Flying high at nationals

Acrobat Laila Halim will fly high at the National Acrobatics Championships in December. Photo: Monique Ebrington

By Kellie Godena
BADGER Creek Primary School student, Laila Halim, will be making the community proud when she competes at the National Acrobatics Championships in Canberra next month.
The Grade 5 student who qualified for the event will compete at the Australian Institute of Sport between 4 and 7 December against competitors from all around Australia.
Laila, 10, will be competing in the Level 5 acrobatics team along with Morgan Fisher from Healesville High School and Stephanie Kelly from Pembroke Secondary. They will perform as a trio in both a balance and a dynamic routine.
Although having competed in this event last year, Laila says she is just as excited this time around about the opportunity to compete and to travel.
“I’m very excited,” Laila said.
“I also get to stay in a really good place with my teammates. It’s 4-and-a-half stars.”
Having begun training for gymnastics at the age of six, at the Healesville Gymnastics Club, Laila decided to try acrobatics at age seven, which she found to be a lot more fun and also quite different.
“Gymnastics is more on the bar, floor and the vault.
“Acrobatics is done in groups with choreographed routines and you get thrown in the air to flip and tumble,” she said.
Laila, being the youngest and the smallest of the three, is the one who gets thrown into the air. She says she loves it and is not scared of heights in the slightest.
One person who is very proud of Laila is her mother, Helen, who has been driving her to practice twice a week and to competitions for the past four years.
“She’s very passionate, focused and determined which is lovely to see in someone so young,” Helen said.
The National Acrobatics Championships is a major yearly event for competitors, involving the best acrobats from Australia. Although not receiving a place at last year’s event, when asked how she thinks her team will go this year, Laila appeared very confident.
“We should do well. We have practiced like a million times this year!”