2006 International German Student Trampolining Competition

Last weekend three competitors from Cambridge University Trampoline Club travelled to Mainz in Germany for the Internationale Deutsche Hochschulmeistershaften 2006 which, for those who can’t read German, roughly translates as the 2006 International German Student Trampolining Competition. We arrived at lunch time on Friday and met up with some lovely people from Staffordshire University in a pub in Mainz. After a few pre competition drinks it was off to the sport’s centre to meet the Germans, to have a warm up on the trampolines and for more drinking whilst playing uno!

On the morning of the competition, we were rather rudely awakened from our very uncomfortable beds (a wooden floor) by a loud buzzer at eight in the morning. Breakfast was served and the competition began. The first person up was Lee Meakin in the men’s individual category. After a good preliminary round Lee finished with a set score of 22.2 and a vol score of 25.8 giving a total of 48.0. This score was just enough to allow qualification to the final round as he finished in 11th place with the top 15 qualifying for the final round. The second competitor from Cambridge was Kate Gladders in the women’s individual round. Kate performed two very impressive routines, even though the set included her nemesis (a front drop!) and got very high marks from the judges finishing 7th overall going into the final. Charlotte Pocock was our 2nd person up in the women’s individual. Her set was solid and her vol well executed, receiving high marks from the judges. Charlotte’s total mark was 46.1 which meant she finished in 25th place so missed out on the final round.

Next up was the synchro. Charlotte and Kate had being doing really well in their warm ups but a discrepancy between their two sets meant they were marked out of seven. However they performed an excellent vol getting an impressive 9.2 out of 10 for their synchronisation. Unfortunately this was not enough to get them through to the final round.

In the final after some excellent routines from all finalists, Lee finished in 10th place and Kate 7th with total scores of 73.5 and 85.1 respectively.

Afterwards followed a rather prolonged awards session (further prolonged since none of us understood German) which included a very impressive acrobatic display on bikes; particularly appropriate for the Cambridge students. Then came the infamous post-competition social. Apparently shower parties are the norm after all German student trampolining competitions!

We then spent the Sunday morning enjoying another local German bar before heading back to England. All in all the competition was great fun for all and would recommend that everyone enters in future years, especially if you enjoy stripping off and enjoying a glass of champagne or two in the shower!