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Connor (14) is from Milton Keynes and currently competes in the Gymnastics discipline of Tumbling with the aim of being Britain’s best. Connor has been a Young Blade since 2005.
Recent achievements include:
2006 – won gold in every competition he competed in.
2007 – 2nd in World Age Group Championship Trials.
2nd in the British Championships.
Connor describes himself and his love of the sport Tumbling below:
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I was first introduced to men's artistic gymnastics at the age of 5 at a local gymnastics facility, which is where I had my first taste of tumbling. At 9 I moved gym to Milton Keynes School of Gymnastics where I trained under head coach Vladimir Podobin. This is where I fell in love with the discipline of tumbling. I was entered into my first regional competition and proudly came 1st being the youngest competitor there. This is where my raw talent was noticed by a National Coach and I was invited to try out for the World Class Start Squad at Lillishall National Sports Centre of Excellence.
Still only 9, I attended testings in December 2002 and passed ranked number 1, I have not looked back since. My latest triumph being selected for the 17th World Age Group Championships ranked in 1st place that is being held in Eindhoven, Netherlands. As we have yet to gain Olympic status in this discipline all international competitions are self funding in my case that means mum and dad. I am 100% committed in achieving my goal of securing a World Age Group title.I am studying well and completing all homework that is set in the mornings. I have been selected for cross country running and have also helped in after school gym classes."
Please scroll further down to read the latest updates and news from Connor and to watch a video or two showing Connor in action (well worth a watch).
Update: 10 July 2007 from Connor
I competed in the Portuguese Championships in April where I was trying out some new skills, I qualified in 2nd place but unfortunately lost my landing on one of my new skills in the finals and came in 4th place. My coaches were still very pleased with this as I put new moves out which is all part of the preparation for November and was still not up to full strength from my Achilles Tendonitis.
I spent last week in Ostende,Belgium competing at the Flanders Fliffis Cup. This is a good competition before the Worlds as you can get to see what everyone else is doing, although not all the countries enter I can get a good feel for what I will need to be doing in November.
All my training sessions in Ostende went really well and I am starting to feel my strength returning after my Achilles Tendonitis. I competed in the preliminary rounds on Friday 29th June and finished in 1st position. Finals were not on until Saturday afternoon. I felt very positive on the Saturday, and I competed my new runs really well and finished in 1st position 5 points ahead of the silver medallist.
My next competitions are not until August so back in the gym to try and get some more new moves in before then.
Below is a video showing preliminary and final Runs from Flanders Fliffis Cup:
Update: 27 March 2007 from Connor
I spent the weekend in Stoke on Trent at the British Championships and the 1st Trials for World Age Group Championships. I came 2nd in the trials and now have a clear pass through to the Worlds in November in Quebec City. Also I came 2nd in British Championships. I'm really pleased with the start of 2007 as I have been injured with achillies tendonitis for 6 months and so my training has been reduced while I made recovery. I am now working on building my strength back up and perfecting lots of new moves.
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Have just completed my last two competitions of the year. I was in Stoke on Trent December 1-3rd at the British Tournament this was a very successful competition for me as I qualified in 1st place and finished in 1st place. December 10th I was in West Bromwich competing in the last Tumble League of the season and again managed to hold on to the 1st position and win gold. I am delighted with this year as I moved up an age group and have managed to win gold in every competition I have competed in.
I now have a rest from competing until March 07 which is the British Championships and the 1st qualification round for the World Age Group Chamionships, so I shall be in the gym working hard on perfecting some new moves.
Update: 12 September 2006 from Connor
I've had a brilliant summer training and competing. I have trained a lot at Lillishall and Loughborough with my personal coach and my national coach learning lots of new moves in preparation for the World championships in November 2007.
I have had 2 competitions during the summer the 1st being Ireland in June. I was there for the weekend and this was representing my club that I train at. These domestic competitions I also use to try out new moves and this one was very successful as I came home with the gold medal individually and the Silver medal for the team competition.
The second was Poland 8th and 9th September and this one was representing Great Britain. I felt really good going into this competition as I have done so much extra training during the school holidays. I had a great qualifying round coming in 1st position and so competing last in the finals on the Saturday. This is always a bit nerve raking as you see every one else compete before you. I managed to keep my 1st place in the finals again taking the Gold medal. I was really pleased with this as I have managed to stay undefeated this year in my age group(under 15 years).
I have two major competitions left this year and am hoping I can keep this level of competition up and I will keep you updated with my progress.
A video showing Connor in action can be viewed below...
