Local Sydney acrobats sweep gold in every discipline at Acro Vegas Cup

A Sydney gymnastics duo has capped off a dream international debut by claiming gold in a remarkable performance at the Acro Vegas Cup in the US.

Two Sydney gymnasts have capped off a dream international debut by remarkably winning gold in every division at the Acro Vegas Cup in Las Vegas.

Catie Boffa and Hana Heo swept the floor in the balance, dynamic and combined routines, dazzling the panel of American judges in the invitation-only event.

“Working with Hana has been such an honour and over the past few years she’s become another younger sibling to me,” said 19-year old Catie, who performed as the base. “We’ve both opened up a lot since we started together and I think we’ve each helped the other a lot.”

The pair, who have a seven-year age difference between them, started working together just three years ago at the Sydney Hills Gymnastics centre after Hana was scouted by the then acrobatics coach, Jael Vasquez, to try out for the squad.

“Once we started to train together, Catie and I formed a good friendship between us. Having a good friendship made me more confident in both my gymnastics and my personality,” Hana said.

Hana (left) and Catie (right) won gold in balance, dynamic and combined routines at the Vegas Acro Cup Invitational last weekend.

Together, the Sydney sensations practice 17 hours a week, which can prove tough to manoeuvre, especially when throwing school and university into the mix.

“It was tricky, but it actually helped build my time-management skills and helped me to perfect the little details for uni and gymnastics. I was lucky to have supportive professors and found that it wasn’t too difficult to do both at once,” said Catie, who recently graduated college.

The victory is all the more impressive considering the subtle differences between Australian and US acrobatic gymnastics, with the pair putting in plenty of training to ensure they could adapt to the changes.

“To prepare we had to add some skills to our routines, particularly our double twist, and we had to work much harder at our routines and strength in order to build our consistency,” Catie said.

“The floors are different, to start – the American floors aren’t lined, so positioning is difficult. The American and Australian routines are also structured differently, and are very distinct in terms of choreography and skills – each country has its own flavour, and it was really cool to see it here.”