Trampolinists aim for Home Nations success

Scotland head for the Trampoline Home Nations Championships this weekend aiming to outshine their opponents and prove they have some of the best in the business.

A squad of 61 will make the journey to South Shields for this Sunday’s competition that will see some of the most talented trampoline competitors from Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales go head-to-head in this four team event.

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For City of Edinburgh Trampoline Club (CETC) head coach, Lauren Jeffrey, who is also travelling south this weekend as one of the national coaches, the competition is sure to provide a lot more “home comforts” than she may have envisaged.

With a strong 17 chosen for the national squad coming out of CETC, Jeffrey will be accompanied by a few familiar faces who will don the blue and white of Scotland.

Jeffrey said: “I never thought we would have as many selected as we have done from our club and I am so proud. It’s unusual for us this weekend as normally we compete individually, but the Home Nations is a team event where all the points are added up to give an overall tally for Scotland. Our guys will be going out to do their best as they always do, but it will be a bit different for them as they are contributing towards a team total.

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“I’m really excited about the competition. All the clubs in Scotland normally compete against one another so they will now be all team-mates, which is great.”

The impressive figure selected to represent Scotland for this weekend’s competition is just a small token of the Capital club’s achievements. A solid performance at the Scottish National DMT (Double-Mini Trampoline) Championships almost three weeks ago was rewarded with 13 medals from the club’s 22 qualifiers, and next month, the club is sending 23 qualifiers, the largest in Scotland, to the Scottish National Trampoline Championships in Perth.

Jeffrey paid tribute to all the contributions in making the club, which has only been running since 2006, a national success in a short space of time.

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“It’s so nice to be part of it all and I am so honoured to be at such a good club with all these up-and-coming, talented gymnasts. It’s great we have such a good committee with volunteers, parents, coaches, and even the gymnasts themselves who have been taking on a number of roles at the club. Without all of that, there is no way we would be achieving what we are. I just hope we go from strength to strength.”

With some of the country’s youngest stars to emerge from CETC, a statistic reinforced by the number of qualifiers in both recent and forthcoming events, Jeffrey is confident her students are more than capable of making the grade for future European and world competitions.

She said: “If they want to hit the highest level, there is nothing holding them back. I aim to attend an international competition next year so we are hoping to send some of our most advanced competitors and see how they get on. I want to give the kids the chance to experience the highest levels possible. It can be quite a difficult sport with the rules and requirements changing so your athletes have to be quite flexible.

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“We took a couple of them to watch a World Championship event in Birmingham and since then the difference in the kids has been phenomenal. They have now seen they can go as far as they want. It’s a lot easier to coach as they want all this for themselves.”