HORSHAM’S Hudson Irwin cemented his status as one of the best junior gymnasts in the country with four gold medals at the Australian Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne.
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Irwin competed in the level nine under-15 section and turned in a superb performance to blow the competition away in the all-round standings.
Irwin, 14, finished with a total of 143.250 points to win the all-around gold medal from fellow Victorian Heath Thorpe, who tallied 139.933 points.
The competition was staged on Tuesday and Thursday last week, with the teams section on Tuesday and individual apparatus events on Thursday.
Scores from both days were used to calculate each gymnast’s score in the all-round standings, but only results from Thursday counted in the individual apparatus events.
Irwin was second behind Thorpe after day one after making mistakes in his high bar routine, but set personal best scores in his pommel horse and floor routines.
It helped Victoria to finish third, giving Irwin a bronze medal.
He shone on Thursday night, recovering from his high bar mistake on day one to win a gold medal with another personal best score of 12.200.
He also added golds in pommel horse and rings, and a silver on floor.
His pommel horse routine earned him a 12.400 from judges, breaking the personal best he set only two days earlier.
The excellent performances added up to another gold medal in the all-round section.
Irwin said he was ecstatic to have performed so well.
"Going into the competition, I wasn’t expecting to come out in first place, but I was so happy with my end result," he said.
"I hadn’t won a gold medal at national level yet, so I was pretty pleased with winning four.
"I’m completely stoked because all the hard work you put in comes out in those few days.
"You get to see whether it has paid off or not, and it definitely has for me."
Irwin – who moved to Melbourne last year to train at the Gymnastics Victoria Men’s High Performance Centre – paid tribute to Thorpe, the all-round silver medallist.
"Heath is my best mate and we live together for most of the week and go to school together," he said.
"It was great that we placed first and second in the all-round, as well as on floor, which is our favourite apparatus."
Irwin said his focus would now shift to next month’s Victorian championships, which will be at the Queen’s birthday long weekend.