A Southland trampolinist achieved new highs on a national stage early this month.
Fourteen-year-old Jakob Anderson, from Winton, won four gold medals in the four disciplines he competed in at the New Zealand Gymnastics Championships in Tauranga.
While this was not his first national competition, Jakob felt proud to represent the region in such an important competition.
"I feel pretty good, because a lot of my competition was more skilled than me and I was able to just beat them...
"It is pretty good to know that you’ve won and they have put in more work than the others."
Anderson started training with the Invercargill Gymnastic Club about five years ago after his coach noticed he had potential in the sport.
"I started doing the artistic stuff, but I wasn't very good at that when my coach suggested that I tried the trampolining side of things — I was a lot better at that."
His favourite thing about the sport was learning new tricks and jumping on the trampoline as it was really fun, he said.
He trained for about eight hours a week which he considered was not a lot compared to other gymnasts from the club, but nevertheless he was proud and enjoyed his development within the sport.
When asked about his secret weapon to achieve such a great outcome on the national stage, he said with a laugh, "I think I’m a lot tidier than most people. The other ones [were] just messy."
His coaches, Millie McKinsey and Lachlan Anderson, were very proud of Jakob’s achievements.
"He did really, really well. I’m really proud of how he went and honestly some of the stuff that he does I couldn’t even do when I competed," McKinsey said.
"He trained really hard and I’m really proud of how hard he’s worked and got as far as he has."
Coach Anderson agreed.
"He’s got lots of potential and he’s doing really well with how he's progressing and his training.
"In the last year and a half, probably he's stepped up to the skills that he's doing, which is nice."
After this great achievement, Jakob said he would now continue to train hard and work to one day represent his country on an international level.
In the meantime, the Invercargill Gymnastic Club will be hosting a tramp open day on Sunday at the gym club in Glengarry and tramp taster classes for five weeks from August 25.
For more information, go to the Invercargill Gymnastic Club’s Facebook page.
