Kingston Trampoline Academy, Events

Congratulations All!
National finals weekend 15 - 16th July
NEC Birmingham
The 2006 British National Trampoline Finales were held in Birmingham at the NIA. The event lasted two days and was on the weekend of 15th/16th July. Kingston Trampoline Academy had six gymnasts at the event: Emma Britton, Elise Gibbins, Andrew and Michael Freeman Matt Dries and Michael Wood.
The preliminaries where held on the Saturday and the top eight gymnasts made it through to the finals on the Sunday. The first group up from KTA were the Under 19 boys in the morning. Matt, Andrew and Michael W were in the first flight and competed their compulsory and voluntary straight away with no warm ups, just a one touch. Matt was up first and completed two solid routines and finished 6th after the first flight. Next up was Andrew who had only been back training for two weeks after his injury at the Europeans. He completed his compulsory which scored the second highest in the first flight. His voluntary was a 12.00 difficulty and he performed it well scoring low to middle sevens. Andrew was ranked 1st after flight one. Michael Wood did a solid compulsory placing him in 3rd place. Michael performed a new voluntary of 11.50 and performed it well scoring in the same region as Andrew. Michael was placed 2nd after flight one. The first flight saw an unusual amount of crashes within the group but all the KTA members stayed strong.
In flight two Michael Freeman was the only KTA member. Like the others he only got a one touch before competition. Michael performed the highest scoring compulsory routine of the group scoring high sevens and a few eights. His voluntary was the highest in the group performed at 13.30, because of the high tariff his execution was not as high as usually but he scored well and finished the preliminaries. At the end of the competition Michael F was 1st, Andrew 3rd, Michael W 4th and Matt 8th.
In the afternoon Emma Britton and Elise Gibbins bounced in the Under 13 girls and Andrew and Michael Freeman in the Men's event. First on was the girls, Emma Britton was on first and competed the highest compulsory score leading her in first. He voluntary was one of the highest at 8.30 and she executed it brilliantly also scoring some of the highest form marks which put her in 1st place after the two rounds. Elise Gibbins performed one of her best compulsory routines and scored well placing her in 6th place. In the voluntary she was going for a new high tariff of 7.90, her routine was going well up until move five where she jumped onto the frame pad. Elise was upset but is now looking forward to next year.
In the Men's event Andrew and Michael Freeman finished 11th and 14th. They were using it for a practice for tomorrow's completion as they realistically knew they wouldn't make the final.
At the end of Saturday KTA had five finalists with three in medal positions. The gymnasts and coaches would like to thank the members of the academy who came up to watch and support.
Sunday was finals day and the gymnasts where excited and looking forward to competing. The Under 19 boys were the second flight of finals to take place. Matt Dries was up first as he was coming 8th; it was Matt's first ever National Finals and he made the final. His routine was good and scored well but not as much as on Saturday. He could relax and watch the competition. Next on was Michael Wood who was in 4th, his training had not gone well in the morning but his competition was good and he scored well and was pleased with his performance as he had stayed on in all three rounds. He maintained his position and waited to see if he could medal. Andrew was on straight after and again performed well staying on the trampoline and scoring the highest form marks. He, like Michael stayed in their positions. The gymnast in 2nd made an error on his last move which placed him in 3rd place; Andrew and Michael W where in 1st and 2nd. Michael F was last to compete and kept his nerves performing his 13.30 again but his form was not strong. Michael F came 2nd after Andrew by 0.20 so it was very close; he was disappointed but pleased that he came second. KTA had 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 8th!
Emma Britton was a few flights later and was lying first by 0.70. Emma's routine was brilliant and very neat scoring the highest form again in her group; she gained 0.30 on her competitors to win by a whole mark. Emma was delighted with the result, improving on her highest position of 2nd in 2004.
The academy performed amazingly well for it's first ever National Finals - 2x National Champions (Gold), 1x Silver, 1x Bronze.