Gymnastics: Team's babies aiming to swap school for final

Rhythmic gymnasts Teegan Metcalfe (left), and Melissa Logan, on the Clarendon St bridge in Melbourne. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Teegan Metcalfe has got used to the attention which comes with being the baby of New Zealand's Games team.

The 14-year-old Aucklander and her slightly older but still 14-year-old teammate, Melissa Logan, start their rhythmic gymnastic qualifications tomorrow, with the aim of making Saturday's top 16 all-round individual final.

Metcalfe, a Year 14 student at Diocesan who competes at the Xtreme Rhythmix club, turned 14 on February 5, making her New Zealand's second youngest Games competitor, behind rowing cox Richard Tuffin at Cardiff in 1958.

She has copped good-natured quips at her status in the team.

"Lots of people have heard about it but everyone's really nice. I don't really think about it, I just want to go out and do the best I can," she said yesterday.

Metcalfe and Logan, who attends Pukekohe High School and competes for Counties Manukau, would be in class if they weren't at the Games.

Both have the ball as their favourite of the four apparatus being contested, the others being the clubs, ribbon and rope. Metcalfe said they'd watched other gymnasts during training sessions and she tried to use them as an inspiration for herself this week.

Coach Tracey Redhead has high hopes for the pair.

"I'd be surprised if they both didn't make the top 16," she said. "But they have to focus on making each skill in each routine the best they can, don't make big execution errors, then it's up to the judges."

She reckons making any of Sunday's apparatus finals, which are restricted to the top eight competitors, would be a tall order.