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Gymnast Beth Williamson and her coach Sarah Madge travelled to Rimini, Italy, on 29 May with the Great Britain team to take part in the 2022 European Championships.
Beth successfully made the Senior Double Mini Trampoline (DMT) team after hitting qualification scores at all the qualifying events that took place at the beginning of the year.
This was Beth’s first selection to a European senior team after COVID-19 restrictions meant she missed two that she had qualified for. In 2016 Beth competed as a Junior in the European Championships and won Bronze individually but was looking forward to becoming a Senior European medallist one day.
Beth competed on 1 June in the qualification event and not only helped the team to qualify for the team finals, but also qualified herself into the individual finals in 5th position.
On 3 June the team finals took place and along with three of her teammates, Beth helped lead the team to gold and they were crowned European Champions, ahead of Portugal and Spain.
On 5 June, Beth competed as an individual in the final after a very long week she produced a lovely pass and finished 6th place in Europe.
Beth told birkenhead.news, “I’ve represented Great Britain six or seven times. This is my first ever senior European Championships that I’ve been selected for. I’ve competed in a junior before, but I’ve tried three times to make the senior team, so it just felt amazing to finally actually do it!”
“I think the main aim is to achieve what you want to achieve and make the final,” she said. During times when the team wasn’t competing, they would find ways to enjoy themselves. “As a team, we go out there and we do a lot of team bonding, as well as competing. We spent time at the beach or going on walks. We had a really good time and had a lot of fun.”
On the team’s success, Beth said, “We’ve been trying to win a gold for five years and every year we’ve come home with a silver. I think I was just bawling, crying, as soon as the results came on the screen!”
Sarah, Beth’s coach, said, “I’m incredibly proud of this young lady, she has worked so hard to achieve this and she did herself, country, family and our club proud.
“To place 6th individual and to also be crowned European champion is a massive achievement and it was a privilege to be at the event watching her achieve this. She is an incredible role model for our athletes, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
Coach Sarah was also successful in being selected as part of the coaching team for the event. Sarah has now been coaching for 18 years beginning coaching at the age of 13 when she discovered a love for gymnastics. This year Sarah was offered a job as a Junior Great Britain national coach and has taken up the role and is looking forward to helping share her passion for the sport.
The pair train and coach at Birkenhead trampoline club, which is based in Drill, Grange Road West in Birkenhead. The Drill centre was set up in 2011 as a community asset transfer from the council and is a community run centre that offers trampolining and gymnastics to all ages of the community from tots – adults.
Birkenhead trampoline club is based within drill and have trained many international athletes in the past. Sarah recently took over the club as Head coach and is now the managing director of Drill. Sarah said, “We are extremely excited to see what the future hold for the centre.”
If anyone would like to be involved in our sport, club or centre please contact Sarah on: sarahbtc@outlook.com
Image: www.fotopiaimages.com
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