Last weekend one of our Scholarship Athletes, Will Gower, attended the BUCS Trampoline Championships at the University of Cambridge.

He competed in both the BUCS Elite Men’s individual event and the BUCS Synchronised pairs event.

Check out Will’s account of events below:

The Men’s Elite competition had 19 people in each group, each competitor does two routines and then top eight go through to the final where one more routine is competed.

“Warm ups had gone well and the first routine received mid 8's out of 10 for execution which I was happy with. I also received a personal best for horizontal displacement (small amount of travel from the centre) with a score of 9.45 out of 10.”

“The second routine I had designed to be slightly safe with easier moves than I am capable of to try to ensure I completed the whole routine without crashing. The tariff (10.0) was still higher than most competitors though so it should’ve, and did eventually, pay off. I hit the end deck mat on the out bounce however, receiving a 0.5 penalty from each judge. I thought that would cost me my position in the final so was surprised when I ended up qualifying through in 5th position.”

“It can be quite nerve-racking competing in the finals as you are the only person jumping in the whole hall; there are literally hundreds of eyes on you sitting in silence. It was not as strong as the second routine, but I completed all 10 skills and was able to fix the mistake on the last move (over rotating the double twisting double somersault) from the second routine that made me land on the mat at the end.”

“It was great to receive a bronze medal, an improvement from coming 4th last year. I'm proud to bring home 6 BUCS points for team Warwick!”

25 pairs were entered into the Synchronised competition but because the competition fell in the Easter holiday Will said he was unable to train in preparation with his partner, Rebecca Hallam, as much as he would’ve liked.

“Despite a lack of training together and some shaky warm up routines we were able to come third in our first ever BUCS synchro. We are looking forward to competing together again in the Southern University Trampoline League (SUTL) competitions where we have previously won synchronised categories.”

Will would like to thank his home club Ministry of Air for coaching him back at home out of term time and Rebecca for being such a strong synchro partner.