Girls fly high

The trampolinists from Hitchin Girls' School have been flying high recently.

The under-15 novice team of Lucy Swinburne, Laura Hazell, Charlotte Abbott and Kirsty McQue finished in fourth place overall in the National Schools' Trampolining Finals in Birmingham at the weekend.

The girls qualified for the finals by finishing second in the East Region championships in December and second in the Zonal championships in January.

Lucy had also qualified as an individual, and finished in ninth place overall.

PE teacher Sara Edwards and coach Elliot Stratton both said that they were very proud of the girls' achievements against tough opposition in a high-quality competition.

* A trio from Richard's Trampoline Club travelled down to Chaseside, Bournemouth, for the second grade one of the season.

The grade one elite circuit draws the best gymnasts from all over Britain.

Nick Ledwold did not have the best start with his set routine, but his voluntary routine was much better.

He had the second highest difficulty level within his group which brought him up to 10th place, but just outside the finals.

Elliot Stratton had a disastrous set routine and was unable to complete all of his 10 skills.

He completed an excellent voluntary routine though, using the highest difficulty level within his group, and finished in second place for the voluntary routine.

But when the scores were combined, due to the penalties he suffered after his set routine, this left him outside of the top 10.

Michael Dodson successfully completed both routines, and qualified through to the finals.

He narrowly missed out on a medal in fourth place however.

Michael has suffered disruption to his training recently, and has decided to follow his big brother and join Levitation Trampoline Club in Brentwood, Essex.