Gold medal comeback by Jacob,Club wins 13 medals at NI champs

Trampoline club - BACK: Hannah Scholefield, Kaiya Huta, Leah Scholefield. 3RD ROW: Raine Lamont, Riker Rolls. 2ND ROW: Jacob Scholefield, Cameron Randell. FRONT: Mia Blot-Mouterde, Stevie Reid, Ariki Campbell

TWO days of training after a year out of the game proved enough for Eastland Port Gisborne Trampoline Club member Jacob Scholefield at the North Island championships in Auckland last weekend.

Scholefield won gold in the 11-to-12-year boys’ double-mini. It was one of 13 medals the club collected in its build-up to the national championships in Christchurch in October.

“Jacob decided to come back to trampolining after giving it up a year ago,” Gisborne head coach Doug Callahan said.

“He had just two days of training before the champs so it was a big performance for someone who has not trained for a year.”

Jacob is one of three Scholefield siblings in the club — Hannah and Leah are the others — and all of them contributed to the medal haul of four gold, six silver and three bronze.

Hannah won a medal of each colour in the 17yr-plus women’s age group.

“She won gold with a pretty high score in the power tumbling on the Friday,” Callahan said.

“On the Saturday, she won silver in the double-mini and bronze in the tramp. Her third in the tramp qualified her for the nationals in tramp. She had already qualified in power tumbling and double-mini.”

Callahan was impressed with the performance of Kaiya Huta in the junior international men’s category — silver medals in trampoline and double-mini.

“Kaiya had not trained for four weeks. He went to Australia for two weeks and was hoping to train there but couldn’t.

“I think he did a really good job and will be a lot stronger at the nationals.”

A personal highlight for Callahan was the double-mini gold Riker Rolls won in the 10yrs-and-under boys’ age group.

“Riker’s never won gold before but stepped up another level. We were a bit surprised and it’s great to see a little kid like him do so well.”

Raine Lamont-Milner completed the club’s gold tally, performing what Callahan described as “one of his big skills” to win the double-mini in the youth boys’ division.

“Overall, I was pleased with the results but now we have to step up another level for the nationals. We have two months of hard training ahead.”

Gisborne Trampoline Club will take a team of 14 to the national championships in Christchurch. They are – Brea Low, Danielle van Aswegen, Hannah Scholefield, Jacob Scholefield, Kaiya Huta, Leah Scholefield, Liam Walters, Luke Low, Mia Blot-Mouterde, Raine Lamont-Milner, Ronan Wallace, Seth Miller, Stevi Reid and Taylan Barber.