Date: Saturday 21st November 2015 - Sunday 22nd November 2015 at The Copper Box, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London
Entries close: 2015-11-03
Entry ages: 4 years +
So the Trampoline National League Finals had finally arrived. At the start of the League season, Cangaroos had 10 competitors taking part. After 4 rounds of competition, 8 had successfully achieved qualification to the Finals, being held at the iconic Olympic venue, the Copper Box. Unfortunately, due to injury, Mila Feldman had to withdraw for the League 2 Ladies 15-16 group and the club wishes her a speedy recovery. That left 7 gymnasts competing for places at the event.
Saturday was preliminaries and semi-finals day. Each competitor had to do their set routine and their voluntary routine. Groups with 20-24 competitors would have a semi-final of 14 gymnasts to determine the top 8 for Sunday’s final. Groups with 19 or less would mean the top 8 would progress directly to Sundays Final.
First to compete were Sydney Kelly in the League 3 Ladies 13-14 group and Gabriel Strydom Green in the League 3 Mens 11-12 group. Sydney had come into the final ranked 22nd, Gabe was ranked 4th. Two good routines saw Sydney finish her flight in 9th place (after one earlier flight), but with the top 8 left to compete it was going to be close to make the top 14. Gabriel also did two good routines, and qualified for the final in 5th place.
Next up were Abhi Marlow-McDonald in the League 3 Mens 9-10 group, Trinity Kelly in the League 3 Ladies 13-14 group and Harry Mallows in the League 3 Mens 14-15 group. Abhi had qualified for the finals ranked 4th, Trinity was ranked 2nd and Harry was ranked 4th. Abhi had some of best scores of the season and qualified for the final in 4th place. Harry also scored well and also achieved 4th place going into the finals. Trinity recorded the highest Cangaroos scores so far and qualified for the semi-finals in 2nd place. Unfortunately, Sydney was relegated to 16th place after the final flight, and she missed the semi-finals. It was still an excellent effort though.
In the afternoon session, Zach Goggin was competing in the League 2 Mens 13-14 group and Matthew Burson in the League 2 Mens 15-16 group. Zach, ranked 3rd coming into the finals had been unable to train for the last 3 weeks due to a back injury and was still hampered with it, however, he still managed two good routines, even if he had to do an easier voluntary routine qualifying in 4th place. Last up to compete his preliminaries was Matthew Burson. Matt was going into the competition ranked 1st and after two routines was narrowly in 1st place for the final.
After a long afternoon session, the evening was taken up with the semi-finals. Trinity once more completed a high quality routine and qualified for the finals in 2nd place.
So, after 12 hours of competition, Cangaroos had successfully qualified 6 of our 7 gymnasts into the Finals, an excellent achievement and one the club should be proud of.
After a good night’s sleep, the Cangaroos team reassembled at the Copper Box to compete for medals. Head Coach, Tony Fagelman was hopeful of at least 2 medals and hoping for more.
Finals day started with Abhi, Gabe and Harry all competing at the same time. The Cangaroos coaches were scattered across the panels to support our gymnasts. The previous days scores are zeroed and with just one routine to impress the judges, execution was key to a successful performance and a potential medal.
Abhi was first up and a good routine brought about improved scores from the previous day resulting in 5th place finish for the young man. Gabe had very similar scores to his 1st voluntary routine, however, his peers improved and that saw him finish in 7th place, he should be very proud of his consistent performances.
Harry did a better routine than in the preliminaries and was placed, 4th, after a recount of his tariff, he was given a further 0.1, but this was just insufficient to bring him a medal. Looking for even better things next year from the young man.
Next to compete were Trinity, Zach and Matt, once again our coaches were all over the competition floor, supporting the gymnasts. Zach was still having back problems and once again opted to compete an easier voluntary and thus had a lower difficulty score. Despite this his form improved greatly and this saw him also placed 4th and after another enquiry into his difficulty scores, saw his score raised by 0.1, but unfortunately, similar errors had been spotted in the 3rd and 2nd placed gymnast and their scores were also updated, meaning Zach remained in 4th, tantalisingly just outside the medals.
Matt was next up and after watching his rival pull out an excellent routine, the pressure was on to perform. A good routine was executed, but not as good as in the preliminaries, however, a couple of small errors saw Matt take the silver, missing gold by the narrowest of margins, just 0.01.
Last to compete was Trinity, an excellent routine, improving on her preliminaries scores, put Trinity into 1st place with one to go, however, the remaining competitor also performed well and Trinity took silver also missing out by the narrowest of margins of just 0.01.
So, the Trampoline League season ended with Cangaroos achieving 8 Finalists, 6 reaching Finals day and 2 Silver medallists. An excellent end to a fabulous season of success.
The club would like to thank our officials from the weekend, Natasha Feldman, our judge and Kim Pearson, Simon Burson and Sine McDonald our marshals. We’d also like to thank our coaches, Francoise Lucas, Luis Pires and Tony Fagelman and back in the club, Ali Macrae for supporting our gymnasts at all the events and training throughout the year.
So as we say good bye to the League Season, the British Gymnastics NDP 2016 season starts in just two weeks' time on 6th December and we wish all Cangaroos gymnasts good luck in that event.