91-year-old trampolinist wins gold

A Melksham man has won two gold medals at a trampolining competition at the age of 91, adding to a long and successful involvement in the sport spanning more than 70 years.

Peter Quinney, a founding member of the former Christie Miller Gymnastics Club, won an Individual Over 90 Gold Medal and a Spire Heights Team Gold Medal at the Portsmouth Gymnastics Adult Championships recently.

He also received a Special Wooden Spoon Award, which recognises his efforts in encouraging people to continue with gymnastics and trampolining.

Peter competed as part of a team from Spire Heights Trampoline Club in Salisbury, where he volunteers as a coach every Saturday.

Peter said, “We had a team of four at the competition. We went away and it was a fun weekend, which was great. I can’t understand all the fuss over it. I did a 10-bounce routine with no somersaults. I put the routine together. I have been doing that for 70 years.”

Peter, a former senior gymnastics coach in the Royal Air Force, has won several awards throughout his trampolining career, including the British Championship in 1960 while representing Great Britain.

He was deputy manager at the former Christie Miller Sports Centre between 1975 and 1989 and was part of the team that formed the Christie Miller Gymnastics Club, which later became Wiltshire School of Gymnastics. He has also coached badminton, squash, hockey and swimming.

“It all started when I was doing gymnastics at school,” he said. “Then I got called up for national service and they said if I became a regular, I could do a physical training instructors’ course in the air force, which of course I did.

“I then got posted to the RAF school of physical training as the senior gymnastics’ instructor and in that time, the very first trampoline that came into the country was available, so we introduced it into the programme and into the gymnastic display team shows.”

Fellow trampolining coach and founder of Spire Heights Club Sue Burt said that on Peter’s 90th birthday he decided to see if he could still perform a double back somersault.

She said, “I popped him in the rig and he did that and we’ve got that on video.

“To agree to want to have a go at the competition at his time of life and let alone be able to complete the routine is pretty incredible. He is a very determined person and if someone tells him he can’t do it he will show you that he can. He has always had that positive attitude.

“When I was learning to be a coach and getting my qualifications Pete was part of the team of coaches who helped me do that.

“We all remark that at his age, it’s incredible what he’s doing. I think Pete as a person and his expertise that he brings to the club is enormous in itself. It’s only him and I that coach the squad session.”

During his military career, Peter trained Army, RAF and Gurkha troops in parachuting and RAF aircrew in jungle and sea survival techniques. He later performed trampolining displays in Singapore and at the That Luang Festival in Vientiane. He also helped introduce trampolining to Singapore schools and arranged children’s trampoline displays.

In 2006, he won the BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award for the South West region.