Calisthenics teams claim state titles

TEAMS from a local calisthenics group recently achieved success at the Calisthenics Victoria State Championships on their home stage at the Ulumbarra Theatre.

Sabelle Calisthenics, based in Golden Square, won the Div 10/11 Juniors, 10 to 13 years, and the Div Nine Intermediates, 13 to 17 years.

Its Div Six Sub Junior team, seven to 10 years, were runners-up.

Principal coach Taneka Ruschmeyer said winning state titles is special, and even more so considering the group won it last year as well.

“You hope that they will do well, but more so that they perform well for themselves, being able to achieve the things they’ve been working on in class,” she said.

“It’s a bit of excitement, we have some very hard-working kids this year, and adults, they’ve just worked really hard.

“I am very proud of all of our teams.”

Australian calisthenics is not to be confused with another form of calisthenics which focuses on bodyweight exercises such as push-ups and pull-ups.

“Calisthenics is a uniquely Australian sport, it’s been around since the early 1900s, it combines gymnastics, apparatus, and dance, all in one,” said Ruschmeyer.

She also said some age groups also sing and act in the routines as well.

To round off the year, Sabelle Calisthenics will be performing at its fourteenth Annual Concert on Sunday 15 October at the Phee Broadway in Castlemaine.

For more information and tickets bit.ly/3PWQltg.

“Hopefully we will have lots of people come to support the beautiful students perform for the last time this year,” said Ruschmeyer.