Date: Saturday 1st November 2014 - Sunday 2nd November 2014 at Liverpool
Entries close: TBC
Entry ages: 4 years +
A team of 5 trampoline gymnasts from Cangaroos, along with Head Coach Tony Fagelman and senior official Andrew Aistrup assembled in Liverpool on 1st November for the fourth and final National League qualifying event of the National League season. Due to half-term, none of the Cangaroos gymnasts had trained for a week, so there were some nerves ahead of their competitions.
1st to compete in the day was Ashlea Bucke, taking part in her first ever National competition in the League 3, 15/16 Girls group. Ashlea secured two very secure and competent routines and was delighted to finish the day in 15th place. An excellent outcome for her fist competition at this level. Mila Feldman was next to compete in the League 3, 13/14 Girls group, Mila was looking to build on her impressive performance at the previous weeks competition. Unfortunately, an error in her 1st routine resulted in a one mark deduction from every judge. However, she bounced back with an excellent second routine, recording her best set of marks ever at this level and showed great promise for future competitions. Had she been able to emulate her 2nd set of marks, she would have easily made the final. This time Mila had to settle for 17th place and secure knowledge that she can compete at the National level.
Following Mila, Zach Goggin was next to up in the League 3, 13/14 Boys group and he was looking to emulate the results of the previous week. His best ever 1st round score had him in 2nd place, he followed that up with another good 2nd round that put him into the final in 2nd place. More importantly though it secured 80 ranking points to go with his 60 scored the previous week in Gillingham and secured his place in the National League Finals in one months’ time. The final was an extremely close competition again and with just 0.5 separating 2nd place from 4th Zach was unable to keep up the high quality and slipped into 4th place.
In the afternoon, our League 2 trampoline gymnasts took to the competition floor. Taranne Kendon, was competing for the first time in over a year due to injury and was performing a reduced difficulty routine. Two good routines secured her place in the final in 7th place, but unfortunately an error on the 4th skill meant she slipped to 8th. She did however secure 32 ranking points and we wait for the final Rankings to find out if she has secured her place in the National Finals. In the meantime, Taranne, her family and the club are looking forward to the Living Sports Awards later this month as she is a finalist in the Young Volunteer of the Year Award. We wish her all the best for that event.
Our final competitor of the day was Matthew Burson, competing in the League 2, 13/14 Boys group. Flush after winning the Dave Ward-Hunt International the previous week and securing the maximum 100 ranking points for the League. Unfortunately, the Time of Flight recorders weren’t working for Matthew’s competition, which was a shame as he has a significant advantage on his fellow competitors as he bounces significantly higher than all of them. This time, he would have to rely on execution quality to secure his position. In the 1st round, Matthew scored his highest ever execution scores and moved into the 2nd round. An excellent 2nd round of scores and the highest difficulty tariff of the day took him into the final in 1st place. An almost identical set of execution scores for his final routine left him 4 marks ahead of his nearest competitor in 1st place. Plus a further 100 ranking points takes him into the final in December Ranked 1st in the Country.
So an excellent day all-round, with the team returning from Liverpool secure in the knowledge of a good job well done today. The club looks forward now to the results of the Ranking, due this week, to find out whether Taranne has made the finals with Zach and Matthew and to the Living Sports Awards evening. The next competition will be the Regional Schools competition in Hitchen on 30th November followed by the National League Finals on the of December 6th and 7th at Cambridge University Sports Centre. The week after Cangaroos hosts its own annual Club Competition at Sawston Sports Centre.