Special gymnastics award for Mark

SHETLAND gymnastics coach Mark Wylie has been presented with a special award by the sports national governing body after 20 years of teaching young people in the islands.

Scottish Gymnastics “services to gymnastics” award was presented at a special dinner in Falkirk at the weekend by Paul Pendergest, managing director of Milano Pro Sports.

Mr Wylie has spent the past two decades coaching youngsters on the trampoline at Clickimin Leisure Complex, during which he produced two national champions in Josie McCreadie and Karis Irvine.

More recently he has been developing artistic gymnastics in Shetland and helped to run the Shetland Gymnastics Club for the past five years, while making pre-school gymnastics a popular activity in the isles.

During the presentations special mention was made of the Shetland to Zambia gym project where Mark led a team of gymnastics coaches to Africa in 2008 to work in local schools, with the support of Scottish Gymnastics.

He has also been responsible for bringing international athletes to Scotland to visit the Shetland club such as Britain’s most successful gymnast Beth Tweddle and recently Dariya Zgoba from Ukraine.