From 12 to 15 April, the Azerbaijani capital Baku hosts the 26th edition of the European Championships in Trampoline, Double Mini-Trampoline and Tumbling.

More than 400 gymnasts from 25 federations have registered. Both junior and senior competitions will be held in Individual and Synchronised Trampoline, Double Mini-Trampoline and Tumbling. Each federation has by now nominated their teams and we are pleased to announce that many big names will compete in Baku!

Individual Trampoline

Defending European and reigning Olympic Champion Uladzislau Hancharou and his wife Hanna Hancharova (formerly better known as 2014 European Champion Hanna Harchonak!) will be among the ones to beat in Baku. They will face tough competition from Russia that is sending a star-studded team including Vice-European Champion Dmitriy Ushakov, Mikhail Melnik, Sergey Azarian and defending women’s European Champion Yana Pavlova. Great Britain can count on the experience of Kat Driscoll, who is competing in an impressive 8th senior Europeans, Luke Strong, Nathan Bailey, Laura Gallagher and 2014 junior European and World Champion Izzy Songhurst. France’s Sébastien Martiny and Allan Morante, fresh off victory at the Dutch Open, aim for the final as does Azerbaijan’s Ilya Grishunin. In the women’s competition, we look for to seeing the experienced Olympians Portugal’s Ana Rente, Ukraine’s Natalia Moskvina and Georgia’s Luba Golovina.

Synchronised Trampoline

World Champions Aleh Rabtsau and Uladzislau Hancharou will look to take the European gold as well, a title Hancharou won in 2016 with Mikalai Kazak. The 2015 World bronze medallists Sébastien Martiny and Allan Morante will be one of the main challengers, together with Russia’s dynamic duo Andrey Yudin and Dmitriy Ushakov, Portugal’s Diog Abreu and Diogo Ganchinho. Last year’s World Games silver medallist Mykola Prostorov of Ukraine is partnering with Artem Savchenko in Baku.

Competition will be tight on the women’s side as well. Defending European Champions Marine Jurbert and Léa Labrousse (FRA) will be present, as will silver medallist Susana Kochesok (RUS) who will partner with Yana Pavlova, and bronze medallists Ana Rente and Beatriz Martins (POR). And there’s the duo Hanna Hancharova - Maria Makharynskaya to take into consideration too!

Double Mini-Trampoline

The ultimate star in DMT is of course Russia’s Mikhail Zalomin. The multiple European and World Champion also won the World Games last year and is looking to defend his title. Few gymnasts can rival Zalomin’s technique and difficult. His biggest rival? His teammate Aleksander Odintsov and Spain’s daredevil Daniel Perez.

Sweden’s Lina Sjoeberg won the European title two years ago in Valladolid (ESP). Her insane difficulty has broken many records and she doesn’t plan to stop yet! Her competition will mainly come from Great Britain’s Kirsty Way and Russians Polina Troianova and Irina Alekseeva.

Tumbling

Azerbaijan’s high hopes are set on Mikhail Malkin, the 2017 Age Group World Champion. Simply to reach the final will be a challenge in this strong field that also features 2016 junior Champion Rasmus Steffensen and Danish teammate Anders Wesch, Great Britain’s Greg Townley, Elliott Browne, Kallum Mulhall and Kristof Willerton and Russians Aleksandr Lisitsyn, Maksim Shlyakin, Grigory Noskov and Vadim Afanasev.

Living legend Anna Korobeynikova, who took her first World title with the Russian team back in 1998, aims to defend her European title in Baku. Also going for the medals are Belgium’s Tachina Peeters, France’s Marie Deloge, British ladies Lucie Colebeck and Rachel Davies and Russia’s Viktoria Danilenko.