Georgia Parker and Mason Parker-Groves were both flying high at the trampoline English Championships this month at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.
Both Okehampton Flyers gymnasts qualified for the English Championships by achieving top placings at the English qualifying competition at Telford International Centre in July. Only 16 gymnasts per age group qualify to compete at the English Championships. The English Championships is against all of the British Gymnastics clubs in England and is run by English Gymnastics, part of British Gymnastics.
In the qualifying round, trampoline gymnasts compete a compulsory routine and a voluntary routine and are marked on form, travel, routine height, and skill difficulty. These scores are added together for the total score. Gymnasts who achieve a top 8 place in the qualifying round compete again in the final, to achieve the final rankings.
This was Georgia and Mason’s first year competing at national level trampoline. Georgia achieved high scores in the qualifying round with a high difficulty, and after a tense final, produced a high scoring routine to win the English silver trampoline 15-16 girls event. Mason came 4th in the qualifying round with two neat routines, came 5th in the final for 9-10 boys. Both gymnasts increased their routine difficulty ready for the event.
Vicki Pritchard, Georgia and Mason’s coach, said: “Georgia and Mason have worked extremely hard this year at their training and conditioning, and I’m really proud of their achievements in their first year competing at national level trampoline. They’re continuing to work on refining their technique and working higher level skills for next year.
“We have a number of other gymnasts working towards national level and we are continuing to run trials for our squads, to give more young people the opportunity to achieve at a high level if they would like to.”
Okehampton Flyers Gym, Trampoline & DMT Club trains at Parklands Leisure Centre and Okehampton College. The club has set up extra sessions in trampolining and tumbling this term for 3-18 year olds and is also trialling for its 5-9 year old squads. Children don’t need any experience of gym or trampolining to trial. For more information or to apply for their squad trials, please email Vicki at vicki.pritchard@okehamptonflyers.org.uk.