A TWELVE-year old student at Haslingden High School competed in two national finals over two days and came away with a medal.
Ben Wilson not only helped the boys’ team to second place at the Schools’ Trampoline Championships in Wigan for the final, he then travelled to London and came 48th in the final British Schools Biathlon Championships at Crystal Palace.
He said: “We managed to get an early slot for the trampolining competition and then it was straight to Preston railway station and down to London.
“At the biathlon I was a bit nervous because I was the only one from my school taking part that day, but the girls, who had competed the day before, stayed and cheered me on.
“Afterwards we went into London and someone gave us free tickets to go on the London Eye.”
The school’s Under 14s Intermediate trampolining team also featured Year 7 students: Max Constant, Jack Waters and James Peacock.
Year 13 student Paul Chambers also earned a place in the final after competing in the regional heats in Gateshead.
Max, 11, took part even though he had been in hospital the previous week with fluid on his hip and is still on crutches.
He said: “We get marked on part of the warm up and then all four of us do a set routine and our voluntary routine. The best three marks from each section count.
“On my voluntary I did a routine that was easier than I would normally would do so that there was not as much pressure on my hip, however it was still throbbing when I got off the trampoline.”
The team was delighted with second place as they had expected to come third.
Paul was competing in the Under 19s in his last competition for school before going to university.
He said: “When I was doing my voluntary routine I almost hit the side and I had to quickly recover to finish.
“You have to complete 10 moves in about 16 seconds and you have to do them twice, this happened in the second half of my performance. I wanted to get better than sixth because I have been in three national finals and each time I was sixth, Now I am just going to do trampolining for fun.”
The biathlon was contested over two days with the girls’ heats on Saturday.
Alice Harding, 16, competed in the Under 17s and came second. She said: “I had the fastest time in my age group for the swim and I was pleased to come second. I might compete again next year.”
Emily Nuttall, 12, and Beth Hartwell, 11, both won places in the final of the Under 12s.
Emily came 124th and Beth was 37th. Both admitted it was a bit scary because of the large number of schools that were also competing.
Emily added: “It was quite hard, but it was also fun and it was an experience that I have never had in my life. I had never really been to London and especially to a stadium.”