STAFFORD MAKES HER MARK

CCNTV6

Here's an gymnast Yandy Stafford that's making a mark on the international stage at the age of 12. She made history by becoming T&T's first gymnast to win a gold medal at the Pan American Junior Artistic Gymnastics Cup in El Salvador. Reflecting on the competition, she indicated she's full of confidence to do greater things in the sport.

Transcript

00:00At the Pan American Junior Artistic Gymnastics Cup in El Salvador, Yandy Stafford qualified

00:06for the finals of the vault, beam and floor.

00:09The Bishop Anstey's high school student finished 6th in the floor and 7th in the beam finals.

00:15She needed to pull off a show-stopping move and had to perform the Yorchenko pike vault.

00:20It's a dangerous move, most famously performed by American Simone Biles, where a gymnast

00:25performs a backhand spring onto the vaulting table and then two backward flips in a pike

00:30with your legs as straight as possible.

00:33Guess what?

00:34She charged to the vault to flight and maintained her balance, securing a huge score of a 13.350

00:43and a historic gold medal.

00:45Hands in the air, she hugged the coach Clifton McDowell out of Tots and Tumbler's relief.

00:50I just try to visualize a lot and I apply the corrections when my coach tells me what I

01:04need to work on and I work very hard.

01:09I'm not surprised after seeing the athletes and what they were doing and knowing what Yandy

01:16could do.

01:17I signed from the beginning, I said we have a chance.

01:22What do you think is Yandy's strength?

01:24Her strength, she's a well all-around gymnast.

01:28Her strength is basically, if I had to name one thing as a strength, she's very quick, she's

01:33very strong.

01:34The Form 2 student has embraced the meaning of training.

01:37My training coming up, everything was good but beam, it was a little rough that week and

01:44I was excited because I never been to this kind of competition before and I just wanted

01:54to represent my country.

01:56She will have her challenges moving forward as she balances sport with education.

02:00How is school coming along for you?

02:01It's pretty difficult because I missed a lot of school this week and I have to catch up

02:13but I think I will be able to get back into it.

02:20Her parents are proud of her achievements.

02:23I'm exceptionally proud of our daughter, of Yandy's performance.

02:30She has been in gymnastics since the age of four.

02:33They promise that the wheels will not stop turning as long as Yandy still drops those gold

02:38medal performances.

02:40We are invested 100% and are prepared to go to the Olympics.

02:48That is the vision, you know, God willing.

02:52He described his daughter as humble.

02:55But not just the wins we appreciate, sometimes the little defeats as well, just help to, you

03:01know, keep your mind grounded and know that you still have some work to do.

03:06So, the wins we are very happy for, we are also happy for some of the failures too.

03:12Stafford was not the only star of the show as they all put their focus now on Karifta.

03:17This is Sergio Dufour, TV6 Sport.

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