NZ and Australia Take Top Trampoline Titles
Media release: Sunday 23 October 2016
The two senior titles have been won tonight by New Zealand and Australia at the 2016 Indo Pacific Championships in
Napier. Olympian Dylan Schmidt took a clear gold in the men’s competition with Lauren Sampson from Australia claiming
the women’s title.
Dylan (167.680) shared the podium with Australians Jarrod Spear (155.115) and Ryan Hatfield (150.260). His second medal
this weekend, after a silver on Friday in the synchronised competition, with teammate Sean Wilson.
Lauren’s win (143.310) was a welcome end to an inconsistent competition year, after mixed results at World Cup events in
China, Italy and Switzerland.
“China was my first international senior competition - to be around and compete with athletes that I’d previously
watched on live stream made me really nervous. I then got a personal best time of flight in Italy but then fell through
the tramp is Switzerland.”
“I’ve always been a fairly average athlete but about two years ago I realised what I wanted out of the sport. I changed
my mindset, stopped making excuses and now just do what my coach tells me to do.”
Lauren trains 16 hours a week and has spent a lot of time focussing on execution and consistency.
“My best moment here at Indos, besides winning my medal, was finishing my last skill in my finals routine and realising
that I’d hit 30 out of 30 skills which is massive for me.”
Lauren also coaches six days a week and judges at state and national competitions. Her advice to up and coming athletes
is to “stay focused on you, not what anyone else is doing, and keep working on doing better than what you did
yesterday”.
Teammate Leanne Van Rensburg was a close second (143.240) with Bronwyn Dibb of New Zealand finishing in third (142.270).
The 2016 Indo Pacific Championships continue through to Tuesday at the Pettigrew Green Arena in Napier.
Ends.