Date: Saturday 11th May 2019 - Sunday 12th May 2019 at Telford International Centre
Entries close: 2019-04-12
Entry ages: 9 years +
The English Championships Qualification round 2 event was held in Telford on 11th & 12th May. This was Albie Vaughan, Benjamin Spence, Rhiannon Monie and Molly McGregor competing in Silver and James Able and Zach Goggin competing in the Gold group.
For those in the Silver group, this competition was all about exposure to national competitions, in readiness for more for next season than this. There objective for the weekend was to complete 2 x 10 bounce routines.
First up on Saturday, in his first national competition was Benjamin, who had needed to learn some new moves just to compete at this level, was unsurprisingly very nervous. But he overcome these nerves with some good warm up routines, followed by an excellent set routine, probably one of his best yet. Unfortunately, a small error on his second routine meant he was unable to complete the second routine, but for a first outing this was a great result.
Next to compete was Albie, who has only been in the sport since the beginning of the year, coming from a diving background has catapulted through the skills, like Benjamin learning skills for the competition. Albie had a rocky first routine, after being off balanced in a straight back somersault, but he pushed through and completed the 10 bounce routine. His second routine was much stronger with a solid finish. Albie’s scores ranged from high 6’s to low 7’s, finishing 18th out of 24, which is great for a first timer.
Next up was Rhiannon, who was competing for the second time this year at this level, competing at 11-12 year group, Rhiannon was up against girls with this more than 3 times the difficulty, but this did not deter her, as she performed 2 solid routines and an astounding HD score of 9.9 out of 10 on her second routine.
Last but not least for the Saturday was Molly, who in the same group as Rhiannon; a total of 76, faced similar challenges. Molly did an excellent job and finish in 52nd place which is very respectable considering the difference in difficulty. Molly’s execution scores were low to mid 7’s and an average HD score of 9.5. So a good finish to day one.
First up on Sunday, after a demo at Coach Ali’s wedding on Saturday evening was Zach. The boys were competing in the gold competition, where the difficulty is increased and even their set routines include 2 double somersaults. Zach had a challenging warm up getting used to the trampolines, but pulled off a great set, with an excellent 9.7 HD score. Unfortunately, Zach was unable to finish his voluntary routine so finished the day 16th out of 18.
James was on the same flight with Zach and unlike Zach, went wrong on his set as he did a wrong move so stopped. Which is unfortunate as we found out later in the English it is OK to switch moves in set, unlike the British qualifiers. James did go on to complete his voluntary routine, the second time he has competed his 11.6 tariff.
However, the boys were able to redeem themselves in the senior synchro, where they took gold for the second time this year and which puts them through to the English Championships final in the Autumn.
Credit should be given to all competitors, who with their own development plans are stretching the boundaries and stepping up to a different level.
Thank you also for helps on the days; Nicky Anderson and Anthony Goggin and a special thanks to the parents that stayed to support the Silver team, that was really welcomed.