AMHERST - Young gymnasts are used to performing under pressure but that pressure will be magnified come April.
"Our bid to host the 2013 provincial gymnastics championships was successful, so we're very excited about it," said Aerials Gymnastics Club coach Michelle Landry. "I think it will inspire the team because they'll be doing provincials in their own club for the first time."
It's Kyrsten Landry's last year as an Aerials gymnast, and she says she feels more pressure knowing the provincials are in her hometown.
"It's cool that we're hosting the provincials but it makes it more scary because your friends are going to be there, so the pressure's bigger," she said. "But it will provide more motivation."
Her younger sister Felicia agrees.
"It motivates me because if I don't make it to provincials it will be embarrassing," she said.
The club hosts their annul Amherst Open tournament from March 8 to 10, but Michelle said they hope to "step it up" for the provincials one month later.
"Instead of just hosting a meet, we want to make it bigger," she said. "We'll have decorations so they know they're at the provincials. We're going to really play up the blue and whites and the Nova Scotia flags.
"We want people to walk in (the ARHS gymnasium) and say, 'wow, we're at the provincials.'"
The tournament will also bring a new feature to an Amherst gymnastics tournament.
"We've never had boys compete here and we'll be having boys for the first time," said Landry.
Last year's provincials were held in Sydney and attracted 211 gymnasts, and Landry thinks there will the same amount of gymnasts at the 2013 tournament.
"We're looking at between four and five hundred athletes between the two meets (Amherst Open and provincials), plus their families and judges and officials," she said.
CLUB CONTEST
The Aerials Gymnastics Club is holding a contest to get Amherst more involved in the provincial gymnastics championship.
"We're going to hold a logo contest," said Landry. "We want children adults, former gymnasts, new gymnasts, and friends and families to design a new logo for the Nova Scotia Gymnastics Provincial Championships."
Landry said the logo doesn't necessarily have to have words 'Nova Scotia Gymnastics Provincial Championships' in the logo but said, "Keep in mind that it's in 2013, and it incorporates boys, and it incorporates girls."
The logo can be drawn on paper or created on a computer.
The contest starts right away and all designs should be submitted by Dec. 20.
Designs can be brought into the Aerials Gymnastics Club on Lawrence Street in Amherst, or can be e-mail to aerialsgymclub@gmail.com.
"The logo will be put on the provincial meet shirt, as well as on the program and the invitations," said Landry. "And we thought the person who's logo we use would get a free framed t-shirt with the logo on it."
dmathieson@amherstdaily.com
