SINGAPORE - This year's edition of GymFest, an annual gymnastics exhibition gala organised by Singapore Gymnastics, has been cancelled owing to low sign-up rates, according to a post on the Singapore Gymnastics website.
When contacted by The Straits Times, Singapore Gymnastics general manager Karen Norden clarified that GymFest, scheduled to take place on Nov 5, had instead been postponed till next year, as the association was intending to present the exhibition as a build-up event to the 2019 World Gymnaestrada in Austria.
The quadrennial World Gymnaestrada is gymnastics' largest exhibition.
Norden, who assumed her position in June, told ST that 13 to 15 routines or performances were needed for this year's GymFest. But only eight local teams, including two National Training Centre ones, had signed up by the Oct 4 deadline.
The 10th edition last year, which was held at Star Vista, had 13 teams including one from Malaysia.
"It's not about the low numbers, we want to add more value to the event and ensure that we can put more into it," said Norden.
"We could have gone ahead, but we wanted to put more effort into getting teams from overseas to come."
Explaining that a routine at the Singapore GymFest lasts about five minutes while that at the Gymnaestrada is about 15 minutes, she added that the association intends to prepare teams for the longer routines by organising workshops in the meantime.
The date for next year's GymFest has not been confirmed yet, but Norden said it will tentatively be held in conjunction with either the National Championships in March, or the Singapore Open Gymnastics Championships in June.
