World Championship Success
Jack Leahy Takes Silver Medal at 24th Tumbling World Championships 2015
Milton Keynes Gymnastics qualified two boys Jack Leahy (12) and Benjamin Goodall (17) to travel with the Great Britain team to the 24th FIG World Age Group Tumbling & Trampolining Championships 2015 held in Odense, Denmark between the 3rd to the 6th of December. The event was set to be a historic competition with team GB sending out their biggest tumbling squad to date.
Saturday 5th December 2015
First up of the Milton Keynes Gymnastics boys was 17 year old Benjamin Goodall, After being called up at short notice due to an injury he was out to prove a few things to everyone including himself that he deserved to be there. After a tough year of competitions and a fair few ups and downs it was time for the qualifying rounds to commence. Ben was up against some serious athletes from all over the world including current World Champions from the previous years so this added to the pressure immensely not only that Ben was in fact one of the last boys to compete overall putting all eyes on him when he stepped up onto the tumble track. After performing two amazing routines which were by far some of the cleanest routines so far Ben had qualified in 6th position. Scoring an incredible 33.400 on his first routine and 33.500 on his second combining together to make a total of 66.900 with only the top eight advancing through to the finals held later that evening. To add to it all Ben was in fact the highest qualifying gymnasts from the GB team in his age group and proved to everyone he was there to do his job to the fullest.
After a good few hours it was time for the finals with all eight boys looking to go for that World Championship title. Ben stepped up his game for the finals putting out a much harder end skill than in the qualifying rounds, a triple twisting double straight somersault (Miller) on the end to finish gave Ben a huge score of 34.400 putting him within just one mark of 3rd and placing Ben 5th in the World. What a fantastic achievement for Ben, family, coach and club. What makes this event and achievement so much more special is that this is the last time Ben can compete in the age groups before moving to senior level in 2017 when the next World Championships will be. Coming from the back as the reserve / underdog Ben came out on top as the highest placed and scoring Great Britain team member. Michael French (Personnel Coach) flew out to support Ben and got to witness such an amazing competition and couldn’t be any prouder of what Ben has accomplished over the years they have been together. From everyone at Milton Keynes Gymnastics especially your coach congratulations Ben you have worked so hard and deserve everything.
Finals Results Below