Somersaults and Dreams: Going for Gold. Cate Shearwater

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СКАЧАТЬ you do it?’ asked Scarlett. ‘At World Champs – and the Olympics.’

      ‘And then I stopped performing it,’ snapped Vivian, her tone of voice making it clear that this conversation was over.

      ‘Can we at least work on Amanars?’ asked Scarlett, a hint of a whine in her voice.

      ‘Some of you don’t yet have the power for the more complex vaults,’ said Vivian, looking each of them up and down. ‘Memory – you can try for an Amanar. Eva and Scarlett – I want to see you working towards two and a half Yurchenkos. Katya, I believe you are still a vault novice, so you and Ellie should stick to the single twist.’

      ‘But . . .’ Ellie started to say.

      ‘You’re lacking in the upper body strength for the more difficult vaults, Trengilly,’ said Vivian firmly.

      Ellie wanted to protest, to tell Vivian she was close to perfecting a double Yurchenko, but Vivian had already started walking away. ‘Go measure up then we’ll get started.’

      ‘Wow, she doesn’t leave much room for discussion, does she?’ said Eva, seeing how disappointed Ellie looked. ‘Don’t worry – when she sees how well you vault, she’ll soon change her mind.’

      Ellie smiled, hoping Eva was right.

      Before they could begin, the girls had to measure their run ups and mark the start point with chalk. Then the springboard had to be carefully adjusted for each gymnast. The whole thing took a while.

      Whilst they waited, Vivian made them do gruelling strength exercises. She had them hanging from the wooden bars set against the wall, pulling their feet to horizontal and down again. Vivian watched them all with eagle eyes, and Ellie was determined to prove she was just as strong as the others.

      She held her own against the taller gymnasts in the workout, refusing to give in even when her muscles screamed in pain, but when they started vaulting it was hard not to be impressed by the strength of girls like Memory and Eva. Eva was famous for her beautiful vaulting that made her seem almost as if she was flying, and Memory was so powerful that she seemed to explode into the air like a rocket.

      ‘Wow, she has got vaulting va-va-voom!’ said Katya, her face so serious as she pronounced this that Ellie struggled not to burst into giggles. But Katya was right. Eva Reddle had won vault gold at the British this year, but Memory, who’d been training in the US for the past three years, was in a class above even her. When it came to Ellie’s turn she was already feeling seriously under pressure. She wanted to prove to Vivian that they’d got off on the wrong foot.

      ‘Show me a single Yurchenko, Trengilly,’ snapped Vivian as Ellie stepped up to the runway.

      But Ellie had already decided what she was going to do. She took the vault run up at full speed, hit the springboard with as much force as she could muster and flung herself up, pushing off the vault and twisting, once . . . one and a half times . . . twice in the air. She’d under-rotated slightly so she had to pull herself sharply back on landing, forcing her foot down so hard to prevent herself toppling that she felt a jolt of pain shoot up her ankle. She took a step back but somehow remained upright. Then, determined not to show weakness in front of her new coach, she took a deep breath and turned to Vivian with a smile.

      The coach did not smile back. ‘Did I tell you to chuck a double, Trengilly?’

      ‘I . . . I just thought . . .’ Ellie stammered, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her ankle. ‘I had the speed so I . . . I thought I’d try for the double twist.’

      ‘Yeah, well, your take-off isn’t high enough yet,’ said Vivian, ‘and you’re not aggressive enough in your push to land a double safely.’

      ‘But I thought that . . .’

      ‘You’re also pulling your shoulder back too early,’ Vivian went on, her face unyielding. ‘You shouldn’t allow your feet to go over your hands till your body is starting to bend . . .’

      ‘Right, I . . .’

      ‘Right.’ Vivian glared at her. ‘So until you can get all that correct, I want you to stick to singles – nothing more than a one and half till I say so. Get it?’

      Ellie was struggling with a mixture of emotions – disappointment, embarrassment, anger – and the horrible shooting pain in her ankle. She struggled to keep her voice even as she said, ‘But I thought we were working up new skills . . .’

      Vivian stuck her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. ‘Trengilly, you wanna remember who the coach is here?’

      Ellie bit her lip hard.

      ‘Come back to me when you’ve got a bit more muscle in those scrawny arms and then we’ll talk about upgrades!’

      Ellie turned away, her eyes blurry with tears, her face burning with humiliation and her ankle throbbing. It had been just about the worst start to her week at National squad camp possible.

      Luckily, the rest of the session went a bit better. Bar, beam and floor with the other coaches was hard work but Ellie found working on new skills exhilarating. She received as much encouragement as critique, even if her ankle did continue to bother her throughout the session. She was by far the strongest on bars – where not even Memory could match her difficulty value – and on floor and beam her artistry was scored as highly as her power tumbles and acro sequences.

      The other coaches seemed keen to help her upgrade, and it was a relief to find that not everyone thought she was a completely hopeless gymnast. But Ellie knew that if she was to get a look-in for the Euros squad – or even get a call-back for the selection weekend in six weeks’ time – she was going to have to impress Vivian – or be left out in the cold.

CHAPTER

       Three

      ‘Vivian’s totally got it in for me,’ Ellie told Tam when they sat down for supper that night. At the heart of the National Sports Training Centre was a beautiful old honey-coloured mansion, which housed the dining hall and the dorms where the gymnasts slept during their week at camp. Surrounding this were a collection of state-of-the-art sports facilities, medical centres, and physio and rehab units. Beyond them were formal gardens and then sports pitches and training grounds for every sport under the sun.

      Athletes and sportspeople from every discipline came here to train ahead of international events, but right now the centre was pretty empty; the only people there were the gymnasts who would be training there intensively for the next seven days – eating, sleeping and breathing gymnastics!

      The food in the canteen was delicious, although Ellie found she had lost her appetite.

      ‘Maybe it’s not you she’s annoyed at,’ suggested Tam, who had definitely not lost his. He was tucking into a giant bowl of sticky toffee pudding as if he hadn’t eaten for days.

      Tam had detached himself from the other Junior boys to come and join the girls from the Academy, who were all sitting together. Even the Senior squad girls Sian Edwards and Sophia Mitford had СКАЧАТЬ