7-year-old Filipina gymnast sweeps gold medals in Thailand tilt

MANILA, Philippines — A seven-year-old Filipina gymnast overwhelmed the competition in the recently concluded Moose Games Artistic Gymnastics Competition in Thailand last month.

Amanda Beatrice Mayo, a grade two student from St. Paul College Pasig, won gold in all apparatus for women's artistic gymnastics, ruling floor exercise, bars, vault and balance beam for a four-gold haul.

The competition was hosted by the Thai Canadian Community Sports last March 24 and 25 in Bangkok, with over 600 gymnasts from all over Asia participating in the event.

Mayo was one of the youngest participants in Level 3 where she was joined by six teammates from the Learn and Train Sports Academy.

They competed alongside 141 other gymnasts in the open age competition, which also included high school students.

A Makati-based gym, LTSA aims to develop the next generation of Philippine gymnasts and prepare them to hopefully be a part of the Philippine National Gymnastics Team headed by the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines.

The gym fielded a total of 31 gymnasts in the competition from Level 1 to 6 and ranked fifth overall out of the 35 participating teams in the tournament.

LTSA bagged 99 gold medals in the invitational, including top finishes for 5-year-old Level 2 gymnast Lucy Dy, All-Around Level 6 champion Maxine Bondoc, and Level 5 gymnasts Robyn Mercado and Fortune Ledesma.

Another Philippine club, PGAA-STY, bagged first place overall. St. Paul Pasig Gymnastics Team and Club Gymnastica Pasig took sixth and ninth place, respectively.

As for Mayo, she also recently won three golds and one silver at the Pasig City Gymnastics Meet.

She hopes to ride the momentum of her impressive stint in Thailand, where she flexed her potential as a future national team member, in her next competitions.

The young gymnast is set to compete at the regional qualifiers for the National Capital Region for the Palarong Pambansa 2023 on April 25. She represents Pasig City for Cluster 1, together with Cielo Esliza of Cluster 3.