Dominican Republic hosts 150th FIG Academy

Lausanne, Sept 12, 2013: During the first week of September, the Gymnastics Federation of the Dominican Republic hosted a FIG Academy in the country’s capital city of Santo Domingo (DOM). This Level 2 Academy for Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics marks the 150th Academy of the FIG Programme that held its first course eleven years ago.

Twenty-five coaches representing eight federations attended – Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Spain, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Puerto Rico. Fifteen of the coaches were MAG coaches and ten were WAG coaches. The participation at this Academy was partially funded by the FIG through the FIG Development Fund for the Pan-American Gymnastics Union (PAGU). PAGU has used a significant portion of the money from the FIG Development Fund to subsidize the attendance of coaches at Academies and that policy has been hugely successful.

Frequent FIG Academy expert Lilia Ortiz-Lòpez of Mexico served as course leader and taught all of the theory lectures. The men’s events were taught by Gustavo Sito of Argentina and the women’s apparatus was taught by Mónica Calabró of Argentina who travelled to Santo Domingo directly from the Academy in Trinidad held one week earlier. Both of these technical experts have served as FIG experts at several Academies and earned the FIG Coaching Brevet in recent years.

The quality of the organisation, facility and the demonstrator gymnasts was exceptionally high.

As expected, there was a wide range of results in the two-part examination process and this reflected the wide range of experience and knowledge of the participants. The highest results for Men’s Artistic Gymnastics and for the course overall was achieved by José Miguel Cantos Cebran who was for several years a member of the Spanish national team and will serve as an FIG expert for a Trampoline Gymnastics Academy in Colombia in two weeks time. The highest mark for Women’s Artistic Gymnastics and the second highest overall was achieved by Yadira Geraldine Salvidar Cuesta of Mexico. Third was Debbie Esclusa of Puerto Rico.

We thank the Gymnastics Federation of the Dominican Republic and its President Edwin Rodriguez for hosting this Academy so professionally and assuring its success.

The Santo Domingo Academy overlapped with an Academy for Acrobatic Gymnastics in Panama and one for Trampoline Gymnastics in Chile. Another Academy for Trampoline Gymnastics will be held in Colombia this month and then in October the FIG Academy programme will continue with courses in South Africa, Philippines and Colombia again.