YOUNG gymnasts have found their rhythm after a successful first year competing as a club.

The Oxford Rhythmic Gymnastics team are back for a new year and are hoping to top an impressive 2016 which included meeting world champions in the sport and many medals.

Headcoach Zuzana Gergelova said the Littlemore-based club had learnt a lot about competing over the past year and was looking forward to aiming for even better results this year.

She said: "We are a fairly new club and we have only started officially competing this year and with some great success.

"It is an incredible feeling.

"We have had a little bit of a rocky road, as we had to learn a lot and improve along the way, but it it has been really successful.

"I am really proud of the girls achieving such results."

The gymnastic club, which is based at The Oxford Academy, was established by Ms Gergelova in 2012.

Last year a squad qualified for the National Group League 2016 at Espoir level.

This meant the girls had to compete in three rounds, showing off their impressive gymnastic skills on the mats.

In the first round the squad finished in eighth place but reached third place by round three –leaving the squad at sixth overall out of 14 clubs.

Ms Gergelova, from Slovakia, competed herself for 12 years. She said: "We learnt from the first round and went on to improve so that in the last round we came third, which was amazing."

She added: "Rhythmic gymnastics is not really a well-known sport in England. These girls can train anything up to 16 hours a week."

Oxford Rhythmic Gymnastics works with children, from the age of two, across the county and further afield, and is one of the few rhythmic clubs in the region.

This year the team also welcomed top championship gymnasts and Bulgarian coaches Silviya Miteva, world champion between 1981 and 1984, and former national coach Dimitar Mitev to work with the girls.

For more information on the club see dancegz.co.uk