Three recreational trampoline parks have sprung up in Newcastle in recent years, but the city could also soon be home to the sport’s first purpose-built, high-performance centre in Australia.
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Gymnastics NSW is negotiating with Lake Macquarie City Council about establishing the trampolining centre at Hunter Sports Centre at Glendale, which is hosting the NSW Country Gymnastics Championships this week.
The state governing body has submitted a formal proposal for the sports centre’s expansion and started talking to the council about how it could be funded.
“As a central hub for trampoline gymnastics, the Hunter Region will attract the top athletes in our country, as well as providing opportunity for state, national and international competitions and tourism,” Gymnastics NSW chief Aaron Bloomfield said in a statement.
Spokeswoman Kait Bastion told the Newcastle Herald that the elite centre would be home to national trampoline squads but its training equipment would also be used by the community.
“It will be looking at making it a bigger facility and being able to offer more within the facility, different kinds of gymnastics, in particular the trampoline,” she said. “When we have squad training it would be one of the main places where national and state teams would come.
“Gymnastics NSW has a high-performance program, but this would be the first high-performance facility.”
The Hunter Sports Centre houses the state’s second-largest gymnastics club with 2000 members.
The NSW Country championships started on Thursday with level-three and level-four women’s artistic gymnastics in morning, afternoon and evening sessions.
The five-day event includes five other disciplines, acrobatics, rhythmic, team gym, trampoline and men’s artistic, from levels three to 10.
The championships’ premium session will be on Saturday night, which includes levels seven to 10 in men’s and women’s artistic and trampolining.
Among Newcastle’s leading contenders in artistic gymnastics are Hunter Sports Centre’s Zach Stewart and Blackert Gymnastics Academy trio Ebony Demir, Isabelle Imig and Jorgie Hills.
Demir was first in level-seven beam and floor and third in all-around at this year’s national championships, Imig won the vault in level nine, and Hills won gold in level-nine beam and bronze in all-around.
Tickets to the country championships cost $18 a day or $11 concession (children under 12) and are available at the door.
