A family force brought a tidal wave of applause on the second day of calisthenics. Photo: Ellie Gibson
Friday 11 November 2016
By Ellie Gibson
A family force brought a tidal wave of applause on the second day of calisthenics at the 2016 Jupiters Pan Pacific Masters Games (JPPMG).
Melbourne’s Kingston Gold team – comprising three sisters, Annette Ling, 56, Karin Doddrell, 55, and Ronice Ritter, 54, and cousin Trish Freeman, 46 – dominated the free exercise event at The Arts Centre Gold Coast.
“We just competed in free exercise which involves flex, cardio, being synchronized and how interesting the choreography is,” Ronice said.
The choreography of this item was a crowd favourite and was created by Ronice alongside co-coach Donna Gabriel.
“Ronice looks at the whole team and sees our strengths then choreographs to meet everyone’s ability,” Trish said.
Growing up with calisthenics, the family have been actively involved since the age of six and now their total years combined in the sport is more than 150 years.
Their club is called Kingston Gold Masters and they train at The St Louis De Montfort’s primary school in Aspendale, Melbourne, every Monday night for three hours.
The family combination have won many competitions and are the current state champions (division 2 masters) in Victoria.
“These games are fantastic! This is our third games and the pinnacle of our competition year,” Karin said.
“All my family is the reason I am back this year. We love doing this together,” Annette said.
“Seeing all these people and other teams – everyone is so friendly. The atmosphere is fantastic. It’s also a family holiday for us as well,” Ronice said.
With their new personal bests at heart the girls are aiming to come off stage knowing that their performance was the best they’ve ever done in each item.
“In the clubs item I came off stage and burst into tears because I was just so happy with my performance. I really wanted to nail that, and I did,” Trish said.
“When I am on stage I love looking around and seeing that we’re all in it together, synchronized,” Annette said.
The golden girls switch on with one big warm-up as the competition can be so different on the day in terms of performance and judges, but they never lose their spirit.
“Before we go on we always say something gold,” Ronice said.
Calisthenics is a mixture of different disciplines including marching, gymnastics, jazz, dancing, singing, club swinging and rod twisting bringing a theatrical aspect to the games.
The 10th biennial Jupiters Pan Pacific Masters Games is being held 5 – 13 November 2016 on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
The Jupiters Pan Pacific Masters Games showcases competition in 43 team and individual sports and is hosting 13,000 participants from Queensland, interstate and overseas.
