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Gymnastics' golden girl Kaisey Griffith has a new trophy to add to her glittering list of accomplishments after being voted the Bermuda Sun's Young Sports Personality of the Year for 2007.

The 15-year-old BHS student, who picked up five golds at the Island Games, came in ahead of record-breaking swimmer Ashley Yearwood, sailor James Anfossi and motocross wonderkid Jyire Mitchell in a closely contested poll that attracted almost 2,000 votes.

Back in training at the St. David's gymnastics centre this week, Kaisey took time out to talk to James Whittaker about her year.

It's obviously been a very successful year for you. What were the high points?

The Island Games where I won five individual gold medals and two silvers. I'd won six the time before, so there was a lot of expectation.

We were up against the same people as we were last time. It was interesting to see the same girls and to see what they would come up with.

The Isle of Man was an interesting place to visit. They have got the biggest water wheel in the world!

Was it disappointing not to be involved in the main Island Games in Rhodes?

It was disappointing that our medals didn't count towards Bermuda's total. I think we got about 40 overall.

It was fun to be part of the team for the last Island Games in Shetland 2005 - we would go to watch the volleyball players and we got really close with them.

Outside of the Island Games what have been your main achievements in 2007?

We went to a tournament in Niagra Falls, Canada, and I won the overall title. There was also a national competition in Florida and I was the Platinum Champion (Level 9 - one level below the elite). I'll be competing at the elite level in that tournament this year.

And what's next for 2008?

For this year I'm actually doing my GCSE's so I won't be going to as many tournaments because I have to do school work.

After June I have the nationals in Florida and we have an invitational meet in Malta.

What is the career span of a gymnast. When did you start?

I first started when I was four. I was at Gilbert Institute and the head coach begged my mum to bring me down here (The St. David's gymnastics centre).

It's more like recreational gymnastics until you get to a level where they think you could compete.

My first competition was in 2000, when I was seven-years-old. I'm 15 now and I'm just starting to get more injuries than I used to. It gets tougher as you get older. I'm not too sure what I'll do when I'm too old to compete. I've thought about that a lot. I've done it for so long it's pretty much all I know.

What's the biggest tournament you've competed in and what other tournaments do you hope to compete in?

Last year I competed at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, which was the biggest tournament I've been to. I'm hoping to go to India for the next Commonwealth Games.

There's also the youth Commonwealth Games later this year and then maybe the Pan Ams.

It would be nice to go the Olympics but I'm not exactly sure if I could get to that level.

One of my options is to try and compete at college.

Do you do any other sports?

At school I do netball and running and a bit of field hockey, but most of my time is taken up with gymnastics.

What's the training schedule like?

I train Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and I do three hours each time. There are four main events which we have to practice every time - vault, bars, beam and floor. They are the core events for women's gymnastics.

We spend half an hour on each of those and then the final hour is for stretching and conditioning.

What are your favourite/least favourite events

The beam is probably my best event. I hated it at first but it kind of grew on me.

Practice makes perfect. I fell off a couple of times but I kept doing it till I got better. You have to be consistent, that's the most important thing in gymnastics.

Floor, which is more like choreography and dance routines, is probably my least favourite right now. I've been having some trouble with some of my tumbles. You have to mentally try and make yourself do some of the skills. You think 'I could probably hurt myself on this' but you have to try it anyway.

Have you ever actually hurt yourself competing?

At the Island Games I landed on my neck on the vault. I was trying a lay-out tsuk. You jump on to the vault and flip. My hand slipped on the top and I didn't make the rotation all the way round and ended up landing on my neck. It was very painful. That was a one-off, though, it's not something that I think would happen again. n[[In-content Ad]]

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