A three-year-old girl in County Durham was jumping for joy recently after police found and returned her prized trampoline.

The 12-foot trampoline was stolen from little Lana Elliott’s back garden in Sherburn Hill on the Sunday night of 28 April.

The distraught girl was left in tears when the theft was discovered the following day, and her mother, customer services advisor Amanda Carr was forced to call Durham Constabulary.

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. With a missing trampoline in the neighbourhood, police were quick to jump to it and recovered it from a nearby address on the Tuesday afternoon.

Amanda told local newspaper The Journal that her daughter regained the spring in her step once she realised her beloved trampoline had been rescued.

“She was absolutely devastated, but when we got it back she was over the moon. A big smile just came on her face,” she told a reporter. And Ms Carr also revealed that little Lana was addicted to jumping on her trampoline.

“She would be on it 24/7 if she had the chance, she just absolutely loves it,” she said.

“I’m just glad it’s back now. I’m so pleased they got it back. I wasn’t expecting to see it again. The only thing that is still missing is the enclosure, so it’s not safe for her to go on by herself. But Lana is happy and that’s all that matters.”

James Cowell, of Durham Constabulary told the paper that Sherburn’s neighbourhood policing team located the stolen trampoline following a tip-off. An arrest was made soon afterwards.

“This is an excellent example of the community working in partnership with the police, to provide intelligence in the detection of crime within the village,” said Sgt Dowell.

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Trampoline enthusiasts around the world have been honouring the pioneer responsible for making their sport possible – gymnastics champ and inventor George Nissen.

Nissen was the mind behind the modern trampoline, and he passed away on 7 April at the ripe old age of 96 at a hospital in San Diego.

He became a champion gymnast while still at school in Iowa, as well as a top diver. Later in life he was well-known for his signature handstand – something he remained capable of well into his 80s.

But the event that was to make him famous among trampoline enthusiasts was a visit to the circus in the 1930s, where he marvelled at the gravity-defying feats of trapeze performers. He was struck by the way they managed to rebound from the safety nets and somersault upwards. Soon afterwards, he set up a prototype trampoline in his parents’ garage and eventually made a working model using scrap metal and canvas, with the help of his college gymnastics coach Larry Griswold.

The first hint that Nissen might be on to something was the rapturous reception that his invention received at a nearby YMCA camp, but it was after he left college that he began promoting it in earnest. While competing in Mexico City as part of a diving squad, he found the perfect name for his contraption – simply by adding an ‘e’ to the Spanish word for springboard, trampolin, the modern trampoline was born.

Nissen set up his own business, manufacturing and selling trampolines alongside regular gym equipment. His international travels took him everywhere, where he promoted the trampoline enthusiastically. At one point, he bounced atop the Egyptian pyramids, and once even took to the trampoline with a live kangaroo!

But his ultimate ambition was to make the trampoline an Olympic sport – and he lived to see his dream come true at the Sydney Summer Games in 2000.

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The flights chaos caused by the volcanic cloud emanating from Iceland has scuppered thousands of travellers’ plans – including a pair of gymnasts from Northampton who were all set to travel to Bulgaria for the European Trampoline Championships.

As all flights in and out of UK airspace were banned by air traffic control company Nats for the fourth day running, disappointed gymnasts Steve Walsh and James Higgins issued a desperate plea for a coach company to rescue their chances of success in the trampoline championships, which take place on Friday in the Bulgarian resort of Varna, which lies on the Black Sea Coast.

The two virtuosos belong to Northants Trampoline Academy and they train at Benham Sports Arena, Moulton Park, along with their coach, Tracy Whittaker-Smith. They were booked – along with 10 others – to fly to Bulgaria this week. Thanks to the ash cloud that is still covering northern Europe, their dreams are in jeopardy.

This year’s European Trampoline Championships is the 22^nd event of its kind and was originally scheduled to take place in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. The five-day event was moved to Varna last autumn, partly because of the resorts excellent reputation among tourists as a sunshine getaway and because of its sporting history.

The championships will feature tests of skill and dexterity with trampolining, tumbling and the double mini-trampoline. It is the first championship event since the most powerful trampoline to be certified by the Federation of International Gymnasts – the the Eurotramp 4×4 – was introduced into proceedings.

The UK team has been training hard for the event, attending a training camp in Bath at the end of March followed by a four-day preparation competition.

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What are the Advantages?

A trampoline is very useful for keeping active and fit. Its not just a boring day at the gym its a fun and enjoyable activity. There are different types of trampolines. They vary mostly in size. There exist huge trampolines that can keep several people at once or mini trampolines.With a number of different research efforts, it has been established that jumping on trampolines can help improve health. Now there are currently numerous trampoline exercise programs that people could adopt and learn for fitness purposes. If you are aiming to maintain and improve your overall physical being, you could start doing so by getting into a fun trampoline exercise program. You would also be amazed at how the activity can be so much fun and at the same time beneficial to the overall health of the body.

Benefits for your body

trampoline activities hep improve blood flow in your body-It does this by helping increase the availability and use of oxygen in the body. When oxygen supply is improved, expect that blood circulation would greatly improve in all important parts of the body.

Every muscle in the body is moved or exercised-trampoline exercises are different because they do not benefit specific muscles, but instead target the whole muscular system. The act of rebounding, jumping and keeping balance when doing the trampoline make up for this advantage.

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