Our members Elliot and Alex can be extremely proud of themselves after competing at the 2018 National Finals in Nottingham.

Both boys were competing in their first season in DMT, and had earned their place in the finals having qualified through three sets of qualifying competitions since January, with only the top 8 in the UK in each group reaching this stage.

Neither gymnast displayed any signs of nerves as they marched out onto the competition floor of the Motorpoint Arena, with Alex finishing 7th in the 9-10 years NDP 1 category and Elliot achieving 6th position in the 11-12 years group. Both landed their first three passes, while Alex’s final pass concluded with his Front Somersault unfortunately receiving an extra deduction for putting his hands down, while Elliot’s spotter skill travelled a little too far meaning he wasn’t able to somersault off. This only cost them a place or two however, and each of them can hold their heads high with their excellent performances.

When asked, both of them came away having enjoyed the whole experience, and motivated to continue DMT and improve their skills.

We are incredibly pleased and proud of what each of them achieved this season – congratulations to both Alex and Elliot!

Visit the British Gymnastics website for the full set of results.

There was success for ATC members at the 2018 Regional Team Finals as both Alex and Elliot qualified for the NDP Finals!

It was an exciting weekend of Trampolining, DMT and Tumbling, as gymnasts from the whole of the UK travelled to the impressive Arena in Birmingham representing their respective regions.

Five members from Alton had qualified to be part of the Southern Team. Zaki was the lone gymnast on the Trampoline, while Alex, Elliot, Lorna and Katherine had all earned their place on the team through DMT.

Zaki and Katherine competed on the Saturday. Zaki, in his first national event, showed no signs of nerves to complete two solid routines in a very close NDP1 11-12 group, with less than 5 marks between the top 16 gymnasts. Zaki finished in a very respectable 15th place, and can take away a lot from his performance.

Katherine, in the DMT NDP5 15+ group, was competing in her 5th consecutive Regional Finals. Unfortunately she failed to land on her feet in her first pass, denying her the opportunity to compete for the medals this time around. She showed great attitude and competitive spirit though by subsequently producing three excellent passes, ultimately finishing in 13th.

On the Sunday, Lorna took the floor in the NDP2 13+ category. She hit every one of her passes, never landing in any of the penalty areas, and achieved her season’s best score while finishing in 20th place. It was a group of high quality, with every competitor completing their passes, and out of nearly 100 passes, only 3 saw any of the judges scoring less than a 9.

For Elliot and Alex, this was their first season competing in Double Mini-Trampoline, with both boys competing in the NDP1 group. Neither of them was phased by the scale of the competition and they each successfully completed all of their passes. Elliot finished in 6th place in the 11-12 group, while Alex came 8th in the 9-10 group, meaning that both of them have now qualified for the NDP Finals in July! For both of them it is an incredible achievement and will be an amazing experience.

Congratulations to all of our gymnasts and to the whole of the Southern Region, which finished 7th in both Trampoline and DMT. There was a fantastic team attitude shown throughout the whole weekend, with gymnasts and coaches all working together and supporting each other, and all were excellent representatives for the region.

Good luck to Alex and Elliot on the weekend of the 7th and 8th of July, as they now move on to the NDP Finals in Nottingham!

Full results and videos are available at https://www.british-gymnastics.org/event/8899/trampoline-and-tumbling-regional-team-final-and-ndp-qualification-2018.

Five intrepid Alton members made the trip over to the Isle of Wight to take part in the annual Novice and Synchronised Trampoline competition.

All of our members were taking part in the individual categories, which had been designed primarily for those gymnasts that had not had an opportunity to compete at the regional events this year, and offered the lower level routines.

Medals were awarded to competitors throughout the day based on their scores as opposed to placing. Achieving the first target score earned a bronze medal, with a higher target score earning silver, and the top scores earning a gold medal.

Sisters Elena and Federica both competed new routines in the Disability CDP4 category. Both did so well, and with Federica taking additional bounces it finished with Elena in first place and Federica coming second.

It had been almost a year since Reuben last competed, although he used his experience to pull off two solid routines. He finished 7th in the group, but scored high enough to earn himself a much-deserved bronze medal.

Brothers Calvin and Archer had never part ins regional event before. They both showed great composure and can take away a lot from their experience. Archer unfortunately was only scored out of 2 in his routines, but Calvin successfully completed his, securing third place in his group.

All of the gymnasts received fantastic support from their families, along with our coaches Stuart and Sylvia. Parent Melanie Lust commented “We had a lovely day, and big thanks to Stuart for coaching Reuben, and Sylvia for her support too. Super proud of Reuben getting a bronze medal today.” Cassandra Bos also praised the coaching team: “What a fun day! Thanks Stu and Sylvi for your fabulous support for the boys’ first competition”.

Well done to all of our members and hopefully they will all use the experience to continue to improve and enter more events in the future.

Stuart Sharpe confirmed his place in the British Championships with his fourth victory of the year at the second Spring Series event of the year in Sheffield!

Stuart produced two excellent routines to win the Disabilities Performance Category 1 Men group to earn his gold medal, to go alongside the others earned this year in the first Spring Series event and the two English Championship Qualifiers.

The competition is getting tighter, and Stuart admitted it wasn’t “such a considerable margin”, with some good routines from his fellow GB Squad members, including William Morton-Hall and Christopher Bermingham, who were ahead after the compulsory routines. It’s great to see the improvement of the group as a whole as the season continues, and the support everyone shows each other is sporting and genuine.

For Stuart, he has a few months to prepare for both the English Championships and the British Championships, and we hope he continues performing at the level he is now. Four wins is a fantastic achievement – congratulations!

All of the results can be found on the British Gymnastics website.

Congratulations to James, who won his first ever League medal after coming 3rd in the Trampoline League last weekend in Cardiff.

