A Polarettes gymnast has achieved a perfect score at a competition.

The Polarettes Gymnastic Club participated in the Delta Cash and Carry Cup in Richmond May 4-7.

The Star spoke to Polarettes coach Stephanie Caron about the competition May 10.

She said the Delta Cash and Carry is the last formal gymnastics meet of the season for the club.

The Polarettes sent 16 athletes spread out across seven categories.

They ranged in ages from nine to 17. The girls competed on Saturday and Sunday.

Four coaches accompanied the athletes, since, according to Caron, they had such a wide range of kids.

"It’s typically seen as our fun, last competition, end of the season meet," Caron related.

Caron went on to list some of the groups involved.

“We have kids in the Canadian Competitive program in levels four, five, six, seven and eight and we had a number of kids competing in the Excel program in the Gold category and the Platinum category.”

11-year-old Alayna Mortimer was one of the youngest competitors at this event and she excelled, scoring a perfect 10 to highlight her performance in the floor event.

“We've watched Alayna this season really demonstrate fabulous gymnastics, and we've seen the floor event be quite high all season," related Caron. "We knew that, for her to get a perfect 10, we knew it was possible. And so we just kind of went and focused on having fun and doing good gymnastics and really just performing at her best. And she got her perfect 10.”

When asked about what Alayna’s reaction was to the perfect score, Caron recalled Mortimer's disbelief.

“She was shocked for sure. She had a more difficult warm-up, it wasn’t her typical warm-up. So she was a little bit flustered before she competed. But her coach, Ewan Campbell, who spends a lot of time with her, kind of sat her down and calmed her nerves a little bit and really helped guide her through this last routine that she had to do.

"So when she got off the floor, she was immediately just relieved that she had done her routine. She was a little bit stressed out and then all of a sudden the crowd roared. And it was the last routine of the session. So everybody else was done and Alayna was the very last kid to go. So it was quite the build up. She was quite surprised and we all had a few tears and a lot of excitement and it was just a really fabulous way to end her season.

“We were really proud of her, just knowing that this was something that she was capable of. We had seen her scores be really high all season and so close to getting that 10. It was really rewarding and felt like all of that really, really hard work that we put in had paid off.

"And we had finally seen this be the best that it could possibly be."

Caron said for a judge and other people to see that and recognize it was "a really incredible feeling. I've never had an athlete get a perfect 10 while I've been coaching them, so it was a first for us too.”

The Cash and Carry was the final formal event of the season for the Polarettes Gymnastics Club, but they do host their annual year-end meet on June 10, although that will be more of a showcase for kids to show their parents what they can do.

Caron added, "I was really impressed with the goal setting and the mindset of our athletes, including Alayna. They were all really good at verbalizing their goals before each event and pinpointed exactly what they needed to do to achieve that, which is something that we've been working on in the gym. So, it felt like we had a lot of success with that. And I feel like that certainly contributed to Alayna’s perfect 10.”

For more info about the club, you can visit their website at https://polarettes.org