Monday 16 February 2015
There's some exciting news for young gymnastics fans this week with confirmation that BBC’s Blue Peter is teaming up with British Gymnastics and organisers of this year’s FIG World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow to bring viewers a very special sporting challenge for 2015. In the spirit of the Blue Peter Sport Badge which encourages children to get active and try new sports, Blue Peter presenter, Radzi Chinyanganya will be attempting to master one of world’s most challenging sports – gymnastics!
Starting from scratch, Radzi will be put through an aptitude test by Olympic silver medallist and #2015WGC ambassador Louis Smith to see which gymnastic discipline he’s most suited to before preparing a routine which he will perform at the Championships in Glasgow in October. He’ll take centre stage at the SSE Hydro in front of an audience of 7000 and more than 500 of the best gymnasts in the world; can he pull off the performance of his life?
Marking 250 days to go to the start of the championships, Radzi and Louis, who is also an event ambassador, were at the city’s Glasgow Club Bellahouston Leisure Centre today, to get this ambitious project underway. They were joined by young gymnasts from City of Glasgow Gymnastics Club who were on hand to demonstrate the different skills required on each of the six pieces of apparatus: pommel horse, vault, floor, parallel bar, rings and horizontal bar, as Louis put Radzi through his paces.
Blue Peter viewers will have to wait until later in the year to find out which piece of apparatus Radzi excelled at and to follow his gripping journey to the World Championships. Stay tuned!