Date: Saturday 2nd December 2017 - Sunday 3rd December 2017 at Copper Box, London
Entries close: 2017-10-31
Entry ages: 9 years +
Following a long season of highly intense competitive activity, six Cambridge Cangaroos trampoline gymnasts including one Synchro pair travelled to Lea Valley Velodrome at the Olympic Park to take part in the 2017 Trampoline League Finals. Competitors from all over the UK had competed in four qualifying events from Cardiff to South Shields and Wigan to Gillingham to achieve sufficient ranking points to qualify for these finals. Throughout the year Cangaroos had seven gymnasts compete in the qualifiers and all but one achieved sufficient ranking points to qualify for this prestigious competition.
Saturday morning beckoned and it was an early start for two of our gymnasts, plus our coaches and officials as warm-ups began at 8.20am. With twenty four gymnasts in each competition, it would be a long morning of competitive activity. As expected, the quality of performance was high throughout the Saturday preliminary rounds and it was going to take maximum efforts from our gymnasts to reach the Finals on Sunday.
First to compete was Macy Dexter, competing in the 11-12 League 3 Womens competition. Macy had qualified to the Finals ranked in 11th place and was looking to improve on this in the preliminary rounds and hopefully achieve the top eight and reach the competition finals on the Sunday. Two solid routines score her take 13th place with a score of 79.055, a good result, but sadly she didn’t make the Finals.
Next up was Sydney Kelly, competing in the 15-16 League 3 Womens competition. Sydney had qualified through to the Finals in =3rd position and we were hopeful for a good result. Unfortunately, Sydney was judged to have done an illegal 11th skill in her 1st routine which cost her 1 mark from each judge and resulted in a final score of 82.755 and 11th place, and like Macy did not progress through to the Finals.
The afternoon session began with Abhi McDonald Marlow competing in the 11-12 League 2 Mens competition. Abhi went into the Finals in =5th position, so again we were hopeful he would make finals. Two excellent routines saw him qualify through to Sundays final in 1st place with a score of 84.705.
Gabriel Strydom-Green was next up, competing in the 13-14 League 2 Mens competition. Gabe had qualified through to the finals in =7th so it looked tight for him to qualify to Sundays finals. But two excellent routines also saw him qualify through to Sundays finals in 1st place with a total score of 83.375.
Last to compete on Saturday were Zach Goggin and James Able, in the 15-16 League 1 Mens competition. James had qualified in 5th place and Zach in =6th. Two solid routines from both James and Zach saw them both progress through to the finals with James in 3rd position with a total score of 84.505 and Zach in a close 4th position with 82.94.
So we finished the day with four finalists, with 2 in 1st place, one in 3rd place and one in 4th place. Tomorrow, not only would our individual gymnasts take to the skies, but our synchro pairing would compete as well.
Day two started later as our gymnasts watched the disability gymnasts and the League 3 competitors take to the floor. Our synchro pairing of Gabe and Abhi took to the warm-up and were soon in competition. As it was the final, there was only one routine to compete. A good solid score from both of them, with excellent synchro scores saw them narrowly miss the Bronze medal and they had to settle for 4th place. But a good start to the day.
A short time to chill and Abhi was next up to compete in his Final. His scores were almost an exact repetition of the previous day, but he was pipped into 2nd place by just 0.2. So, with a Final score of 46.24, he was delighted to take the Silver medal.
Gabe was next to compete, and he pulled out all the stops to record his best mark of the day. At first we thought he’d taken the silver medal, which would have been a great result, but watching from afar, one of our coaches (Frankie), noticed that his difficulty score had been incorrectly recorded on the results sheet. An intervention by our Head Coach and Gabriel was elevated into the Gold medal position and become League Champion with a total score of 46.255.
Last to compete were James and Zach in what was a very competitive Final. All 8 finalists competed their routines, which at this level is very hard to do. James scored 47.105, which was a big improvement on his preliminary round score, but unfortunately was relegated to 5th position. Zach was able to maximise his opportunity and with a score of 48.435 climbed up one place to take the Bronze medal and 3rd position.
Over a thousand gymnasts competed in the qualifying events from more than Fifty clubs and Cangaroos were proud to be part of the events.
So, congratulations to Abhi, Gabe, Zach, James, Sydney and Macy for their fabulous results and as always, a huge thank you to our officials and coaches, without whom we couldn’t take part in this or any similar event.
Our 2017 competitive year ends on December 17th when we host our own Club Competition at Cambridge Regional College. As usual we’ll have all the NDP events, our always popular Fancy Dress Synchro and this year our Roulette Synchro, but the highlight for many is when we drag our reluctant coaches onto the trampoline to compete for the Ego Cup. So come along and make it day of fun and great competition to remember.