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Great News. I have just come back from Gabrovo in Bulgaria where I was attending my first International competition of the season. I was competing in the under 15 age group and everything went really well as I managed to secure my 3rd Gold Medal this season and am now Bulgarian under 15 Champion. I am very pleased with this result and hopefully I can keep this level of competing up for my next competition in July which is being held in Dublin. Thanks to Young Blades for sponsoring me as my bursary really helps with funding towards these international competitions!
Update: 31 January 2006 from Mandy (Connor's mum)
Due to a number of reasons Connor was forced to change gym in November and as the facilities at Kingston were extremely high we had trouble finding another training Gym with equal facilities. Eventually we found a gym in Aylesbury which is Lynx Gymnastics and the head Coach Chris Adams has been extremely helpful. We have bought in another Coach who specialises in Tumbling and Connor and his team mates are training extremely hard and preparing a lot of new moves ready for the upcoming competition season. Unfortunately the tumble track at Lynx is not quite long enough for them to execute their full runs so every Wednesday their new coaches take them to Lillishall Centre of Excellence to train.
Other local gyms have been brilliant allowing them to use their facilities free of charge. Lynx are currently looking for bigger premises so they can install a full length carbon fibre track. Hopefully they will have located this very soon and aim to be up and running in the Summer.
We are currently thinking of ways to fund raise as the equipment needed is very costly and we feel we would like to help Lynx as much as we can as without them Connor and his two team mates one of which is a senior Samantha Palmer and currently ranked 3rd in the world would of struggled to keep training and risked losing their much deserved places on Team GB.
By the way Connor came 1st on the on line poll for Favourite Male Tumbler for 2005 so thanks to everyone that voted at King of Shaves.
Website for Connors new Gym is www.lynxgym.co.uk the results are on the home page, Megan Green and Samantha Palmer are his two team mates that trained with him at Kingston.
Update: 30 November 2005 from Connor
Great news - I spent the weekend in Stoke on Trent at the British Tournament. Competing in the Under 13 age group for the last time and I was determined to do my best. In the prelim rounds I landed both my runs and felt positive that I had done my best. I went through to the finals in 2nd place. In the finals I managed to do one of my best runs ever with good technical style scoring a massive 31.70 and gaining 1st place. I really needed this after the disappointment at the world's and will go through to the under 15 age group next year with a positive attitude to stay at the top of this age group as well.
Update: October 2005 from Connor
In September I was out in Holland at the World Age Group Championships. Unfortunately this did not go to well for me.
I was competing in the under 13 age group and was unlucky to lose my timing in my first tumble on a full twisting whip, I much improved for my second tumble which was a series of whips, 2 full twisting whips ending with a double pike somersault. Sadly I did not qualify but gained the 2nd highest individual score of 30.00 on my 2nd run with a tariff of difficulty of 6.10 which was one of the highest difficulties competing in this age group only beaten by the Russian who went on to win the title.
I was obviously upset by this as I knew I could medal in this my first international competition for Team GB but I have not let it effect my training and I am back in the gym learning some new moves ready for the British Open Tournament at Stoke on Trent in November. This will be my last competition of 2005 and I hope to finish on a high and keep my place as ranked 1st in GB (for my age group). 2006 sees me move into the next age group which is under 15s so I will have some new challenges and goals to work to.
Update: 25 June 2005
Great News. Connor has spent Saturday at Lillishall National Sports Centre of Excellence at the 2nd Trials for the world Age Groups. Following the 1st trial with a qualification of 1st place Connor went on to qualify 1st again in the 2nd trials. He has now had confirmation that he will be representing Great Britain in the World Age Group Championships in Eindhoven, Holland in September. As he has had two 1st places he does not need to attend the 3rd Trial as he can not now be beaten.
Achievements pre-June 2005:
Men's Artistic
Bucks County Floor and Vault 2002 1st Place
Southern Region NDP 2003 2nd Place
MKSOG Most Improved Gymnast 2003
Tumbling
British Championship under 11 2003 1st Place
Team Tumble under 11 2003 1st Place
MKSOG International under 12 2003 1st Place
British Tournament under 13 2003 2nd Place
Southern Region under 11 2003 1st Place
Southern Region 2003 Trophy Individual Highest score in competition
TeamTumble under 11 2004 1st Place ind. 1st Place Team
British Championship under 13 2004 1st place
Winti Cup Switzerland under 13 2004 1st place
British Tournament under 13 2004 1st place
World Age Group 1st qualification round 1st place
British Championships under 13 2005 2nd place
MKSOG most Committed Gymnast 2003
Milton Keynes Community Foundation Sports Achiever of the Month January 2003