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Davies bounces to bronze

Pemby gymnast medals at nationals
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FLYING HIGH Whistler Gymnastics athlete Joe Davies and Club Aviva's David Dawson compete at the Canadian Trampoline Championships in Calgary. photo submitted

When you're part of a team, it's advantageous to practice with your teammates.

Gymnast Joe Davies doesn't regularly have that luxury, though.

In addition to his individual endeavours, the Pemberton resident also competes in the synchro event alongside David Dawson. The duo recently won a bronze medal in the men's level 5 (novice) at the 2015 Canadian Trampoline Gymnastics Championships held in Calgary from July 25 to 27. The pair scored a 93.70 overall. Quebec's Xavier Barbeau and Benjamin Lagace, both older than the B.C. competitors, took the gold with a tally of 118.90.

Dawson, however, trains in the city with Club Aviva and the two only occasionally get to train together.

"We have to practice during warm-ups with someone making sure that we're jumping all the same," he said. "If one of us is jumping differently, we'll have to adjust for the other person.

"It was pretty nice to still win a bronze even though we don't train at the same gym."

Davies, 14, explained he and Dawson have two routines they use in competition with varying levels of difficulty.

Once the pair punched their ticket from the qualifiers to the finals, Davies said he set his sights on maintaining or improving their placement of third going in. They were able to stick on the podium.

"Once I learned that we were in finals for synchro, then that's more what I focused on," he said.

Davies explained other members from Whistler have teamed up with those from Club Aviva before, and with no potential partner in the Sea to Sky, looking south made sense.

Davies qualified for last year's event in Ottawa in double mini trampoline, but this year, was able to experience the championships in a bigger way, competing in three categories.

"It's a lot different than some of the other competitions just throughout the year. It's a lot bigger, it's a lot higher level of people there," said Davies.

Davies also finished 16th out of 29 in the individual event and narrowly missed out on a spot in the double mini trampoline finals, falling just one-tenth of a point short.

With Olympic medallists like Karen Cockburn and Jason Burnett in attendance, Davies said he took a message from watching the nation's best in action.

"How hard you train (affects) how high a level you can eventually reach if you stick with the sport," he said. "It's a lot of fun to watch them compete."

At this point, Davies said he doesn't have an ultimate goal in the sport, but hopes to keep progressing to see where he can go.

Coach Louise Stack explained Davies pays close attention to the finer points of his movement, and it shows during competition.

"I would go with his form (as one of his strengths). He has really good technique," she said. "I'm really proud of how he did at his first big competition."