Day 5 - Dreamlight Challenge Competition

After all the excitement of the level 6 competition we finally got all the girls out of bed and ready for an early start to the zoo.  We had a rough start as Steph thought she has lost her phone and had to run back to the hotel. We also took the scenic route to the zoo but finally made it to the right direction.  Driving through the country side I can vouch for all the chaperones and coaches who wished we stopped at one of the many vineyards for some quality adult time (without the children, very wishful thinking)!

As we finally arrived at the Zoodoo Wildlife Park, we all piled in through the gift shop and straight out to a male peacock fanning its extravagant feathers for all to see. The show and tell didn’t stop there.  We found monkeys, Tasmanian devils, meerkats, tigers, lions, camels, alpacas, llamas, koalas, deer, kangaroos, emus and many species of birds. We were also lucky enough to get on a bus to feed the many emus and scary ostrich which chased and pick pocketed all our food which caused a bus load of screaming girls! However there were some of us who were brave enough to get up close and personal with some of the camels for kisses and cuddles.

I dare say everyone’s favourite animal in the zoo were the 7 week old white baby lions. I think we spent at least 30 minutes just watching these amazing animals with dazzled eyes. Steph and Amy almost fed the full grown male lion but when it came down to the crunch time the lion just wasn’t hungry anymore. In the end we found the petting zoo filled with baby goats, rabbits, ferrets, baby chickens, guinea pig, ducks and lambs. It was a massive hit because all the girls wanted to take an animal home by the end.

When we arrived back to the hotel we had another wonderful lunch as the level 7-10s got ready for the Dreamlight Challenge.  The girls were treated to a yummy muffin from the bakery.

On the way to support the girls the chaperones found the longest slide you could think of.  So of course the girls stopped and had to have a few turns and the biggest kid of them all, Julie Davies, just had to have a few goes also!

Arriving at the venue the girls were cheering as they entered an already full crowd to let everyone know Allstar’s had arrived.  The level 7-10’s looked absolutely beautiful in their purple and pink Dreamlight leotards. They were all smiles considering everyone competed one at a time on every apparatus, so the pressure was on to nail every landing. The girls started with beam and Sammi was our final competitor and the first joker (the joker’s score gets doubled towards the team score). She definitely didn’t let the pressure get to her as she completely dead stuck every skill in her routine with only a 1.0 in execution.  

Next was floor and the girls entertained the crowd effortlessly with their dazzling smiles and beautiful choreography. Marisa also got to some extreme heights in her round off flic layout, where the crowd could count the seconds of air time! We needed some sky high vaults next and that’s exactly what Annie did to help her team mates out with her layout tsuk. Last but definitely not easy was bars and Steph and Frankie lead the way hitting magnificent routines and surprisingly we had some more criers in the audience, Allison Love and Jeanette Algie.  Frankie was so excited by her fantastic performance that she burst into tears of happiness when her team mates jumped up to give her a team hug!

By the end the whole crowd was on the edge of its seats waiting to hear the results and so were the gymnasts jumping with excitement. The announcer rose and placed the microphone in his hands and began reading out the results, and in 3^rd place from Allstar Gymnastics Academy ‘Dumbledore’s Army’.

It was certainly a very exciting night in the gym and would like to congratulate the entire team on a fantastic competition.  They were certainly out of their comfort zone as they were not used to one girl competing at a time which meant every set of eyes in the gym was on them but they all kept their composure and did an awesome job!

The team was certainly very weary eyed by the time we made it back to the apartments but were certainly all keen for dinner.  As it was our final night together as a team the girls were treated to pizza and ice-cream but definitely ready for a good night’s sleep.