Bidding to overcome the odds

Kaiya Huta (top) and Finn Vette are fresh from competing in the World Trampolining Championships in Denmark.

KAIYA Huta and Finn Vette both overcame pre-championship injuries to produce impressive performances at the World Trampolining Championships in Denmark.

Vette, who finished sixth in the 11-to-12-year double mini division, landed awkwardly on his right foot in training, a week before flying to Denmark.

“I thought I had broken my foot . . . the pain was that bad,” the Gisborne Intermediate student said. “I caught my foot between the mat and the double mini and had to go to hospital for an X-ray.

“Fortunately, Mum is a physiotherapist and I got good treatment, but I had to strap my ankle for the world champs and drop my degree of difficulty (DD), which in the end was the difference between us and the top trampolinists.

“They come from countries where trampolining is big, and are doing much higher DDs and amazing tricks.”

Despite the injury, Vette took on 23 of the world’s best 11-to-12-year-olds and was happy to make the final.

“I was really looking forward to competing — not nervous — and we got to see the open finals, which was pretty cool. I managed to block out the injury and enjoy the experience. We also made some new friends, especially the trampolinists from South Africa.”

Gisborne Trampoline Club coach Doug Callahan said Vette’s sixth placing was a tremendous result,

“To make the final, where only eight go through, at that level is excellent,” Callahan said.

Huta, competing in the 13-14yr trampoline, came 27th in an event that attracted 79 competitors.

“That might not sound like a good result but 79 is a huge number of competitors and, considering both boys suffered injuries before going to Denmark, they did exceptionally well,” Callahan said.

“There are 10 skills on tramp; Kaiya’s placing was pretty amazing.”

Huta injured his neck in training, four weeks before leaving for Denmark.

“It wasn’t too bad, and after getting it checked out all I wanted to do was get back on the mat,” said Huta, who attends Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Nga Uri A Maui.

He said the world champs were huge.

“There were 47 countries and 871 competitors.

“Most of the competitors were physically bigger than the Kiwi team and we heard that some of them train pretty much fulltime, especially the Russians, Japanese and Chinese.

“The gap (in DD) is big but now that we’ve seen that, we both want to work even harder to increase our DDs.

“It’s opened our eyes to what is expected at this level.”

Both boys have now set their sights on making the New Zealand team to compete at the Indo Pacific Championships in Napier at Labour Weekend next year.

Callahan is confident they have what it takes.

“They both have to qualify but if they continue to put in the hard work they did preparing for the worlds, they’ll make it.”