Comfort tumbles into 2018 on the world stage

Comfort, who joined Andover Tumbling Club just two years ago, was delighted to be placed 14th in the world in the 11-12 age range at the 2017 Trampoline, Tumbling and DMT World Tumbling Championships.

She said: “I was over the moon to qualify for the worlds. In Sofia, I landed all my runs and performed as well as I had in training. To come 14th out of 30 in my age group was brilliant.

“I also loved being in Sofia for the competition. It was so exciting sitting in the stands surrounded by athletes from different countries around the world. We watched the tumbling as well as the Trampolining Worlds, which were going on at the same time.

“The GB team were really supportive too, with the older gymnasts looking after the younger ones.”

Comfort’s rise to the GB team is quick and quite unusual. The secret, she says, was growing up with gymnastics: her mother is a coach at the Academy of Gym in Chichester. This training gave her a very strong core, which meant her body was ready to learn tumbling when she joined the Andover club.

She also works at it incredibly hard. She said: “I train three times a week during school time, and twice a day, four times a week in the holidays.”

What’s next? “The British Championships qualifiers are in June 2018. By going to the worlds, I have automatically qualified for my new age group, 13-14, and my aim from now until June is to train and try new things.

“I am excited to be moving up an age group and to train with and compete against new people. I am now working towards adding a full twist at the end of my best tumble, so it will be a round off five whips, flick double straight full out. If I am in the top four, I will go to the worlds again next year.”