Great Britain junior trampolinist, seventeen-year-old Corey Walkes, has much to be proud of after he produced a historic junior Double Silver Medal win for Great Britain at the 26th European Trampoline, Tumbling and DMT Championships held in Azerbaijan.

Corey trains at Quayside Trampoline and Gymnastics Club in Bridgwater, under the guidance of International Performance and Head Coach, Sue Bramble.

He flew out to compete as part of the Great Britain Junior Men’s team, with the focus on battling it out against the other 22 European countries, to secure for Great Britain one of just five coveted junior men’s trampoline places to compete at the Youth Olympic Games later in the year.

Europe’s best junior and senior athletes travelled to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, to compete against each other for the prestigious titles. A total of 420 gymnasts from 25 federations registered to take part across the junior and senior competitions in Individual and Synchronised Trampoline, Double Mini-Trampoline and Tumbling.

Corey, who is studying for his A-Levels at Beechen Cliff Sixth Form in Bath – and his GBR teammate, Andrew Stamp, from Northampton, are the first junior Great Britain trampoline gymnasts to medal at a European Trampoline Championships in 36 years, with the last medal being won in 1982!

The competition was fierce across the age groups, with 65 junior men from all over Europe competing their strongest gymnasts to perform two routines in the preliminary rounds on Day One. The top 24 highest-placed gymnasts then continued through to the Semi-Finals on Day Three.

In addition to the individual rounds, fourteen countries entered teams of up-to-four gymnasts, with the top five scoring countries going though to a thrilling team Final. Corey competed as part of the four-strong junior team, who each excelled their first round scores to win coveted team Silver medals for Great Britain.

Corey – who has already won two individual Gold medals whilst competing internationally this year at both the Cascais Beach Cup in Portugal and the First Dutch Open held in Alkmaar last month – secured a second Silver medal for Great Britain in an exciting and nail-biting top eight (two per country) individual Junior Men’s Final, with Andrew winning the Bronze on the last day of the four-day event.

With much delight of the home supporters, two places were secured; one male and one female; for Great Britain’s junior trampoline gymnasts to compete at the 2018 Youth Olympics to be held in Buenos Aires in October, with selection of the gymnasts to represent GBR to be held later in the year.

Quayside’s Head and International Performance coach, Sue Bramble, was there at the arena to watch with pride as Corey, who she has worked with as his personal coach since he joined her club, aged eleven, was presented with his medals.

Sue said: “This is an outstanding achievement for Corey, who has fought to come back stronger than ever from an injury which saw him out of action for nearly eighteen months after fracturing his navicular bone in his foot.”

After the event, Corey said: “Huge congratulations to my teammates in all disciplines and to the teammates, coaches, support staff and family around me of which I owe everything to, thank you.”