The Chief Executive of Scottish Gymnastics visited a local Centre in Bridge of Don which now boasts a bright future for gymnasts.

A deal was finalised with Sport Aberdeen to allow a local Gymnastics club to operate within the Gordon Centre in a dramatic last minute deal.

With the venues previous tenants moving on, the facility looked set to stay empty. However through a set of negotiations, a late deal was agreed allowing Sport Aberdeen to lease the building. The charity were then able to offer the facilities to the City of Aberdeen Gymnastics Club, who were overjoyed.

The club previously operated at the Beach Leisure Centre but have since transferred to the Gordon Centre where they are already benefiting from the range of equipment specifically designed for artistic, recreational and competitive gymnastics. Sport Aberdeen will also be operating a number of services from the Centre within the next few weeks.

The outcome is a victory for local gymnastics and sport in the city with a valuable resource being saved in a continuously difficult financial environment. The facility will potentially be available for other gymnastics groups following the deal to safeguard the future of the facility and the sport.

Sport Aberdeen Managing Director Alistair Robertson met with Chief Executive for Scottish Gymnastics Euan Lowe and Head of Development, Steve Paige on Thursday 4^th February at the Centre. Both parties were pleased to see the progress made and were looking forward to the future.

“I’m delighted to see this facility operating fully and this new found partnership” said Mr Robertson. “In what is proving to be a challenging environment in recent times for the region it is a morale boosting victory to see such an important venue being saved. I’d like to thank everyone from NESCol and Scottish Gymnastics who have helped make this a reality.”

Chief Executive Euan Lowe said, “Scottish Gymnastics welcomes the opportunity to work with Sport Aberdeen with the longer term view of developing gymnastics and its future provision across all clubs in the city in line with our new 12 year strategy.

Additionally Scottish Gymnastics welcomes the news that the closed gymnastics centre has reopened. Sport Aberdeen has taken over the running of the centre which allows this dedicated facility to be used by gymnastics clubs until 2017.”

The club COAG (City of Aberdeen Gymnastics) have been enjoying recent success with Kirsty Fowler selected to take part in the Women’s Artistic Scottish Championship qualifier rounds on Saturday 27 February and Orianne Slater being selected to take part in the Scottish Championship & Disability Apparatus Masters Competition on 28th Feb in Bells Sports Centre, Perth. Orianne has also been selected for the British Disability vault and bars final in Liverpool on 10th April.