The British women’s trampoline team produced a sensational performance to claim the World Championship silver medal at the NIA in Birmingham. Emma Smith, Laura Gallagher and Kat Drsicoll all completed clean, precise routines to give GB a team total of 159.585 behind champions China (164.485) and ahead of Canada in bronze (159.085).
Kat Driscoll- “Winning the silver medal is amazing, when you think about it were the second best team in the world, now all we have to do is go one better and beat the Chinese. To come out and perform the way we did after the way we felt after the preliminaries is great. We are so happy and I am so proud! Looking back on yesterday’s competition (where Kat qualified an Olympic place for GB) it feels so good to have qualified a place for the Olympics, that was our main goal coming here so I’m very happy. There is a long way to go however and we have a lot to do before then.”
Emma Smith got GBR off to a fantastic start, with the format of the competition meaning every routine counts it was vital to start well and she performed her highly difficult routine brilliantly for 53.325. Laura Gallagher got huge height on her routine, with a substituted skill in the middle, but she kept her composure and completed the routine well to score 51.935 and keep GBR in the medal hunt. Kat Driscoll was the last up, two triple somersaults perfectly executed - the perfect routine to secure the silver medal for GB.
Earlier in the day, British tumbling Champion Kristof Willerton produced two precise, clean runs to give him 72.200 for 6th spot in a qualification competition dominated by the Chinese men. The British team qualified in third place for the team final.
The tumbling women all produced great performances with Rachel Letsche (3rd) and British Champion Zara Mclean (5th) leading the GBR team into the team final in second spot and also themselves into the individual final. Jennifer Dawes finished in 8th and would have also made the final had it not been for the two per country rule.
In the women’s double-mini trampoline, Britain’s Adeva Bryan and Robyn Osborne both showed great consistency in their performance across their qualification passes to comfortably navigate their way into Sunday’s final in 6th and 7th places and help this team through to the final on Saturday. Rhys Gray finished in 14th in the men’s DMT after two solid passes a fall for Peter Cracknell in his second pass left him down in 28th.
GBR tumbling and DMT qualification reports
DMT women – Courtney Warne began proceedings for the British team. She landed slightly short on her dismount skill and placed her hands down to score 31.700 for her 1st routine. Her second pass was better, a foot outside the landing zone but good work to score 32.100 for a total of 63.800. Georgina Varley started with a clean fist pass, a small step on landing to score 31.100 her second pass was very strong with a nailed landing to give her 32.700 for a 63.800. Adeva Bryan began nicely landing just outside the inner landing area she scored 32.500 with an excellent second pass showing great form and slight step at the end to scores a good 35.000 and total 67.500. British Champion Robyn Osborne 33.900 completed the British line up with a very neat solid pass to give her 33.900. Robyn’s 2nd pass was equally solid pass to finish off the British girls qualifications with a score of 33.600 a total of 67.500.
