Organisers have received almost 350 entries for the two-day competition on Saturday and Sunday.

Competitors will travel from as far away as Mildura to the north and Melbourne to the east. Mount Gambier, Stawell, Hamilton, Portland and Geelong will also be represented.

Girls will take to the vault, bars, beam and floor, from levels one to eight. Boys must tackle the vault, floor, high bar, pommel horse, parallel bars and rings, from levels zero to eight.

“They’re record numbers and probably record clubs,” event co-ordinator Brenda Jarry said.

“There are two new clubs we haven’t had before, which is excellent, and a couple of clubs that haven’t competed with us for a couple of years are back.

“We’ve got 100 competitors competing in the first session, we’ve had to do two levels at once.

“If we had eight sessions, it would’ve meant we’d finish at 8pm Sunday and that’s not going to work for people who need to get home.”

Jarry said the club had borrowed tiered seating from the Warrnambool District Hockey Association to cater for spectators.

She put the competition’s popularity down to the success of previous years.

“A lot of the regional clubs, we go to them and they come to us,” she said.

“But I hope within the gymnastics community, they’ve heard we run a good comp.

“Years ago when I first started, we were always running hours late but we run to time now.

“We’ve worked hard to streamline it and word-of-mouth from clubs has attracted other clubs.”

The Springers’ 80-member contingent is headed by Ella McCorkell, their only level eight gymnast.

Six other girls will compete at level seven while nine boys are part of the squad. Overall, 72 boys will take to the apparatuses.

“Gymnastics is a very good background in teaching how to roll out of situations safely,” Jarry said.

“It teaches you agility, balance, core strength, upper body strength.”

She was unsure how the home-club gymnastics would fare, with the invitational coming early in the competition season.

“It’s a crystal ball. It’s one of the first competitions, I don’t know where everyone else sits, we haven’t competed against anyone else this year,” she said.

"I hope we have a chance to podium but we’ve got clubs from Melbourne that complete a few more hours (training) a week than we do.

“I have a motto: If you do your best and you haven’t won, you’ve still done your best. You need to come away with a smiling face. If you have a medal, it’s a bonus.”

The invitational doubles as a wildcard qualifier for Gymnastics Victoria’s state pennant later this year.

Action at the Hyland Street centre runs from 8am to 8pm on Saturday and from 8am to 5.30pm on Sunday.