Staffordshire's Purdey Kenderdine enjoys gymnastic success

Purdey Kenderdine clinched two titles in the Shropshire County Grade Championships and came second in the conditioning range, vault and floor disciplines at Lilleshall National Sports Centre on April 13.

The all-around contest in the under-nine national development programme grade five category was a closely fought battle between Purdey and her Park Wrekin clubmate, Isla Howells.

The nine-year-old Stafford Prep School youngster picked up her fourth silver medal as she was nudged into the runner-up slot in the all-around contest.

Purdey’s county success followed hot on the heels of the Robin Hood Invitational Winter Cup event in Nottingham, where she competed against 40 gymnasts from seven clubs across the region and won the grade five beam exercise, finishing third in the all-around contest.

Nursing a hand injury, the SPS pupil secured three top ten placings at the West Midland regional grade five championship in Cannock, capturing fourth place on floor, sixth on beam and joint seventh on vault.

Purdey, who trains up to 12 hours a week with Park Wrekin’s advanced development programme, said she was delighted with her success.

She said: "It felt awesome to win the medals and I was really proud of what I achieved.

"I like the beam and bars best as I’ve always done well on the beam and that makes you like something even more, but I think the bars are exciting because you learn different skills on them all the time.

"Competing is fun as after you’ve done all the training you get to find out how well you’ve done in everything and how you compare with gymnasts at other clubs."