Barbados: Anya Pilgrim places 11th at Pan American Artistic Gymnastics Championships 

Barbados: Anya Pilgrim placed 11th as she competed for Barbados at the 2023 Pan American Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Colombia last weekend.

Barbados Children Directory took to Facebook and shared the history of the sports of Pilgrim. It added that Pilgrim, who was born in the US, has Barbadian parentage and made it to the top five at the 2023 Nastia Liukin Cup held in February and is one of the most prestigious competitions for Level 10 athletes in the USA Gymnastics’ Developmental programme.

Pilgrim, 18, had the fifth-highest all-around score among the seniors and she placed 5th at the elite invitational event, which is restricted to the top 20 seniors and juniors in the United States.

In 2017, Anya made her elite debut at the American Classic, winning silver in the all-around. After not competing in 2018, she returned to the American Classic in 2019, winning bronze in the all-around and posting the second-highest score on vault. At the US Classic, she placed seventh in the all-around, eighth on vault, ninth on bars, tenth on floor, and 12th on beam.

Anya returned to the National Championships, placing fourth on vault, seventh in the all-around, ninth on floor, 11th on bars, and 12th on beam. She was added to the 2019 United States Junior National team.

Last year, she won vault, took silver on floor and bronze on beam at the developmental programme national championships.

Anya trains with Kelli Hill, who also coached Olympians Dominique Dawe, Elise Ray, and Courtney Kupets. This summer, she will be enrolling in the University of Florida which is ranked second in the United States for college gymnastic programmes. 

The daughter of local neurosurgeon Dr Sean Smith and Christine Pilgrim, Anya who resides with her mother in Maryland hopes to represent Barbados in Gymnastics.

Earlier, Zane Maloney who enjoyed yet another visit to the Circuit de Monte Carlo in Monaco as he finished third in yesterday’s feature race for his second podium finish of the 2023 FIA Formula 2 season.