Painesville teen brings home bronze in world baton twirling championships

Erienne Leigh Hay became the Pre-teen 2 Baton World Bronze medalist when she represented Team USA in Norway at the NTBA World Championship Competition in March.

The Painesville resident, who is now 13 but qualified when she was 12, competed in the preliminaries on March 29 and moved on to the finals on April 1, where she placed third.

“I think that I actually deserved to be in the top three, in third place, because I was competing with some really good kids from the U.S. All three winners were from the United States.” Erienne said. “The venue was beautiful, the competitors were great and it really gave me something to try to give my all to.”

The competition in Norway was her second time competing in the world championships. She brought home the gold medal in 2015 when she competed in Italy for the 7- to 9 year-old division.

Erienne, a third-generation baton twirler, is following in the footsteps of her mother Leighann Hay, who is also her coach, and her grandmother, Audrey Moore, director of the Showstoppers School of Baton, where Erienne twirls.

She started twirling at the age of 3 when she showed off her skills during a Cleveland Cavillers half-time show. She entered her first competition at 4 years old and by the time she was 6 she was twirling two batons. She is now twirling three and occasionally four batons at a time.

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