Klassen on track to qualify for world championships

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Niverville's Isaiah Klassen is a strong candidate to represent Canada at the upcoming World Trampoline and Tumbling Championships in Japan.

If all goes according to plan, Niverville’s Isaiah Klassen will take his immense talents as a member of Team Canada to the World Trampoline and Tumbling Championships in Tokyo in December.

And, if all goes according to plan, his longtime teammate from Flippers Gymnastics in Steinbach, Pierce Barlow, will also qualify to compete in Tokyo.

The dynamic tumbling and trampolining duo just returned from the Elite Canada competition in Calgary, competing against the top trampoline and tumbling athletes in the country.

This competition was the first of two qualifiers for Team Canada that will determine the participants at the upcoming World Championships.

Klassen, with his performance in Calgary, has already hit all of the qualifying scores to make the World Championship team.

He placed first in double mini-trampoline (DMT), second on Trampoline and third in Tumbling.

With this being the first of two trials for Worlds, Klassen has already hit the qualifying score to potentially crack Team Canada as they take the top four per age group for each event and he is currently holding down third spot overall.

Barlow placed third in both DMT and Tumbling in what was his first national tumbling competition. He is still in a position to qualify for the World Championship as he will compete in the second Trials event, which will be the National Championships, being held July 18-21 at Oshawa, Ont.

But in the meantime these two athletes will continue to focus on their training, which includes at least 14 hours a week at Flippers Gymnastics along with additional time with personal trainers.

They will also be competing at an international event in Portugal in October.