KAT DRISCOLL will be targeting a place in the World Trampoline Championship final when she competes in the qualifying rounds in Florida on Friday morning.
Driscoll, who is based at West Rainton and a member of Apollo Trampoline Club in Washington, is part of a strong British squad that will be looking to build on their success at last year’s World Team Championships.
Having narrowly failed to make the final of the Olympic competition in 2012, Driscoll will be hoping to go one better at the Worlds after recovering from an ankle injury to finish second at the recent British Championships in Liverpool.
The top 24 in Friday’s preliminaries will make the semi-finals, with the field then being whittled down to the eight competitors who will compete in Saturday night’s final.
Driscoll is not the only North-Easterner preparing to compete in the United States, with the World Championships for acrobatic gymnastics and tumbling also taking place over the next fortnight.
Six tumblers from Deerness Gymnastics Academy will be representing their club and country, with Jarrow’s Steven Gilmore set to become the County Durham club’s first tumbler to compete at a Senior World Championships. Gilmore recently won a bronze medal at the senior British Championships.
A further five Deerness gymnasts have been selected to compete in their World Age Group Competition – Sophie Allen from Peterlee (11-12yrs), Shanice Davidson from Washington (13-14yrs), Rachel Davies from Langley Park (15-16yrs), Georgia Clayton from Spennymoor (17-18yrs) and Matilda Hamilton from Durham (17-18yrs).
PAUL DRINKHALL has some of the world’s top table tennis players in his sights as he returns to the ITTF World Tour circuit for the first time since his memorable win in Spain in April.
Drinkhall, who is from Loftus, is heading to Ekaterinburg in Russia from November 5-9, with another event in Stockholm starting three days later.
As well as looking to add to his Spanish title, the British number two has the added incentive of attempting to qualify for the season-ending Grand Finals in Bangkok in December.
He is currently 11th in the standings, with 15 players to qualify, and will have played in the minimum required five events after Russia and Sweden.
“Russia is a strong tournament, but I’ll be among the seeds,” said Drinkhall. “I think I’m 22, which is similar to when I won in Spain, but the top seeds are stronger in Russia.
“I’ve been playing well in the Belgian League and hopefully I can take that form into Russia and get some good wins and make progress.
“Sweden is stronger than Russia, so I’ll be playing in the groups and having to qualify for the knockouts. But if I can keep up my good form, there’s no reason I can’t get through the group and take out some of the seeds.”
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