TRAMPOLING champ Paul Chambers has won a place in the national Schools Trampoline Championships in Birmingham on Saturday March 14.
Haslingden High School student Paul, 17, won his place after competing in the North West round at Wigan in November.
Paul, from Year 13, said: “I came first and that meant I went through to the next round which was for the whole of the North of Britain and was held in Belfast in January.
“There I came second in my age group, which means I will be representing the North and Haslingden High School in the national final this month.
“I started trampolining just for fun when I was at Waterfoot Primary School and I started to get more serious in about 2007/8 and started entering competitions.”
In 2011, when he was in Year 9 at Haslingden High School, he came third in the final.
“Then there were only two categories – novice and elite – but now there are three with an intermediate category, which is where I compete,” said Paul.
“Last year I got to the North of Britain final but didn’t get through, so I am really pleased to be in the national final this year.
“I train at Bury Trampoline Club for four hours each week and in the final I will be competing in the Under 19s category.”
Paul is currently studying his A levels, of course PE is one of them. Although he hopes to go on to university, he does not know what career he wants to go into.
“Trampolining is good fun and I like what I do, but if I was to take the sport up competitively I would have to train a lot more than four hours a week and I don’t want to do more,” he said.
“I am the only one from my school entering the competitions, but some schools enter teams of students, like in the Wigan competition, and that is really nice because everyone is friendly.”