A BOLTON trampolinist has been rewarded by some top performances in international and regional competitions with a call-up to the Great Britain Junior A squad.

Thornleigh Salesian College pupil Alex Bradshaw was over the moon when confirmation came through about the selection.

He said: "Being selected for the Junior A squad this year is amazing.

"It makes me feel that all the hard work I have put into the sport is paying off.

"I only learnt about the squad in the last 18 months but certainly since I realised I had the potential to be selected for it, I have worked hard at perfecting and improving my routines.

"I want to maintain my position on the the A squad so that I can progress onto the Senior Men's squad when I am 18, in three more years. I then aim to be selected to compete at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. I will be 20 years old then."

Bradshaw faces a tough few months as he bids to keep up his ranking and compete in top events.

He said: "I want to be selected to compete at more international competitions and that I can improve on my world ranking of seventh in the 15-16 boys category.

"I would really like to achieve a podium position. I also hope to retain my status as the 15-16 boys British champion.

"My training will involve learning new moves as well as perfecting my form and improving my height.

"We do not spend the whole session on the trampoline, there is a lot of conditioning exercises that we do. I do further conditioning at home too."

Bradshaw showed his potential returning home from the World Age Group competitions in Florida with seven gold, five silver and nine bronze medals.

Alex added: "To get to the top, I will have to make my routines more difficult. Each of the 10 moves carries a difficulty score, these are added together to give a 'tarriff.' I already compete using two triples in my routine, but this will have to be increased along with other more difficult moves.

" A 'time of flight' is also added to the final score, which is calculated by how long you spend in the air though your routine. So I also need to improve on bouncing higher and maintaining that height throughout the routine."