BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND (December 1, 2011) – It was a rock solid performance by Garret Waterstradt that won him a gold medal during world tumbling and trampoline competition last week in Birmingham, England.

Waterstradt, whose family attends Paxton Covenant Church in Paxton, Illinois, won the gold in the World Age Group Championships in Birmingham. The competition was part of the 28th Trampoline and Tumbling World Championships and represented the highest level of competition Waterstradt could experience as a 16-year-old.

“With the title, he can stake claim to being the best in the world among his age group on the double-mini – an event in which there are two mini-trampolines joined in the middle, with the first at an angle from which skills are performed onto the second,” explains reporter Cody Westerlund in the Paxton Record newspaper.

“It was just the greatest feeling in the world,” Waterstradt was quoted as saying in the newspaper article. “Seeing the American flag being raised and our national anthem being played for the whole crowd was just mind-blowing. It was just amazing that I could do something for my country and make it proud of me.”

Waterstradt is scheduled to compete next in Indianapolis and is keeping an eye on future national and world competitions.

“I love being in the air,” Waterstradt told Covenant News Service in a June 2010 feature article. “It’s fun to do all the crazy stuff people think is impossible.”