Je­lani Beck­les

Na­tion­al gym­nast The­ma Williams plans to in­crease the com­plex­i­ty of her rou­tine in prepa­ra­tion for the Rio Olympics Test event, which takes place in April of next year.

Williams, 19, be­came the first T&T gym­nast to qual­i­fy for the Olympic Test event af­ter plac­ing 59th over­all in the artis­tic women's in­di­vid­ual qual­i­fi­ca­tion at the World Gym­nas­tics Cham­pi­onships in Glas­gow, Scot­land, last month.

Fel­low na­tion­al gym­nast Marisa Dick al­so com­pet­ed at the World Cham­pi­onships, plac­ing 77th over­all. Williams should have been au­to­mat­i­cal­ly se­lect­ed by the T&T Gym­nas­tics Fed­er­a­tion (TTGF) to rep­re­sent this coun­try at the Test event. How­ev­er, it was stat­ed by the Fed­er­a­tion that Williams and Dick will have to com­pete in two more events be­fore one is cho­sen for the Test event.

Af­ter con­sul­ta­tion among mem­bers of the TTGF Williams was cho­sen for the Test event, which is a qual­i­fi­er for the Rio Olympics in Au­gust 2016.

Speak­ing to the T&T Guardian at the Tots and Tum­blers Gym­nas­tics Club on Dun­don­ald Street in Port-of-Spain, Williams spoke about qual­i­fy­ing for the Test event. "I feel quite ho­n­oured ac­tu­al­ly. I think the nor­mal hard work paid off. It was a re­al­ly good feel­ing."

Williams, who joined Tots and Tum­blers at age six, plans to in­crease the com­plex­i­ty of her rou­tines to im­prove her chances of qual­i­fy­ing for the Rio Olympics. "I am go­ing to im­prove the dif­fi­cul­ty of my rou­tines which will raise my val­ue and give me a bet­ter shot of a bet­ter score."

Williams added she needs to con­trol her nerves dur­ing com­pe­ti­tions to im­prove her per­for­mance. "I al­ways had a prob­lem with nerves be­cause I nev­er got the ex­po­sure com­pet­ing in that com­pe­ti­tion (World Cham­pi­onships) be­fore, be­ing the on­ly gym­nast at that lev­el in T&T. I need to work on my abil­i­ty to fo­cus and get in the zone and do the rou­tines."

The Tots and Tum­blers gym­nast wants to stay fo­cused like the Rus­sians. "I re­al­ly love watch­ing the Rus­sians. I think I en­joy their at­ti­tude be­cause it is very fo­cused and that is what I lack in com­pe­ti­tions."

Williams, who will be based in Michi­gan, USA, un­til the Test event with top coach John Ged­dert, was re­lieved when the Fed­er­a­tion an­nounced that she will com­pete at the Test event.Williams and her team are think­ing about com­pet­ing in two meets lead­ing up to the Test event.

Williams, who trains 32 hours per week, is grate­ful to many for help­ing her reach this far. She thanked the Min­istry of Sport, which has been sup­port­ing her fi­nan­cial­ly since 2005, her fam­i­ly and Tots and Tum­blers, which she de­scribed as the foun­da­tion of her gym­nas­tics. Williams al­so has the sup­port of lo­cal coach­es Clifton Mc­Dow­ell and Deb­o­rah Knowles.