Young budding Broome gymnast Solly Rann wins overall champion in State tournament

One of Broome’s best budding young gymnasts has won a State championship for the second year in a row.

Eleven-year-old Solly Rann from Pearl Coast Gymnastics was crowned the overall champion in his division at the WA Junior Gymnastics Championships, bringing home glory to Broome.

But this wasn’t the first time Rann has taken out the top prize, winning the overall champion trophy last year as well.

Having trained in gymnastics since the age of five, Rann competes in six different events — high bar, rings, vault, pommel horse, parallel-bars and floor exercise events.

This time round Rann earned himself a silver medal in three events — the rings, floor and pommel events — and won bronze in the vault and parallel-bar events.

Rann’s medal winning performances in those events put him on the fast track to be selected as the overall champion of the competition once again, taking home the gold trophy.

Rann’s mother and Pearl Coast Gymnastics head coach Amber Rann said it was a huge achievement for her son considering the challenges young regional athletes faced.

“It is a huge achievement for him to win again after winning State champion last year as well,” she said.

“Being a regional athlete he is limited by a lack of equipment and coaching and only gets to train a third of the hours that the city kids do.

“All our regional athletes have so many hurdles to overcome.”

The WA Junior Gymnastics Championships ran from September 20 to October 2 in Perth.