Date: Saturday 25th October 2014 - Sunday 26th October 2014 at Jumpers Rebound Centre, Gillingham
Entries close: TBC
Entry ages: 4 years +
Three Cambridge Cangaroos Trampoline gymnasts made their way south to the 2014 Dave Ward Hunt International Cup competition, combined with the third of the new National Trampoline League events in Gillingham.
This was the clubs first entry into an international competition and we were unsure of what to expect. Additionally, this was the clubs first entry into the National League as we had not been able to attend the previous two events. The two days were to prove engaging and extremely worthwhile for all concerned.
First to compete was Mila Feldman in the 12-13 L3 girls event. Mila was competing in her first ever National competition and obviously nerves played a part. A well performed first routine was marred by an error on her last move, which meant that she was only marked out of 9 skills instead of 10. Despite this, she averaged 6.6’s from the judges. She completed her 2nd routine without mishap and this averaged 7.3’s. Giving her a final placing of 27th out of 41 competitors. Had she managed to complete her 1st routine, she would have achieved around 17th place, so it was an excellent debut for this young lady.
Next up was Zach Goggins in the 12-13 L3 boys event. Like Mila, this was Zach’s first competition at a national level and again there were a lot of nervous people around. However, Zach rose to the occasion and performed a good 1st routine, averaging scores of 7.4. For his 2nd routine he undertook the most difficult routine he had ever performed in competition of 6.7 difficulty tariff and he averaged 7.2’s from the judges. This earned him a place in the final in 3rd place. An improved routine with average scores of 7.5’s as part of an extremely close final between the top four competitors. There was just 0.5 separating 1st from 4th and Zach took and excellent silver medal.
Last up was Matthew Burson. Matthew was competing in the L2 of the Dave Ward Hunt international, with all scores also being added to the National League ranking. The Dave Ward Hunt Cup is an international event for clubs and gymnasts who are able to fulfil the international criteria of the routine requirements. With competitors from Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Latvia, and Wales and all over the UK, this was a truly international field.
Matthew performed an excellent set routine averaging 8.1’s from the judges and his highest ever competitive difficulty routine of 8.6, which scored 7.8’s on average. Unfortunately for Matthew the Time of Flight devices weren’t working and Matthew’s flight time is one of the highest in the country for his age and grade. This meant he lost out on a potential improvement in his scores. He ended the day in 2nd place, going into the Zero based finals on the Sunday.
With just one routine to complete, pressure is always on any gymnast on finals day. Matthew however, remained unfazed by the event and pulled out an even better routine that the previous day averaging 8.0’s from the judges and with the Time of Flight machine working ended up with a winning score of more than 2.0 marks over the 2nd placed boy from Holland.
We ended the weekend with Gold for Matthew Burson in his first ever international and Silver for Zach Goggins in his first National competition. The club travels up to Liverpool this weekend for the final National League qualifying event of the season. The top 24 ranked competitors from the 4 league qualifiers will then travel to our very own Cambridge University sports hall to compete in the National League finals on December 6th. So far, things are looking good for Zach and Matt, with Mila looking to improve her performance and look forward to gaining some ranking points for the Cambridge finals.