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International Age Group Games 22nd September 2005
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| Hannah & Stacey on the podium Picture © Craig Bellis 2005 - see Craig's website for more pictures from the event. |
Hannah showing off her gold medal. Picture © Dave Kingaby 2005 |
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| Picture © Brentwood Gazette 2005 | ||
Brentwood’s World Champion
For 18 year-old Hannah Davies 2005 started well with early qualification to the British National Trampoline Finals but then the stresses of studying for 5 A-Levels and a persistent injury seemed certain to wreck her year. As a valued member of the British squad Hannah was referred to top sports physios but they were unable to get her fit in time for the British Finals. Persistency in training however, and outstanding exam results (5 A grades), gave Hannah the lift she needed as she prepared for the World Championships last month.
Held every 2 years, the World Championships take place over two weeks with the senior ages competing in the first week and the ‘age groups’ in the second week. Hannah arrived in Eindhoven on the middle Sunday together with 1,250 other performers from 41 countries with two days to prepare for her performances in the 17-18 age group where she was in both individual and synchronised events.
Hannah had been training her individual routines well in preceding weeks and was quietly confident she could do well but synchronised trampolining raises the difficulty bar since not only are the performers assessed for the quality and difficulty of their performance individually, they are also assessed for how synchronised they are in their moves, height and timing. In this competition Hannah was paired with 17 year-old Stacey Dann from Somerset. Never having trained with Stacey before the pairing seemed unusual as Stacey is a good few inches taller than Hannah – in the event though the choice was inspired as the girls jelled together to form a really tight synchro pair.
With the 17-18 age group competing on the first day of competition, Hannah did not have long to wait to test herself. One of four British hopefuls in the 17-18 group she was the only one to make it into the finals and did so convincingly, her partner Stacey was less fortunate and just managed to complete her routine. Fortunately in the synchro preliminary round Stacey was in good form again and Hannah and Stacey out classed everyone in their group performing a superb routine taking the lead by a massive 2.7 straight into the final!
In the individual final, Hannah’s first skill travelled leaving her a lot of work to do for the rest of the routine. She picked it up well, however, to finish the highest difficulty routine she had ever competed and although equal-scoring 3rd place just missed the medals with 4th place under tie-breaker rules.
No such rules were needed in the synchro event where Hannah and Stacey once again put in the best trampoline synchro performance becoming World Synchro Champions in the 17-18 age group.
Speaking after the event Hannah said “The competition atmosphere was daunting but my training was good and I had confidence in my ability to complete my routines successfully. Gaining a gold medal in a world championships felt amazing and it has given me confidence for the future.” Hannah’s planning has London 2012 firmly in sight.
Hannah trains four nights a week at Brentwood Trampoline Club (based at Brentwood School Sports Centre) which can now claim to cater for performers of all ages and ability from beginners to world champions. The club can be contacted either through its website www.brentwoodtc.org or by telephone on 01277 220722.