Since November 2018, Singapore Gymnastics has been extremely fortunate to be able to have Fiona Kenneally (Bird) on board as a coaching/program management consultant with a focus on the Junior and Sub Junior athletes and coaches at the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics National Training Centre.

Fiona is one of the most highly respected and credentialed coaches Australia has produced and played an integral role in the success of the Women’s Artistic Program in Australia from 1989 until 2001 and  was instrumental in building the framework that saw Australia place 3^rd  at the 2003 World Championships and earn the Individual All Around bronze medal at the 2005 World Championships with Monette Russo. It was when one of Fiona’s athlete, Joanna Hughes, placed 19^th overall at the 1991 World Championships, making history for Australia that put her in the league as a high calibre international coach. This was cemented when her athletes placed 1^st and 3^rd in the Individual All Around at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, in what was one of Australia’s most successful gymnastics contingents at a Commonwealth Games.

A former elite athlete, coach, judge and administrator, Fiona over a 15 year period, built a training squad from a club based gymnastics program into the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) elite training centre located in Melbourne, Australia that provided 3 gymnasts (from a squad of 6) and the first reserve, to the Australian Gymnastics Team for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and 2 gymnasts for the 1996 Olympic Team. The programme went from a make shift facility, into an elite training centre within a purpose built facility.  During her time, the VIS program was one of the strongest in the country, producing many Australian Champions and members of the Australian Gymnastics Team.  This was at a time when the Australian Team was consistently ranked in the top 6 in the world. 

In 2001 Fiona emigrated from Australia due to her husband’s work and during this period while supporting her family in the United Kingdom and Qatar, maintained a close interest in the trends of gymnastics. Fiona’s passion for the sport and high performance, has ensured that she has maintained an intimate understanding of the sport, the trends, and what it takes to develop a talented athlete into successful, world class gymnast. Since her return to Australia in 2015, and with family now grown up and a little more independent, she has started to immerse herself back into the sport; holding roles as Canberra City Gymnastics WAG Program Manager and ACT Gymnastics Sports Management Committee. The word is out that Fiona now has some time to return to the sport, and while taking on the role as coaching/program management consultant with Singapore Gymnastics is now being approached by other organisations to provide coaching and mentoring services to their staff, athletes and members.

The work that Fiona, and Mark Calton the interim Head Coach, have put into the WAG National Training Centre (NTC) over the past few months has ensured that when Gerrit Beltman, the National Head Coach commences on the 16^th August Singapore is already starting to move in the right direction. Singapore Gymnastics has been fortunate to have Fiona involved over the past 6 months in the programme, as we start to build the framework and culture for the future.