The weekend of 9/10 November saw the climax to the Age Group year with the voluntaries round of the British Age Group Championships in the Spectrum Leisure Centre in Guildford. The standard this year, particularly level 3, was fantastic.

Over the 2 days we watched more than 100 of the UK's top young gymnasts delight us with some brilliant displays of artistic gymnastics. The quality of the 1992 babies in particular continues to amaze most commentators. After the competition one coach said that given the standard of performance from the level 3 medallists nobody should be disappointed with their placing. The same person said the future of British Gymnastics is in good hands if the current level 3 gymnasts continue to develop in the way they have to date. That speaks volumes for their personal futures!

The level 3 competition was on Saturday. Jessica and her club mates Shannon and Jessa were up against a total of 35 other gymnasts competing in two rounds. The South West team competed alongside London, East & West Midlands and South East regions in the final round of the day.

As we have come to expect Jessica put in a fantastic performance, particularly on bars where her routine included clear to handstand, Stalder, full turn and double-back dismount earning her the highest bars score of the day. When added to her scores on the other 3 pieces this meant Jessica came home with a well earned bronze - only the top 3 scoring over 33 points.

Jessica's score was combined with those of her South West team mates Shannon, Jessa and Michaela leading to the South West romping home with a whacking 5-point lead over second-placed East Midlands in the team competition.

That of course is only the half of it. November is also about crowning the British Champion. In May Jessica was just back from injury and brought home the silver, just 0.525 behind club mate Shannon. In the event Shannon maintained her lead with Jessica taking silver and Abi Kirby the bronze.

Well done to Jessica and well done to all gymnasts who took part over the two days.

The BAGA web site has full results and report on the Championships.

The BBC continues to follow Jessica's gymnastics with an interesting write-up. Take a look!

Always looking out for interesting stories and particularly interested to follow Jessica's developing gymnastics career the Swindon Evening Advertiser published this article on Jessica's success on 19 November. View the web version or the newspaper clip.

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October  2002

It only seems a couple of days ago that I was updating this site to report on the Alpha Factor Cup and here we are with the South West Championships behind us. Once again the event was held at the Olga Kemp Welch Leisure Centre in Poole.

This year the number of gymnasts competing at this level was less than half that of last year at level 4, though all of them had competed in the Compulsories in March. There seemed to be a certain tension in the air as the competition began, not helped by the small number of spectators and the lack of announcements and background music. As usual our gymnasts were immaculately turned out with precision not only in the competition but in the warm-up and in the way they moved around between and during rotations.

Jessica put in a resolute performance finishing the day with bronze and of course her place in the South West team for the British Championships in Guildford in November - Well done!.

The South West Team is made up of Jessica, Shannon and Jessa from WSG along with Michaela Bailey from Easton. At level 4, club mate Leanna Clarke is in the South West team with Shona Seek as reserve. Well done to all WSG gymnasts.

In addition the scores from this competition are aggregated with the scores from the first round in March. Jessica was, if you recall, injured at that March competition and finished only 6th. The question of being South West Champion was therefore not on the cards but she did manage to fight her way back into the the top three for the year, finishing third. This is a magnificent achievement as she had to claw back a full two points in the process.

We now look ahead to what should be a great climax to the year in about 6 weeks time.

The BBC has again picked up Jessica's activities which you can take a look at on their website.

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September is a busy month for Jessica with the Alpha Factor Cup at the beginning of the month and the second round of the South West Championships at the end in the run-up to the British Championships in November.

The Alpha Factor Cup, previously known as the Brenda Smith Cup, was held once again on home turf on 7th September. The day began for Jessica at the ungodly hour of 7am as we climbed into the car and headed for the gym. The competition ended, bang on schedule, just before 8pm. It was a long but enjoyable day for gymnasts and spectators alike.

Jessica was in the first round and up against some tough competition with Shannon Morse, Jessa Powell and for the first in this competition Rebecca Wing in the starting line-up. This meant we had the top four gymnasts from the British Championships in May up against each other again. And that made for a really good competition.

Jessica performed well on all pieces. She was particularly good on bars where she stuck her double-back dismount. She also looked solid on beam. Jessica finished the day in third place adding another well-earned medal to her collection. She also picked up apparatus medals for bars (silver) and beam (bronze). All-in-all a satisfying performance.

