Even the seemingly simplest events can be history for those who carry them out. However, both Uma Encinas as Paula Rodriguez They not only want to be, but also to do.
And that is the reason why both flew to England yesterday to participate in one of the most important competitions in the world. sport that they both practice and to which they dedicate many hours of training: trampoline gymnastics.
From November 9th -until last Sunday- the city of Birmingham hosted the Absolute World Trampoline Gymnastics Championship, which, in its XXXVII edition, was eligible for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. At least in the modality that has this rank: trampoline. Pontevedra gymnast Melania Rodríguez was close to achieving it. But, for now, she will have to wait.
Two in a delegation of seventy
However, from Thursday to Sunday it will be the opportunity for these two young women in the British city, where the age-grade edition of the same world event takes place. They are the only Canary Islands to defend the colors of Spain in a large delegation, which exceeds 70 participants, as explained by their coach, Fermín Pérez, from the Global Tramp Arona Club, moments before getting on the plane, which left at 1:00 p.m.
Spain has not done badly in this international event. Despite the difficulties that Melania Rodríguez had, the absolute delegation came in sixth place in the ranking, with four medals, one of them gold. The absolute king was the United Kingdom, with eleven.
“We are at the airport,” Patricia Estévez explains to this newspaper after taking her daughter to take the plane. “This week they begin with official training and, starting on Friday, the championship” in the different modalities and categories. In his case, in Uma’s, the double minitramp.
“Just the fact of going to a world championship is a lot,” he emphasizes, to remember that “we are at the beginning of the season” and that his daughter has been training “as always, since August.” Mothers and fathers will go on Thursday, with the aim of being present at the competition.
A sport that was born for astronauts
Trampoline Gymnastics was born in 1934 by two American athletes, George Nissen and Larry Griswold, and one of its first objectives was to train astronauts, in order to learn the effects of being in an environment without gravity.
It is divided into three specialties, some already mentioned, such as tumbling, double minitramp and trampoline.
For the Canary Islands, and specifically for Arona, there was a medal last year. In November 2022, Jonay Rossi became world runner-up at the World Age Trampoline Gymnastics Championships, which was held in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Fermín Pérez, for his part, has been leading the club of which he is coach for more than twenty-three years.
In that time, they have gone to five World Cups and “we have won several international titles, both as a club and within the national team,” he points out. He remembers that, in his opinion, “anything can happen in Birmingham. In the case of Paula (Rodríguez), it is her third World Cup, after Saint Petersburg and Tokyo, so she has experience and level. That gives him a lot of draws… If everything works out, anything can happen,” he concludes.