WREXHAM gymnast Jacob Edwards is certainly keeping it in the family!

Edwards is one of 13 athletes announced by Gymnastics Wales who will represent the country at the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

His older brother Matthew Hennessey represented Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi 12 years ago.

Edwards, who is 19, began his journey in the sport at the Newcastle Gymnastics Academy at the tender age of five.

His current club is Olympus Gymnastics Club, Wrexham.

The former Darland High School student was the British U16 all-around champion in 2019.

In that same year, he was also part of Wales men’s team that won Northern Europeans silver, which the team followed up with gold in 2021.

He is one of five men's artistic gymnasts selected for the team, alongside Brinn Bevan, Joe Cemlyn-Jones, Josh Cook and Emil Barber.

There's also a five-strong women's artistic section, which includes Chirk's Mia Evans.

Mia, who is 16 and was born in Wrexham, is a boarding student at Wrekin College, Wellington.

She began in gymnastics aged three with the Border Counties Gymnastics Club and Mia is now with Park Wrekin Gymnastics Club.

The selection ends a near decade-long dream for Mia, who, since the age of eight, has wanted to go to the Commonwealth Games.

She was the Welsh espoir champion in 2019, British Championships espoir all-around silver medallist in 2019 and British espoir floor champion in 2019.

In 2019, she also won women's team gold at the Northern European championships.

Mia has followed her mother, Angela, into gymnastics, while her father had played football for the county and Wrexham schoolboys.

As well as progressing in gymnastics to win representative honours for both Wales and Great Britain, Mia also reached grade three in ballet.

She is joined in the women's artistic section by Jea Maracha, Sofia Micallef, Mali Morgan and Poppy Stickler.

The three rhythmic gymnasts selected for Team Wales are Gemma Frizelle, Elizabeth Popova and Lauryn Carpenter.

Jo Coombs, the performance director at Welsh Gymnastics, said: “We are thrilled to announce our gymnasts who will travel to Birmingham to represent their country this summer.

“This team announcement is the culmination of an enormous amount of hard work, dedication and commitment in a cycle that has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Preparation for these Games has been like no other and has taken all the coaches, gymnasts and support staff innovation and commitment to enable us all to continue training, competing and mentally being ready for what lies ahead.

“We couldn’t be prouder of all who have been chosen to compete at the Games.”

The 2022 Commonwealth Games will take place in Birmingham between July 28 and August 8.