Interview with Katie Slader & Matthew Cosgrave

The official launch of the 2005 Northern European Gymnastics Championships took place on 19th Sept. Backflip Gymnastics Magazine caught up with two of Northern Ireland’s top stars Katie Slader and Matthew Cosgrave who were displaying their skills at the press launch. Katie performed on beam and completed flip layouts and aeriel cartwheels on floor while Matthew showed off his flairs on the pommels.

Training has been going well recently for both Matthew and Katie. ‘Hopefully if we stay fit, everything goes okay and we prevent any injury and keep ourselves well, we can represent Northern Ireland Gymnastics well. A lot of money will be coming in to producing the new National Training Centre which will be built here (Lagan Valley Leisureplex). It’s great for producing more grassroots level gymnastics and then hopefully building the pyramid to more elite level gymnastics,’ said Matthew.

Katie said, ‘Training has been going really for me at the moment and hopefully I can produce my best at the competition, so I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve taken a year out of college and I’m living and training here in Northern Ireland permanently.’

Matthew and Katie will also represent Ireland at the 2005 World Championships in Melbourne in November. Katie says, ‘The training is hard work but I’ve been enjoying it and hopefully I will be at my peak when I perform then. I’m training about 24 hours a week.’

Matthew is training between 24 and 30 hours a week. ‘Obviously with the World Championships being held out in Melbourne it’s a great boost for us training for the Commonwealth Games. It’s a big target competition for us to go out and get acclimatised and get a feel of the apparatus and the event because it’s in the same stadium. It’s great preparation and hopefully we can produce good performances on both occasions. I competed in the Europeans last year and that was the first time any male gymnast from Ireland had been sent to the Europeans in 12 years. The last time we had a competitor on the world circuit was probably Barry McDonald at the 96 Olympics.’