An excited grandmother watched on with pure delight as her grandson lined up at the 2023 Future Cup in Linz, Austria, and the Vera Caslavaska Olympic Hopes Cup in Brno, Czech Republic, last month.
The grandmother was Narrabri’s Olwyn Campey, the grandson was Caedan Mcilhatton, the son of former Narrabri resident Stacey Shields, and the sport was gymnastics.
The Brisbane boy competes in men’s artistic gymnastic, in which he does a routine on six apparatus, including vault, still rings, parallel bars, the horizontal bar, floor and pommel.
The 15-year-old has excelled in the sport for several years now and was selected by Gymnastics Australia to represent his country and pull on the green and gold on the international stage at the 2023 Future Cup and Vera Caslavaska Olympic Hopes Cup, both of which were junior gymnastic events.
He was the youngest competitor on the Australian team that departed the country on Saturday, November 11.
They competed at the Future Cup in Linz, Austria, on November 17 and 18 alongside teams from Great Britain, Austria, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Zurich, Ukraine, Wales and Japan.
The Australian team placed fifth overall at that event.
On an individual level, Caedan was quite nervous on his first couple of apparatus. He went on to qualify for the rings final after he placed in the top six, and he then placed second in the final.
It was then onto the Czech Republic city of Brno for the Australian team for the 2023 Vera Caslavaska Olympic Hopes Cup from November 24 to 26.
It was at this event that Caeden went to another level and thrived after he had settled in to the international journey.
The Aussies were joined by teams from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Korea, Hong Kong and Slovakia.
There were five gymnasts in each team at the event, and all five of them perform, with the four best scores on each apparatus counting.
The Aussie team won the event and Caedan remarkably placed second in the all around individual standings out of 29 competitors after the scores of the apparatus were added together.
He qualified for the finals of four of the six apparatus, including rings, vault, parallel bars and the horizontal bars, and earned four medals as he won gold in the parallel bars, claimed silver in vault and rings, and claimed bronze in horizontal bar.
Olwyn and Stacey told The Courier they were proud of Caedan and his efforts, and said the future was bright for him.
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