Millfield Gymnast selected to compete at the English Championships

Millfield gymnast Ilaria De Neiva Konig has been selected to compete at the 2024 English Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships.  

Seventeen-year-old Ilaria will be competing in the Women’s trio category at the annual championships in Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre.  

Ilaria joined Millfield in Year 10 to focus on her sport whilst continuing with her academics. She said, “Millfield is unique in the way it supports such a wide variety of sports and athletes mentally, physically and academically at the same time. This year, through the school’s Sports Captain programme, I was awarded a True Athlete Global Mentoring Scholarship, which I believe will bring interesting and positive change.” 

Alongside her gymnastics, Ilaria is a dance scholar and is part of the Millfield dance programme and recently performed in the Millfield dance show, Frankenstein. Ilaria has found that being part of the dance programme has helped enhance her skills in acrobatic gymnastics. She said, “I have really enjoyed being part of the dance programme at Millfield. It has offered a wide variety of dance styles that I could participate in such as ballet, modern, contemporary, performance repertoire and the school’s dance company, Bazique. I’m still enjoying exploring new dance styles and have recently signed up for a new acro-street class. Dance has a fantastic synergy with the artistic elements of acrobatic gymnastics and so it has worked well alongside my competitive sport.” 

Ilaria is currently studying A levels in English, Philosophy and Psychology and is supported by the school with her academics whilst she is training, she said, “I am usually training up to six times a week in three-hour sessions, these hours are increased during competition season. The IT and tech we use daily at school makes it very easy to communicate with my teachers. With a lot of coursework online, I always do homework while travelling; it’s easy to access and submit.”