Rebecca's new floor routine was dynamic and well performed, helping her to silver overall. Shannon snatched the gold with Jessa coming in fourth. Well done to all  four gymnasts.

WSG once again ruled the roost in many of the age groups helping it to overall victory by a wide margin and retention the Alpha Factor Cup in the trophy cabinet.

As usual Paul Seaby was there with his camera so keep a lookout for additions to the 2002 photo gallery but in the meantime click on the thumbnail to enlarge the winning WSG team.

Swindon's Evening Advertiser newspaper continues to follow and publicise Jessica's success. They published an article on their website and in the newspaper itself on17 September 2002.

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At the beginning of the month Jessica travelled to Liverpool for World Class Start testing. She was again successful and retained her position in the WCS squad. Well done Jessica and well done to her 3 club mates, Yasmin Dyer, Shannon Morse and Hannah Wickens  who were also successful.

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It's that time of year again. We all packed our bags and travelled to Birmingham for round 1 of the British Age Group Championships, Level 3 Compulsories. Following the disappointment in March when the injury to her knee stopped Jessica qualifying for South West's Level 3 team, the knee has healed enough for her to enter this important competition as an individual. For that we are thankful to all who helped her through the healing process.

The road back to fitness has been a long haul sometimes tinged with frustration at not being able to do certain things and made longer by Jessica's determination to compete in March so that she would at least have the opportunity to compete in Birmingham. It was really quite difficult to cope with seeing the knee get worse again after the March competition before it finally began to get better. We also had a number of late nights, dashing back from training in Melksham and then straight on to the physio for her last session of the day.

The competition lived up to expectations with some excellent performances. Club mate Shannon Morse took equal first on floor while Jessica scored the highest mark on vault. Jessica performed in morning while South West team entertained us in the afternoon. It was odd to see her perform alone and even stranger when she was at one end of the presentation line-up with her 4 club mates holding the South West banner further to her left. However, those thoughts disappeared when the results were announced for the individual medals and Jessica trooped out to collect her silver.

Staying clean and scoring well into the 9s on all pieces, Jessica had an excellent competition taking a well-earned silver. Her club mates competing for South West took gold, 4th, 9th and 20th which means her club came home with team gold and the Rose Bowl for South West, not to mention Shannon's gold and Jessica's silver.

Well done to Jessica, her club mates and a big thank you to their coaches for all their hard work.

See what John Pirrie has to say about the competition and WSG's success on his website - it makes fantastic reading!

Swindon's Evening Advertiser newspaper published an article on Jessica's success on 13 May which you can review on their website. Or read the press cutting.

See what the BBC has to say about Jessica on their website.

All-Star Gymnastics report makes fascinating reading.

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Sunday 10 March saw Jessica in action again in the South West Regional Level 3 Compulsories competition. However, all was not well in the Coombs camp. It was touch and go whether Jessica would compete at all as she was struck down by injury only a couple of weeks before the big day. Despite the best efforts of a lot of people who provided a good mix of rest, physiotherapy, medical advice and carefully planned training, nature still has to run its course and it was nothing short of a miracle that she could even don her leotard and join the starting line.  Our thanks go out to everyone who helped her during this difficult time and who worked so hard to help get her fit enough to compete.

The competition was held on home turf at WSG and saw the return of club mates Shannon Morse and Jessa Powell, themselves back after serious injury. It was great to see them back to full strength for the 2002 season. Our club entered 5 gymnasts, all of whom finished in the top 6 - a fantastic achievement by all concerned.

Jessica, clearly in a lot of pain, put in a gutsy performance and hobbled home a valiant 6th. Considering the events of the previous 10 days and the fact that we thought it was all over when her injured leg crumpled causing her to crash out of her straight Arabian, this is a great achievement and vindication of her determination to succeed at the highest levels of the sport.

Although Jessica is only the non-travelling reserve we are ecstatic that once again WSG will make up the whole of the South West team when we travel north to the Cocks Moors Wood leisure centre in Birmingham for the compulsory round of the 2002 British Age Group Championships.

Well done Jessica and well done all WSG gymnasts who are in the team. Both at level 4 and at level 3.

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Jessica and fellow Swindon Gymnast Hannah Wickens feature in March 2002 addition of The Gymnast magazine's report on the 2001 British Age Group Championships where both girls won medals.

BBC Wiltshire Sound features Wiltshire School of Gymnastics and me on the BBC website.

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