MANILA, Philippines – After clinching a bronze in the inaugural Philippine National Games, Erin Abaniel pulled off a repeat of her podium finish in a trampoline gymnastics tournament. But this time, she did it in a bigger stage. 

The 16-year-old debuted in the seniors level of the 4th Asian Trampoline Gymnastics Asian Championships and scored 11.700 behind gold medalist Shivani Dound (35.635) and silver winner Siddhi Breed (28.515) from India. 

Despite bringing home a medal for the Philippines, Abaniel knows she needs to hone her skills more, especially after watching gymnasts from sports giants China and Japan. 

“I feel happy naman but with what happened, I’ll learn from my mistakes and I will do better in the next competition kasi mali yung form ko pero kailangan pa rin daw ng practice (because my form was wrong so I still need to practice.),” said Abaniel. 

Abaniel started with artistic gymnastics when she was Grade 4 in St. Scholastica before she transitioned to trampolining 3 years ago. She initially felt forced to switch to trampoline gymnastics, but now she learned to love everything about it. 

“Noon medyo forced ang dating tapos as time passed by, parang masaya po yung feeling na tumatalon, nararamdaman yung hangin tapos I learned to love the trampoline,” said Abaniel.

(I felt forced to switch to trampoline gymnastics before, but as time passed by, the feeling of jumping and feeling the air was actually fun so I learned to love the trampoline.) 

Until now, Abaniel is still in the process of learning more about trampolining and hopes to develop more skills to excel in future competitions. 

“Yung mga ginagawa ng iba kong teammates [in the national team], mga hard skills na sila tapos medyo basic pa sa amin so wala pa ako masyadong background with the skills itself.” 

(My teammates in the national team have the hard skills while mine is still basic because I don’t have that much background on the skills itself.) – Rappler.com