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biography

Jessica Ann Coombs was born on 13th August 1992 in Swindon, Wiltshire in the UK. She started gymnastics at a "gym-taster" session in the summer of 1998 just before her 6th birthday following in her brother's footsteps as he had started gymnastics a while earlier.

Jessica enjoyed the taster sessions and began gym lessons proper in September 1998 on Saturday mornings at her local club, Swindon School of Gymnastics. Over the next few months she was asked to attend more sessions and by spring 2000 was spending 4 days a week in the gym and taking a medal of one colour or another away from virtually every competition she entered as she moved through the "grades".

Unfortunately her coach left Swindon School of Gymnastics at this point which meant Jessica could no longer train at the same level in Swindon.

Luckily she lives close enough to Melksham to contemplate travelling the 30 miles each way to the Wiltshire School of Gymnastics. Jessica and fellow Swindon gymnast Hannah Wickens therefore joined the Wiltshire School of Gymnastics in June 2000 under the watchful eye of coach Tracey Skirton and her team.

Over the next few months and in the run-up to her first national competition, the British Age-group Championships – Level 4 Compulsory, Jessica increased her training sessions to 6 times a week. Jessica continued her medal winning success at that competition, coming away with individual bronze and team gold. In November of that year she continued her success coming home with silver in the 2001 Age-group Championships – Level 4 Voluntaries and silver for the year as a whole.

At the end of 2001 she was invited to National Testing, following which she was selected onto the World Class Programme and the National Under-12 Squad.

Following that first successful year in national competition Jessica retained her placing in the top 5 of her age group – a group which is widely acclaimed as the strongest ever seen – and her position on the World Class Start and National Under-12 Squads for the 3 age-group years. Towards the end of 2004 as a first year Espoir she was selected onto the 2005 British Espoir Squad along with 10 other gymnasts from the 1992 year-group.

Jessica trains 6 times a week with additional training commitments as part of the World Class Programme and latterly the British Espoir Squad.

In July 2003 Rachel Levick took over as Jessica's coach with the continued support of the rest of the coaching team at WSG when her previous coach left the club for a new job with Welsh Gymnastics.

Towards the end of 2002 Jessica was selected to represent her country for the first time at the very heart of gymnastics in Deva, Romania in January 2003. Later that year she was selected to visit the National Sport Centre in Tata, Hungary, returning to Deva in January 2004 as part of the Lottery-funded World Class Programme. 2004 then saw 11-year old Jessica's debut on the international competitive stage when she competed for Great Britain against the Netherlands and Germany, returning home with team gold.

Jessica's achievements are detailed on the achievements page but in brief she ended 2001, 2002 and 2003 with overall silver at level 4 and level 3 and 4th at the level 2 British Age-group Championships respectively. Unfortunately she was injured during 2004 and could not compete as a first year Espoir at the British Championships in July. In 2005 Jessica was part of the WSG team that won the Bill Slater Team Championships and she finished 10th AA and 6th on beam at the British Championships. 2006 saw her club back competing with a young team at the British Women's Team Championships, where they finished 7th. At the British Championships Jessica suffered from a number of falls, meaning she finished 18th.