Jacob Costello is on top of the world these days – or, at the very least, soaring 12 to 15 feet above ground level more often than not.
Making his first appearance at nationals, the GymZone – Sudbury Laurels trampolinist returned from Gatineau (PQ) with a bronze medal in his solo event (Level 5 – Age 17+) before earning gold with teammate / coach Brent Farnsworth in the more relaxed synchronized trampoline competition.
For as much as the 16 year-old grade 11 student at St Benedict Catholic Secondary School might be considered an optimist, this wasn’t necessarily what Costello envisioned.
“My main goal was to complete all of my routines and maybe make finals,” he said. “This was amazing. It was incredible seeing Olympic level athletes.”
Understandably pleased with the execution of the majority of his routines (both compulsory and optional), Costello suggested that success comes from an alignment of the physical preparation of the athlete with the mental.
“I think it was a bit of both,” he suggested. “You have to be in the right mindset to remain focused – but you also have to feel properly warmed up. Your legs have to feel good, your core has to feel good to hold your lines.”
On day one, it was somewhat hit and miss as the northern lad got acclimatized to the environment that is a Canadian championship. “With my first compulsory, I was really happy with my execution, but I did not stay in the middle. I was all over the place – and the more you go off to the sides, the more marks you lose.”
With the top ten in his grouping advancing to the finals, Costello found himself sitting in sixth.
Given the fact that scores carried over, the youngest of four sports-minded children in the family could not have picked a much better time for his dream performance. “In the finals, I had the best routine I’ve ever done,” beamed Costello.
With a score of 48.15 – the best score recorded by any competitor in his bracket over the course of their three separate routines – Costello would leapfrog past Enzo Marrie Campeau (North York), Emile Proteau (Terrebonne, PQ) and Hayden Hewitt (Ottawa – who also edged Costello for first place at the second Ontario Cup qualifier this winter) and find himself on the podium when the dust settled.
“My first skill is a make it or break it thing,” said Costello. “If I do that well, it sets me up for a really good routine. From the second skill on, I knew my score was going to be nice. I just had to keep going, keep pushing.”
It was an ideal pre-cursor to the synchro final later in the day.
“Knowing I already had one medal took a lot of the stress away – and the synchro is less serious than individual,” said Costello, who teamed with Farnsworth to jump from third to first by stringing together a pair of very solid routines. Finishing with a combined score of 84.14, the Sudbury duo easily outdistanced the Québec pairing of Thomas Mimeault and Justin Couturier (81.57), with Gage Azarkiewicz and Hayden Halley from Nova Scotia a little further back still.
Narrowly missing out on his requisite score to bump up to Level 7 for 2024-2025, Costello has that goal right at the top of the list as he eyes another year of training and competition.
In other Sudbury news from the event, tumbler Hector Loiselle earned silver in the junior men’s division, his five-run score of 112.30 squeezed right in between Albertans Gavin Gibbs (114.40) and Tristan Bloom (111.60).
