Somersaults and Dreams: Rising Star

‘Not exactly,’ said Ellie, feeling a twinge of anxiety in her stomach again. ‘Oleg wants me to focus on perfecting my routines with the competition coming up.’

‘Ooh, Fran says the same,’ said Lucy. Fran was Ellie’s old coach from her Cornish gym, the place Lucy still trained. ‘She says if you rush into new moves before you’re ready you risk injuries.’

‘I know . . .’ said Ellie, without much enthusiasm. ‘So hey, how’s your gym coming on?’

‘I’ve got my Grade Four coming up,’ said Lucy, excitedly. ‘I’m determined to ace it, cos if I do then Fran says maybe I can try out for the Academy next year.’

‘Wow,’ said Ellie. ‘It would be so amazing if you were here too!’ She really missed her sister. There was no one at the Academy who understood what it was like to be Lizzie Trengilly’s niece at the Academy like Lucy!

‘Dad keeps saying he’ll need to win the lottery if he has two daughters at the Academy,’ giggled Lucy. Then she frowned. ‘But if I got a scholarship like you, we could make it work, couldn’t we?’

‘Of course we could,’ said Ellie, sounding more confident than she felt. The truth was that Mum and Dad could barely afford to keep Ellie at the Academy even with the scholarship. How would they cope with two daughters? But she pushed these thoughts to one side so they didn’t show on her face. ‘You just concentrate on gym and forget about all the rest.’

But Ellie couldn’t push her nagging anxiety out of her mind. She was still thinking about it when she and Nancy bumped into Emma Bannerdown as they were making their way into the changing rooms the next day.

‘Ah, Ellie, Nancy, nice to see you,’ Emma said. She looked both girls up and down with her cool, appraising grey eyes. ‘Did you have a nice summer break?’

‘The best!’ said Nancy. ‘We spent two whole weeks in Cornwall messing about in boats – it was epic!’

Ellie just nodded. She still felt shy in front of the Academy’s director and head coach. Emma had not only been an Olympic great but also a training partner of her Aunt Lizzie.

‘Well, this is a big term for both of you,’ Emma said. ‘Junior British Champs are only a couple of months after the Challenge Cup, so you two won’t have much time after you’ve qualified.’

‘If we qualify,’ muttered Nancy.

Emma looked at her closely. With her cropped blonde hair, angular figure and stern features, she could appear strict and aloof, but Ellie knew that she cared a great deal about all her gymnasts. ‘Well, if you go in with that attitude, you’ve failed before you start,’ she said after a pause. ‘You do want to qualify, right?’

‘Of course,’ said Nancy quietly.

Ellie risked a glance at her friend. She didn’t sound very confident.

‘I have no doubt in my mind that both of you are capable of qualifying,’ said Emma. ‘You both have more than enough talent – it’s just bad luck that you haven’t qualified already.’

Ellie’s heart leapt and Nancy shrugged but did not look convinced.

‘And the only thing that can stop you now is yourselves,’ Emma went on. ‘Nancy, you’ve lost your nerve so you need to find it again – and fast. And as for you, Ellie . . .’

‘I think I need to work on some new skills for my routines,’ Ellie blurted out without thinking.

Emma looked at her curiously. ‘What makes you say that?’

‘Oleg wants me to play it safe,’ she said, unable to stop now she’d started. ‘But if I have higher difficulty values I can get better scores.’

‘You are also more likely to make mistakes, which will cost you execution marks,’ said Emma. ‘I’m afraid I agree with Coach Petrescu. The lead-up to a competition is not the time to work on new skills.’

‘But why did you move us to Pre-Elite if you didn’t want us to work on new stuff ?’ asked Nancy, voicing exactly what Ellie had been thinking.

Emma smiled, as if she was pleased to see a spark of the old ambition back in Nancy’s eye. ‘What you need to remember is that Coach Petrescu trained and competed under the old scoring system,’ she explained. ‘Back in the days of the perfect ten.’

‘But things have totally changed since then,’ said Nancy.

‘And perfect tens don’t even exist any more,’ Ellie added.

‘Ah, but in Oleg’s mind, they still do,’ smiled Emma. ‘And he’s right in a way. No matter what difficulty score your routine is awarded, every gymnast should aim to keep her perfect ten execution points all the way through the routine. No deductions. And Oleg is the best coach to help you get competition-ready. He will make you practice, practice, practice until you are perfect!’

Ellie sighed. She loved the idea of aiming for the perfect ten every time, but it sounded like an impossible ideal to live up to.

‘Don’t look so worried,’ said Emma, breaking into one of her rare smiles. ‘I do have something new for you both to work on this term, but it’s a surprise.’

‘Ooh – what?’ asked Nancy, who loved surprises.

‘You’ll have to wait and see,’ said Emma, firmly. ‘But for now, get back to bootcamp – or Sergeant Oleg will be on the warpath!’

‘Perfect tens! No deductions!’ wailed Nancy, as the girls made their way into the changing rooms. ‘How is that even possible?’

‘I don’t think it is,’ said Ellie quietly.

‘You know me. I do power, not perfection,’ said Nancy. ‘And you’re all about the artistry – that’s what marks you out as a gymnast.’

‘I suppose we need all three,’ said Ellie, pulling off her tracksuit. ‘Power, precision and performance. That’s how the scoring system works, after all.’

‘Yeah, well, the new gymnastics scoring system has got to be the most complicated in the world!’ Nancy said, flinging her tracksuit in a messy heap on the floor. ‘Difficulty tariffs, compulsory elements, marks for linking moves together, points for artistry, blah, blah, blah ! With rowing it’s simple – row faster! End of !’

Ellie sighed. She wasn’t sure it made any more sense to her than it did to Nancy.

‘Oh, take me back to the seaside and stick me in a rowing boat!’ said Nancy, tossing her hand-guard bag over her shoulder and heading into the gym. ‘This is all too much for me.’

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