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From Gabriola Island to Bulgaria – Adin Brenner goes for gold in international trampoline competition

Nov 15, 2017 | 9:22 PM

NANAIMO — Mara Brenner will be up early Thursday morning with her attention squarely focused on Sofia, Bulgaria.
 
Her 16-year-old son Adin will be competing in trampoline at the World Age Group competition in Europe at 2 a.m. our time.
 
He’s ranked number one in Canada and if he gets into the top eight he’ll go on to the final in his category at 9 a.m.
 
There are 38 boys in his division, including his teammate Blake Mould. 
 
They are ranked one and two in Canada and their coach Megan Conway is in Bulgaria with them.
 
Mara would love to be there as well but in trampoline there isn’t a lot of outside funding, the costs for training and travel are covered mostly by parents.
 
Brenner says she’s done some fundraisers near their home on Gabriola Island.
 
“It’s a very tight knit community. We did a silent auction and a paint night for example and between all those events we did manage to raise the funds to send him,” said Brenner.  
 
There are two qualifying events that fed into the World Age Group event, the Canada Cup in Calgary and the National Championships in Oshawa.
 
Adin and Blake both easily achieved the standard to earn there way to Bulgaria.
 
Team Canada in their specific event is all from BC, with the other member of the team being Owen Armstrong from the mainland.
 
Adin and Blake both train at the Nanaimo Gymnastics school with Megan Conway.
 
Mara Brenner says there are approximately 800 famillies who train at the school.
 
The training is difficult as you’d expect for high level athletes.
 
There are four to five sessions per week and there’s no off season like there is in many other sports.
 
Adin is hoping to build on some fantastic results this week going back to 2015 when he finished 13th in the world at the World Age Group competition as a 14-year-old.
 
Last year the largest competition on the calendar was the Indo Pacific Championships, which Adin won.
 
The goal is to finish with a medal this time around at the W-A-G event.
 
For Mara, she knows that she has to allow some space for Adin to enjoy the cultural experience and focus on competing.
 
She says they do keep in touch via wifi and texting especially because she needs to monitor Adin’s health.
 
“He does have the extra challenge that he’s a type one diabetic. He definitely needs support with that now and again, so we have some pretty cool medical technology that helps us monitor his blood sugars and gives me an indication of where they’re going. If I see there’s a problem in the middle of the night for example I can phone him or phone his coach,” said Brenner.
 
The nuances of trampoline may be difficult for the average sports fan to grasp but Brenner says Adin will need to execute his flips and twists at a high level, and the one crucial thing that everyone can spot is of course sticking the landing.
 
Typically Canada is very strong on the trampoline circuit and Adin’s win at the Indo Pacific Championships has the Brenner family filled with the confidence that the World Age Group competition will be a huge success.
 
 
dan@nanaimonewsnow.com
 
On twitter: @danmarshall77