It was the second Trampoline League event of the season, and James followed up on a confident display in the first event to reach his highest placing, securing his first podium placing, his first medal at a League event, and enough points to guarantee him a place in the League Finals at the end of the year!

Pete Walley is also going to join James in the League Finals as he secured 5th place and enough points to guarantee a top 12 finish regardless of what happens at the next two competitions. Pete played it safe and completed two easier ‘Set’ routines, working on improving his form, and it proved the right thing to do and was shown in the improved Execution Scores he received. This will make it three year’s running that Pete has reached the Finals weekend – an excellent achievement!

Despite just missing out on League points by coming 26th, Chloe Ellis completed her hardest routine yet, with a 10-somersault voluntary routine this was the first time that Chloe had attempted this in a competition, so still plenty to take away. It was only Chloe’s lower HD scores which was the main difference between her and the other gymnasts around her.

Overall it was another good outing for ATC, and we’d like to thank everyone who gave time over the Bank Holiday weekend so that our members could take part.

If you are interested in the full results, they can be found on the Trampoline League website.

THREE WINS OUT OF THREE as Stuart’s fantastic season continued at the English Championships Qualifying event this past weekend.

Following his wins at the first Qualifying event and then the Spring Series a few weeks ago, Stuart Sharpe showed great confidence in all of his routines, consistently being awarded Execution scores in the 8s and improving on previous scores for both his voluntary and final routines. The results also confirmed his qualification into the English Championships in October!

Looking at the increased number of competitors in the group, and the continually improving scores it is clear that the quality displayed by all of the gymnasts in the category are increasing, which is great to see.

For Stuart and his coaches there are three weeks to prepare for the next Spring Series event. In the meantime, congratulations once again to Stu for this recent fantastic performance!

To view all of the results, visit the British Gymnastics website.

Stuart Sharpe continued his winning start to 2018 with first place at the Spring Series event in Telford.

Building on his performance at the English Qualifier a few weeks’ earlier, Stu showed a renewed sense of confidence as he included an additional somersault to compete a harder voluntary routine at this event. It proved to be a good decision as he was awarded the gold medal and got to stand on the podium alongside his fellow National teammates.

Stuart now stands in prime position for qualifying to the British Championships, taking place towards the end of the year.

Well done Stu!

Full results are available at https://www.british-gymnastics.org/event/8926/trampoline-and-tumbling-spring-event-series-1-2018.

It was a good start to the 2018 Trampoline League season with Alton members earning plenty of League points!

Following their appearance in the League Finals last year, Pete and James started solidly. After their initial two routines, both qualified for the group finals of their respective age groups, with James qualifying in 5th place and Pete in 2nd. James then remained in 5th with his final routine, while Pete used the opportunity to attempt a much harder routine, which didn’t quite pay off as he finished in 6th. League points are based on the placings after the initial two routines, which meant that James scored 40 points for coming 5th, and Pete received a massive 75 points for placing 2nd after the initial routines!

In the 11-12 years League 3 group, Jonty was taking part in his first national trampoline competition and did incredibly well. Everyone was delighted with his performance as he completed both routines and achieved 10th place.

Chloe Ellis, consistent throughout the whole of last year, was again in the points, securing 19th place in the large group of Over 19 Ladies. Her second routine especially showed what she is capable of, scoring a personal best with it and a whole mark higher than any routine she had completed previously.

Hattie was competing in a national Trampoline competition for the first time in a few years and improved on her last performance with the hardest routine she has competed to date. Hattie finished 45th in the second largest group of the event, and hopefully this performance is the start of her continuing to improve in both form and the difficulty of her routines.

Our only League 2 competitor, Alec Laurie, had a tough experience just getting to the venue! Being stuck in traffic for hours beforehand, Alec arrived at the venue in time to get one warm-up before competing. Despite this he managed to pull off both routines and earn himself 20 League points with a 10th place finish. A marked improvement over his performance in a University competition the day previously where he managed a total of 5 moves in the whole event!

There was a great team vibe across the competition, with team members staying at the event to support each other. Coach Lee Parrott described herself as “One very proud coach” after watching the display of our gymnasts and their camaraderie throughout. Well done to all of our competitors and best of luck for the season ahead!

As always, full results are available on the Trampoline League website.

CONGRATULATIONS to our four newest judges, who have all now passed their Level 1 Trampoline Judging qualification.

Jasmine Sibley, Vicky Othen, Judy Plumridge and Kerry Wells (photo pending…) all took their Club Judge course course and assessments a few weeks ago, and all came through it with flying colours!

For Vicky, Judy, and Kerry this was an even more impressive achievement – all of them being parents with little prior experience of judging. They all worked hard and made extra time to practice with the club members, and it paid off as they are all now qualified judges.

The advantage of having more qualified judges at the club means that we can enter more members into competitions, and also allows the jobs to be shared out throughout the year, so the same people are not required to judge at each competition. We continue to offer support and guidance to all of our officials as well.

Congratulations once again them all!

Stuart Sharpe started his 2018 competition campaign in style by winning GOLD at the first English Championships Qualifier in Gillingham!

It was Stuart’s first national event since failing to finish a routine in the Spring Series competitions last year, and he quickly banished all memories of that with some controlled routines. Ranked in first place after his initial two routines, Stuart managed to still improve, and received his highest score in the Final to secure first place. This puts him in a strong position to qualify for the English Championships later in the year, while also demonstrating why he recently retained his spot in the National Disability Squad.

Philip Sharpe, Stuart’s Dad, was proud of his son’s “great performance”.

Well done to Stuart, and best of luck to him for the rest of the season!

Full results are available at https://www.british-gymnastics.org/event/9063/trampoline-and-double-mini-tramp-english-championships-qualification-series-1-2018.