JEFF GRANIT staff Millstone’s Parker Adamo, 10, competes on the parallel bars during the first competition of the year at Lehigh Valley Sports Academy in Allentown, Pa., Dec. 13. MILLSTONE — A 10-year-old gymnast started a new gymnastic season as champion on the rings and the pommel horse.
Millstone’s Parker Adamo is even stronger this year and has moved up to a more difficult gymnastic level — level 7.
Parker competes with the Cyclones, a gymnastics team based out of the Monmouth Gymnastics Academy in Marlboro. During the team’s first competition of the season Dec. 13 at the Lehigh Valley Sports Academy in Allentown, Pa., Parker’s team took first place. He earned second place overall in the competition, coming in first on the pommel horse, second on rings, sixth on floor, fifth on vault and first on the parallel bars.
When he competed again two weeks ago at Worldwide Gymnastics in Old Bridge, Parker earned third place overall, despite two falls during his routines.
This past weekend, Parker placed fourth all around at the West Point Invitational in West Point, N.Y. He beat last year’s state champ and was two points away from first place. Parker also earned his best score of the season on the rings with a 15.5.
Parker has four more competitions before the state and regional competitions start. The season will run until early April. Parker will start training for next season in May. While most gymnasts stay at one gymnastic level for two years, Parker will skip level 8 and start practicing to compete in level 9 competitions next year.
There are 10 levels of gymnastics. Each level up to level 8 is compulsory, meaning gymnasts at those levels go in front of judges and perform the same routines as other gymnasts at their level. At levels 9 and 10, gymnasts put together their own routines, as seen in the Olympics.
Parker, who has physically grown two inches since last year, remains focused and puts in extra hours at the gym, under the direction of coach Yuri Aminov.
“Yuri comes from New York to work with these kids,” Parker’s mother Patricia said. “He’s more dedicated than Parker if you can believe that. And, he has a lot of great boys coming up.”
Parker now trains in the gym between 18 and 20 hours each week.
The young gymnast would like to compete in the Junior Olympics and the Olympics, but is currently focused on doing the work necessary to get to level 10.
“He is so focused,” Patricia said of her son. “He is dedicated in the gym and his grades are also phenomenal.”