this becomes easier and easier with a lot of help."
The club hosted the event in 2022 and took plenty of knowledge away from that to make this year's competition run even more smoothly.
O'Hara said it was mostly logistics.
"Just equipment placements, and allowing people in and all of that sort of thing," he said.
"Just the general running of it, where the bulk of the audiences were coming in and what we had to allow for and all of that.
"We learnt a lot from last year and we've already got some new ideas for next year."
Adding to the success of the event is the positive impact it has had on the city.
The motels and restaurants benefitted but event organisers found a way for other local businesses to reap the rewards.
"One of the things one of the clubs comes in each year and runs a scavenger hunt in Armidale," O'Hara said.
"They have to go to various shops to do things. That's really good for the shops in Armidale.
We're hoping we may be able to do that on a larger scale next year, just to just to involve all the people who are here in Armidale a little bit more."
Moving forward, there's already plans in place to better the club and continue hosting large-scale competitions.
They're upgrading various things including televisions for communication purposes.
In the future, O'Hara is hoping the lure of having the University of New England nearby attracts more gymnasts to the town to join the club.
"We would really love to get UNE involved," he said.
"There's lots of 17, 18-year-olds out here who, you know, might consider going to UNE.
"But they then become our resource for additional coaches and additional gymnasts, coaches in particular.
"Like everything else, we struggle for staff.
"We are looking for more coaches and UNE, if they enroll a few gymnasts, all the better for us.
"And those kids can earn some party money I guess by coaching with us."
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