Gymnastics Emerging and Last Seconds Victory In NEBL!

Good evening sports lovers, thanks for joining us for another edition of Sports Monday. It was an action-packed weekend in the NEBL Playoffs, with several nail-biting matchups that kept fans on the edge of their seats. We’ll get into all that excitement in just a bit. But first, we turn our attention to an emerging sport that’s quickly gaining momentum right here in Belize.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

When most Belizeans think of sports, basketball, volleyball and football usually comes to mind. But tucked away in training spaces in Belmopan and across this country is a whole new generation of athletes flipping, tumbling and balancing their way into a sport that many believe has great potential in Belize, gymnastics. Gymnastics rose out of necessity, when the pandemic shut down dance studios, many athletes found a new outlet and turned to the mat.

 

Susen Bedran, President, Gymnastics Federation of Belize

“My Partner Rita Acevedo, her daughter during Covid, she used to do ballet with me but because online ballet at her age was not very fun, she couldn’t get used to the online for ballet so she said, ‘I want to do gymnastics.’ And at the time they were starting gymnastics online because of covid, nobody could go into the gym. So they got in touch with a coach from Guatemala and they started doing gymnastics with her online. My daughter found out, she was friends with Sarah and said, “I want to be gymnastics too.”

 

Seeing that interest grow, the dance coaches stepped in, transforming their studio into a gymnastics space and bringing in a coach from abroad to train the kids.

 

Susen Bedran

“So we decided we are going to open it up to the public and see how many kids we get and I already have a dance studio so I gave my current dancers a good deal on it and we ended up getting like sixty kids that week.” 

 

Today, the SeSa gym has athletes of different ages and skill levels training side by side, each working toward personal goals while sharing a common passion for the sport.

 

Selene Bedran, Level 4 Gymnast

“My hope and dream is that I probably make it into a college gymnastics and I want to get my round off backhand spring back tuck on the mat at gym.”

 

Others say gymnastics has taught them lessons that go far beyond the mat.

 

Ze’Naiya Blades, Level 2 Gymnast

“I love that you can have fun, also it’s strict but still fun at the same time.”

 

Shane Williams

“What’s your favourite memory so far?”

 

Ze’Naiya Blades

“My favourite memory is when I dropped but I still laughed it off.”

 

Aliyah Aguilar, Level 2 Gymnast

“Winning my first competition was my best memory.”

 

Shane Williams

“Tell me how you feel when you are trying a stunt and you fall or fail to do it?

 

Aliyah Aguilar

“I feel bad but I can do better next time.”

 

Opal Bridgeman, Level 4/5 Gymnast

“I like competing, but you don’t need to. Gymnastics is like, you do it for fun until you really want to do it like really focus on it and then yo can compete.”

 

And while every gymnast has a different journey, they all share the excitement of being part of a sport that is still writing its story in Belize.

 

Let’s take a look at this weekend’s results:

 

There were two intense games in the National Elite Basketball league that went down to the wire this weekend in the semis. Cayo Western Ballaz evened the series at home against the Running Rebels in the final minute seventy to sixty-six and in game one at the Civic, the game was not decided until the last second with Defenders up eighty-five to eighty-four. This leads to a potential close out Friday night at the Civic and a win or go home in Orange Walk on Saturday.

 

In softball, the male and female Wolfpack teams were dominant on Friday night. Beacons kicked off Saturday with a fifteen-nil victory over Willows Bank and Biscayne males got the first win for a rural team over a city club by beating the Guardian Bombers. On Sunday, the ladies from the Belize Bank Bulldogs continued their dominance. There are another eight exciting games this weekend at the Sandhill Community field.

 

Cycling Photos at the Father’s Day Extravaganza Criterium on Sunday, Jyven Gonzalez of Legion of Los Angeles powered to victory in the Open Elite division. Jaylen Briceno, also from Legion, captured the Under-23 title, while Byron Pope won the Masters category. Brandon Cattouse topped Masters forty plus. On the women’s side, Patricia Chavarria took the Open Women crown.

 

Well, that’s all we have for you this week. I’m Shane Williams reminding you that friendly competition unites and balling is life so keep balling Belize!!

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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