Kim Beattie is delighted to have marked her return to international competition with a gold medal at the Trampoline/DMT and Tumbling European Championships in Italy.
Beattie, who hails from Banchory, won gold while representing Great Britain in the team DMT (double mini trampoline) event alongside Kirsty Way, Bethany Williamson and Maddi Tarrant.
The major competition was the first that Beattie, 23, had competed on the international stage since the 2019 World Championships in Tokyo, where she won a team silver medal.
The former British DMT champion was overjoyed to take home a gold medal upon her return to major championships, especially as the top prize had eluded GB for so long.
She said: “I’m absolutely delighted. It’s something as a team that we’ve been wanting to do for so long.
“In the past five or six years we’ve won silver medals at Worlds and there’s been other GB teams winning silver medals at the Europeans.
“We’re the first ever team to win gold at a European Championships which is really special. It’s been a long time coming.
“We just had the most perfect competition, so it’s great to come away with the gold medal.”
In her gold-medal winning routine, Beattie scored 26.000, the joint second best score of the final, as only Melania Rodriguez of Spain scored higher with 26.400.
She was thrilled with her individual performance in the team final, having been disappointed after qualifying in fifth in the individual DMT event.
Beattie said: “I was really, really pleased with how I did.
“Going out and winning gold with the team was really special.
“I was a little disappointed not to make the individual final, but winning with the girls made up for that.”
Enjoying training and competing again
After nearly three years away, Beattie only returned to competing in March, which was one of the trial events for the European Championships.
Although it has been a difficult journey to get back to the level required for elite competition, Beattie reckons it helped her regain her love of the sport.
She said: “The comeback has been really, really tough – especially coming out of the lockdowns over the last couple of years.
“We kind of just set a plan and stuck to it, but it hasn’t always been easy.
“The more we got into it, I really started to enjoy my training again.
“I really enjoyed the buildup to the European Championships. It means a lot to be coming home with a medal.”
Beattie’s focus now moves to the National Age Group competition which takes place later this month, followed by the British Championships in October.
Both events will act as qualifiers for the World Championships in November, where Beattie hopes she will get the chance to compete against the world’s best.
She said: “There is big competition in Europe, but there’s bigger competition outside of it.
“The Americans, Canadians and Australians are real big forces to reckon with. It’ll be a completely different kettle of fish competing against them.
“Even with the really strong competition in Europe, Portugal and Spain really gave us a run for our money in the final.
“It’ll just be exciting to get back onto the world stage again.”
