Booker Gym Club are celebrating a double dose of success after competing in two prestigious events in the space of a fortnight.

After qualifying via the UK National Championships, eight girls from the club journeyed to Palm Springs, California to take on gymnasts from across the globe in the USAIGC World Championships.

The age group competition, which was held from June 26 to July 2, saw Booker’s Sophie Withey, Isabella Baillieu, Isobel Baker, Jemma Coombs, Eadie Grant, Phoebe Cotes, Amy Longshurst and Maya Zajac-Acheampong all pick up medals.

Medals were awarded down to 12th place in some of the categories as the pool of talent was so strong, with as many as 45 competitors in the events which consisted of bars, beam, vault and floor disciplines.

“Out of all the clubs in the UK we had the most amount of girls qualify, so it was a great number for us,” said gym manager Kate Dutnall.

“We were really pleased with the number that qualified because you had to qualify across all four pieces [of apparatus] in order to be able to go out to the competition. It was really good.”

In the Copper 2 age 12+ category, Cotes enjoyed a fine all round tournament, winning gold on floor, silver on the bars and taking fifth place on the vault and beam to ensure a silver medal overall.

Another Booker member to collect second place overall was 13-year-old Eadie Grant, who came sixth in the vault, second on the bars, third on the beam and fourth on the floor to win her silver.

Dutnall was proud of the performances of all of her squad in the face of competition from girls who train for more than the 9-10 hours a week which her team undertake.

“It’s fierce,” she said when describing the level of competition. “It’s all the states in America but then you’ve got Canada, South Africa and other countries across the world too.

“It was a very high level because all of the children there are the gold medal winners, so it’s really fierce competition.

“We were really pleased. The girls that did particularly well were Eadie Grant, Phoebe Cotes and Isobel Baker, they all had outstanding competitions.

“Four of them had been before but for the others it was a completely new experience and a completely new level of competition.

“Because it’s an international competition we changed our training considerably to get them up to standard. We knew from the year before how high a level the competition was going to be. It was a very different experience for them out in America.”

Success in the States was soon followed up by more strong performances at the National Tumbling Championships in Telford on 10-12 July, in which the club saw three members crowned national champions.

Sean Harrison beat off stiff competition to take top spot in the level six men’s 13+ event, emerging as clear winner after three runs.

Fellow Booker tumblers Jack O’Brien and Callum Barrett took gold in their respective categories, with Dutnall optimistic that one of the trio will follow Zach Middleton in earning selection to the GB team.

She said: “To have three national champions is amazing and outstanding because we’re only a very small club. It was a great result.”

Laura Perring (silver), Freddie Hoskins (bronze), Louie Holliday and Anna Hunter (both seventh) also represented the club in Telford.