Redbridge team leader Darren Trippick is backing up-and-coming gymnast Joshua Newman to shine for the second Balfour Beatty London Youth Games running this summer.
The 38-year-old will once again lead Redbridge into battle at Europe’s largest annual youth sports event, looking to build on last year’s fifth-place finish in his fourth year in charge.
Over the past four Games Trippick admits he hasn’t seen a talent like Newman who won individual trampoline gold at the finals weekend last summer.
Newman didn’t stop there and went on to claim the British under-13 title, with Trippick revealing he can’t wait to see him in action again this year.
"If I was to pick a one to watch I would have to go for Joshua Newman in the trampolining," he said.
"He won the competition last year and is the current British under-13 champion so hopefully he can do well again.
"In terms of teams to look out for we have high hopes for the netball and archery but it is just a shame that Elise Lazarus won’t be competing in the squash because she is the English under-13 champion.
"In past years we have had cyclist Oliver Rossi go on and win a pro-contract and hopefully some more of our stars can go on to big things after this year’s tournament – I am backing Newman to really kick on."
Redbridge have twice finished agonisingly short of a top-three finish in the overall Jubilee Trophy standings, also finishing fifth during the 2010 London Youth Games.
But after a strong start to 2012 - Redbridge are currently sitting second with the finals weekend on June 30 - Trippick insists this could be the year they finally make that final step.
"It is a bit early to say how this year’s competition is going to go but we did win the boys cricket, which was a good start," he added.
"So I think that this year we will be there or thereabouts and we have got off to a good start and hopefully we can build from there.
"We can’t worry about what other people do. All we can think about is how we do and hopefully that will take care of the rest."
Balfour Beatty have agreed to support the London Youth Games through to at least 2015, meaning £1.1m worth of funding post-2012 and a total contribution of £2.5m since 2007.
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