LANGHOLM gymnast Cara Swailes was presented with the young sports personality trophy at the Annandale and Eskdale district sports awards in Lochmaben last Friday evening.
The 16-year-old has had a passion for gymnastics since the age of eight and a group in Langholm were taught the early stages at the sport centre by Sarah Parker, who visited with coaching sessions. She recommended Cara to the Dumfries Y Gymnastics club, where she started four years ago, and also recently nominated the Langholm gymnast for the sports award. Parker said Cara had achieved so much in a relative short space of time in gymnastics, had worked really hard and deserved the award.
Cara travels to the club, which is based at the David Keswick Centre at Dumfries, three times a week to be coached by Mike Briggs on four disciplines of bar, beam, floor and vault.
Last year, she won the Scottish schools regional heat and the team was also first. She also won the Scottish schools national final in level two floor and vault, with the team placed second.
Cara was senior advanced champion at the Dumfries Y club and did superbly well in the open level five competition at Bells Sports Centre in Perth to finish second overall. She was first on the beam, second on the vault and fourth on the floor.
She recently passed Grade 10 when being placed fourth, with the highest vault score of the day and second on the beam.