Two Wānaka athletes took top spots at the New Zealand and Australia freestyle trampolining championships - the GTGames ANZ - this past weekend, earning them an invitation to the world championships in Barcelona later this year.

Blake Hartley (23) and Cole Rasmussen (16) took part in the event at Frankton trampolining facility Site on Friday and Saturday (April 12-13).

Blake won the senior category (over 15 years old) and Cole came third.

Freestyle trampolining is a relatively new sport, Blake told the Wānaka App. 

“It started getting popular in the 2000s with people pushing the limits with what was possible on backyard trampolines,” he said.

Now there are sponsored freestyle athletes, he said. 

Freestyle differs from Olympic trampolining, which is “quite strict” and competitors have to follow a certain routine. Freestyle, on the other hand, Blake said, “is for people who just love doing flips and pushing their limits”.

At the competition the three judges considered each person’s routine on its difficulty, creativity, and execution.

Cole Rasmussen (left) and Blake Hartley (centre) on the podium.

“Some people focus on doing the most amount of flips they can,” Blake said. In traditional trampolining events competitors must only do up to three, but in freestyle trampoline “there are no rules”, he said, and the record is nine flips

“I’m tall so I focus more on style,” he said. 

Blake created and was the first person to achieve the ‘shuricutter-in-half-out’ - a double back flip with three kicks and two full three-sixties - which he performed on the weekend. 

“I think that’s what put me above the rest,” he said.

The top three competitors were invited to the world championships in Barcelona this September. Blake hopes to attend, and will be fundraising over the next few months.

He is a keen ambassador for trampolining.

“Even though it seems like a daunting sport, anyone can get involved with it,” he said. “You don’t have to do it from a little kid - anyone can come and learn a back flip.”

PHOTOS: Supplied