THREE members of Poole-based trampoline club OLGA – sisters Maddy and Izzy Songhurst and Robin Hartey – struck gold at the Loule Cup in Portugal.

The three-day international competition attracted elite performers from all over the world including Japan, Poland, Russia, Spain, Denmark and Qatar.

Maddy Songhurst was the first from OLGA to qualify for the final by coming in the top eight out of more than 30 competitors in the under-13 female preliminary round. She qualified for the final in second place.

Izzy Songhurst and Robin Hartey followed suit in the 13 to 14-year-old old female and male groups, respectively, to qualify for their finals in first place.

Maddy’s final was the first age group to be held on the last day of the competition.

She performed her voluntary routine extremely well and a mistake by the girl in front of her put her in first place. It was 11-year-old Maddy’s first inter-national gold medal.

Not wanting to let her little sister take all the glory, Izzy held her own in her final and also took a gold medal, followed by Robin who completed an impressive routine to snatch another first place.

It was a remarkable perfor-mance considering their coach Brian Camp had been unable to travel with them due to attending a close friend’s wedding.

Instead, they relied on the support from coaches from the City of Liverpool and Edgebarrow trampoline club. A delighted Camp said: “I am incredibly proud of all three of them, we put in a lot of hard training and preparation before Loule, they knew what I expected of them, they knew what they had to do and they went out and did it.”

Izzy, who won a silver medal at the Australian Youth Olympics in January, said: “We’ve competed at Loule the past few years and had good results, but for all three of us to come away with gold medals is fantastic.

“Loule is a great opportunity to compete in front of international judges and get your face known before the international competitions later in the year.

“We heard while we were out there that the 2020 Olympics went to Tokyo, that’s definitely my target, but now I’ve got to knuckle down and focus on world age group trials.”

Maddy added: “I’m really pleased I won. Portugal was lovely and warm and the arena was really light and airy. It was great to meet girls my age from all over the world.”

Robin, meanwhile, paid tribute to coach Camp for preparing them so well for Portugal.

“This was our first competition since the national championships at the NEC in July. We all had good results there and Brian prepared us well for Loule,” said Robin.

“It’s not quite the same having a coach from another club supporting you at the comp, and trampolining unfortunately is one of those sports that can go very wrong in a second.

“But as Brian said we knew what we had to do and we managed to go out and do it.

“I was last to go and I knew Izzy and Maddy had golds so I was determined to to get one too.”