After months of hard work and dedication, two Sport Aerobics teams from St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School were this week declared national champions in their divisions in the School Aerobics National Championships.
Both the St Paul’s Saintly Ladies (Open B Secondary Section) and St Paul’s Saintly Angels (Secondary Stage 1 – Open) qualified earlier this year to compete at the nationals after winning their divisions at the School Aerobics State Final held on-site at The Arena in Geelong.
The national competition, normally held on the Gold Coast, was converted to an online event this year due to Covid-19 restrictions and qualifying teams submitted a filmed entry for judging. Both St Paul’s teams had their routines filmed in the school’s dance studio, before intending to film their final submission in front of a small live audience at the Arts Centre. Unfortunately, the Arts Centre filming was cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Every week throughout the year the girls worked to pursue their potential as a team, with restrictions proving no barrier as they trained and provided support to one another online when they could not be together.
The teams have been guided, mentored and coached by past St Paul’s students and Alumnae, Jemma Douglas and Bella Fraser, who have both previously experienced the thrill of competing at the nationals. In a year of challenge and through times of doubt about whether the competition would proceed, both coaches were present to boost spirits and inspire the girls to never give up. In a combined statement, Jemma and Bella said, “With what was such a challenging year for sport aerobics, we are unbelievably proud of our dedicated teams for producing such monumental results”.
As the largest Sport Aerobic competition in Australia, School Aerobics is open to both primary and secondary students, proving to be an increasingly popular co-curricular activity over the years.
