Esprit’s ‘Evolution’ brings GOLD for Trampoline gymnasts

2 April 2007

Trampoline Gymnastics looks set to be the next big thing in Swindon, if Stratton based, premier gymnastic club, Esprit has any thing to do with it.

Hannah Wickens (17), Carla Williams (13), Georgia Clements (10) and Clarice Saloyadoff (12) travelled to last weekends grading event in Wimbourne, Dorset and not only returned with 2 Gold’s and a Silver they won Team Gold & Silver as well. What was even more impressive was the fact that the girls had never competed in a trampoline competition, of any description, ever before.

Hannah and Clarice both took the Gold in their respective sections, with Clarice excelling and qualifying for grade 3, the first step on route to grade 2 and National competition. Georgia secured the Silver in her section and Carla was going well, all set for a high placing, but one small error in her second routine, caused by her obvious nerves, unfortunately meant she would have to wait to confirm the potential everyone who has seen her knows she has.

Georgia & Clarice took a well deserved team Gold with Erin Slater and Katherine Arnold, from partner club Evolution, whilst Carla did more than enough to help her team claim Silver in the team competition.

Since it opened, only 3 years ago, Esprit Gymnastics has already developed several Gymnastic Champions in both Rhythmic and Artistic Gymnastics including British Champion Laura Halford (10). But up until now the same success hadn’t been evident in trampoline.

But club Chairman Mark Hows said, “Trampoline has always been an important discipline for Esprit, we knew there were plenty of children that had talent in the town, but we don’t do things unless we can do them properly. So we have therefore, quietly and slowly, built an exceptional team dedicated to making trampoline as successful as our other disciplines. What we needed to make it complete was an exceptional High Performance level coach, who understood Esprit’s philosophy”.

“It has taken longer than we hoped, but we have now found one of the regions best coaches in Sarah Hunt, the head coach at Somerset based Evolution”,

Sarah assessed several of Esprit’s top performers and agreed they certainly had the potential to compete at the highest level. She then committed herself to a 2 hour round trip to Esprit’s Stratton facility, every week to coach the clubs top trampoline gymnasts, whilst still continuing to devote her time to her own incredibly successful competitors.

Sarah said, “It was an honour to be asked by Esprit to help out, it’s a long trip from Frome, but well worth it. The clubs trampoline gymnasts are exceptionally well conditioned and committed. I will be working closely with Esprit’s other coaches, with the aim of helping develop the trampoline side of Esprit. We all agree the most important thing is the gymnasts, all of whom have a right to achieve their true potential”.

Hows concluded, “now we have found Sarah we are keen to keep up the momentum and want to talk to anyone who understands talent identification, the need for perfection and getting the basics absolutely right. Sarah has been a godsend and we would love to hear from coaches willing to work with her and our other coaches to help continue building the best gymnastics club in the country”.