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Rhian has been selected as a member of the Great Britain Junior National Squad for 2003 - 2004. She is part of British Gymnastics World Class Potential Programme. Born in Wales she is also a member of the Welsh National Squad (much to the delight of her Welsh Grandparents). Rhian was 8yrs old her family moved to the Bristol area. Her previous club suggested she went for a trial at Bristol Hawks and she was instantly selected. Working with her personal coach, Helen May, Rhian made steady progress virtually unnoticed nationally until her surprise result in the 2002 Espoire British Championships. The key to her success has been the development of routines to suit her physique & her growing self-belief. Her bar routine is particularly innovative and this helped her to become British Junior Bar Champion for 2003.
Rhian's long term goals include representing Great Britain at the Olympic Games and Wales at a Commonwealth Games. To produce innovative & elegant routines that are a joy to watch. With this in mind it comes as no surprise that Rhian lists Svetlana Khorkina as her favourite gymnast.
"I'd love, like Khorkina has, to develop my own style & progress to the level where I could include some unique elements of my own".
Rhian has been gaining as much international experience as possible during 2003 with a view to being selected as a valuable member of the Great Britain Junior European team in 2004. She was absolutely delighted to be selected to compete for Great Britain in Canada (March 2003) where she achieved silver on bars & team silver in the Jurassic Classic plus silver on beam at the Bluewater International. She has spent the year improving her start values on all apparatus and was especially pleased with her performance as a 1st year Junior in the British Championships. She is looking forward to representing Wales for the first time hopefully at the Northern European Championships (November 2003) and is looking forward with great excitement to all the challenges that lie ahead.
Rhian is in full time education, studying for 9 GCSE's. When not training or doing homework she likes watching TV (Friends, Casualty, 8 Simple rules), listening to all kinds of music (loves Pop Idol), going to the cinema, swimming & adventure theme parks (she loves big roller coasters).
Over the last year Rhian has shown amazing style and grace, and she is definately one of TBGN's top picks to develope into a successful and decorated senior gymnast, and we wish her the very best of luck for the future.
Many thanks to Rhians coach, Helen May, for this biography
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