Crayford gymnast enjoys medal success at Youth Olympics

The 16-year-old enjoyed double golden success in the team event with fellow Team GB members Hamish Carter and Joe Fraser.

And there were also a couple of silvers in the individual vault and high bar to ensure the youngster more than played his part in Britain’s overall 20-medal haul.

Regini-Moran said: “It’s been a really good week – it’s been massive for experience and getting me prepared for an Olympic Games in the future.

“I’ve made a load of new friends and the village is great. I’m really going to miss it.

“I am trying to make it to Rio but there’s strong competition and I’ve got to qualify.

“It’s all about how hard I work in the gym and how much I want it. To represent Team GB at Rio or any Olympic Games would be the biggest achievement of my life.”

Regini-Moran was particularly pleased to secure gold alongside Carter.

He explained: “I’m really proud to have won gold on the floor and especially after having a bad day at the all-around.

“Floor and vault are my best pieces so I was looking to do well there and it was great to share the podium with Hamish.

“We’ve been training together for a while now and it’s great to see that all the hard work has paid off.

“I’m slightly disappointed to have not taken gold on the vault but overall I’m really pleased, especially with the high bar as I wasn’t expecting a medal there.”

Regini-Moran wasn’t the only competitor from the News Shopper region taking part at the Tbilisi competition.

Elsewhere, Greenwich judo fighter Olivia Piechota had to settle for a fifth-place finish after just missing out on bronze in the girls’ U44kg weight category.

The 17-year-old said: “I wasn’t happy with the bronze medal fight because I’ve beaten that girl four times before and I’ve never lost to her before. 

“I’ve also beaten all four of the girls that medalled before so that makes it a little bit more disappointing.

“I started the day well and was pleased with how I was performing, but it tailed off which was a shame.”

Piechota added: “Overall the experience has been brilliant.

“I expect it to be good but this has been better than that.

“The whole village feel makes it like a little mini Olympics and is so different from our usual judo competitions.

“It’s usually just a small event but here you’ve had everything and it’s great to be around the other athletes and seeing them train.

“Hopefully it will help with our judo.”

Piechota now has one eye on making an appearance on the biggest sporting stage in Japan five years from now.

She said: “It’s really motivated me for the future and hopefully one day I can get to Tokyo 2020.

“It has been really good to have been part of the team.”

In the tennis, Lewisham’s Emile Hudd made the quarter-final of the doubles alongside partner Jacob Fearnly, eventually losing to Czech Republic opponents 6-2, 6-1.

The 15-year-old made the second round of the boys’ singles, beating Cherea Zerdilas of Greece 6-4, 6-1 before being defeated by home favourite and number five seed Nikolos Davlianidze 6-4, 5-7, 7-5.

Bromley’s Nell Miller, also aged 15, suffered second round exits in both the singles and doubles.

She said: “I was happy with my performance.

“We could have potentially got a bit further in the doubles but we tried our hardest and that’s all you can ask.”

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