Trampolining

season. Congratulations to all the players, and a big thank you to all the support crew – from coaches and managers to parents and friends – for all their encouragement during the season.

Congratulations to the following girls who have been selected to represent New Zealand in various age-group teams to compete at water polo championships being held around the world during the next few months: Morgan McDowall, Charlie Hooke, Sophie Shorter-Robinson, Eleanor Spillane, Maddy Gault, Abby Allison, Millie Quin, Jess ShorterRobinson and Isabella Broadmore.

Morgan McDowall will be heading off to Japan in preparation for the FINA World Championships to be held in South Korea from 14 – 28 July. This is the fourth senior major event in which Morgan will represent New Zealand, but her first Senior World Championships. Team New Zealand will match up against the Olympic gold medallists in their first game.

Charlie Hooke and Sophie ShorterRobinson have been selected to represent New Zealand at the World Junior (U-20) Water Polo Championships in September in Funchal, Madeira (Portugal Island). This is Charlie’s second tour at age-group level and 15-year-old Sophie will be making her New Zealand debut.

Eleanor Spillane, Maddy Gault, Abby Allison and Millie Quin have been selected to tour with the World Youth Squad to Europe in August. The aim is to prepare the squad for the World Youth Championship in 2020. The girls will head to France to play official test matches against the French national team, then on to Greece to train with the Greek national team and play in a six-nation tournament against Hungary, Italy, Greece, Serbia and China.

Jess Shorter-Robinson and Isabella Broadmore have been selected to represent New Zealand on the Junior Development Tour to Australia, and will compete at the Australian Interstate Championships in Sydney in July.

Well done to all these girls on their national selections, and the very best of luck for an exciting and successful representative experience.

Abby Mills (left); Halle Rankin-Hastie (second from left); Sienna French (fourth from left)

The 2019 Australian Gymnastics Championships were held in Melbourne recently, and included a trio of Dio trampolinists. Sienna French (Yr 10), Halle Rankin-Hastie (Yr 11) and Abby Mills (Yr 12) competed in the individual and synchronised trampoline disciplines, coming away with an impressive collection of results.

Halle and Abby competed as a duo in the Junior (U-22) Synchronised category, finishing fourth and narrowly missing out on a medal against very accomplished competition, which included Youth Olympians. They then placed second in the Trans-Tasman Teams category. Halle also collected a silver medal in the U-17 Individual category, while Abby did extremely well to secure a place inside the top 10.

Sienna medalled in all three of her events: silver in the Trans-Tasman Team Female – Individual category; bronze in the Youth (U-15) Individual category; and bronze in the Junior (U-22) Synchronised category. Sienna and her Christchurch partner, Brooke, competed against athletes close to eight years older than them. Sienna also achieved a new personal best score of 43.265in her individual ‘set’ routine.

All three girls train out of the Icon Trampolining Club in Mangere, and spend 10-12 hours a week on the trampoline. This means a rush from school to training, working under some of New Zealand’s finest ever trampolinists (including our first trampolining Olympian, Dylan Schmidt) and then rushing home to complete homework and assignments. The girls find balancing school and elite training a challenge. But Halle says it pays off in more ways than one: “It almost forces you to be proactive around schoolwork. Training doesn’t leave a lot of time to procrastinate.”

The girls have all trained together for around six years, with Sienna and Halle previously partnering up to claim awards at New Zealand Nationals, and representing New Zealand together at past World Championships. Trust is clearly an important component in the synchronised category and being able to pair up with a schoolmate is a bonus for the two older girls, as Abby points out.

“We both have to be on top of our game to get the best out of each other. Being schoolmates means we’re comfortable with challenging ourselves to aim for the best results.”

And that’s exactly what they’re doing. All three girls have their eyes firmly set on the future, with the 2022 Youth Olympics in Tokyo at the top of the list for 14-year-old Sienna.

“To qualify for Tokyo, you have to place first in the Australian Gymnastics Championships. Then a New Zealand trial process takes place, so it’s tough getting there. I have a couple of years to get it, though.”

The rate at which these three are competing and improving, it’s not an unrealistic goal.