Another year has flown by, and what a year 2011 was... At the beginning of 2011, Edward set a new Guinness world record as being the highest human thrown and caught. This now appears in the Official Guinness book of record 2012 edition. He then went on to retain the British title for the 6th time, and also win the first of the 4 world cups.
The European Championships in October were the biggest acrobatic competition in the 2011 calendar, and to come home with 2 Golds and 1 Silver, winning 4 out of the 5 routines, was a great achievement. These championships were closely followed by the final World Cup in Italy, winning this competition was a great way to end the year!
On the 2nd of December, Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo' was realed at the UK cinemas, where Edward earn't his place on the IMDb as Hugo's Stunt double. Look out for Edward's name in the credits...
Edward will be straight back in the gym preparing for the British championships in March, closely followed by the 2012 World Championships in April. The World Championships will be Edward's Swansong as part of the GB Gymnastics team, and will be retiring from competitive sport.
Here's to 2012, wishing everyone a very Happy New Year. Good luck to you all!
As a little something to finish off the year, here's a video of Edward created in December 2011.
The World Cup in Italy was the final stage of 4 competitions held throughout the year:
•Belgium - April (WorldCup A) ATTENDED
•Poland - September (WorldCup B)
•Russia - September (WorldCup B)
•Italy - November (WorldCup A) ATTENDED
The series of competitions are held throughout the year whilst ranking points are collected by competitors. At the end of the series, the points are added up and the top scorers in each discipline are crowned the overall winners!
Adam and Edward only attended 2 out of the 4 possible World Cups, and managed to bring home the gold medal from each of these events!
With the results of all 4 competitions taken in account for the final overall winners, Adam and Edward finished 3rd, closely behind Belorussia and Russia.
The 2011 Acrobatic European Championships were held in Varna, Bulgaria. Along with Edward's base, Adam McAssey, they were representing Great Britain in the senior men's pair discipline.
At the previous championships in 2009 Edward finished within the top 3 in every exercise;
Balance 3rd, Dynamic 1st, and Overall 2nd. The challenge was set for Edward & Adam to improve on the 2009 results...
After the first stage of qualification with the balance exercise, Edward and Adam were in 1st place and had qualified into the balance final. Despite the scores reverting back to 0.00 for the final, the pair went on to win the gold medal in the balance routine!
Balance final:
1st GBR MCASSEY Adam UPCOTT Edward - 28.418
2nd RUS PILIPCHUK Konstantin DUDCHENKO Alexey - 28.170
3rd BLR KALACHOU Yauheni FEDCHANKA Ruslan - 27.804
With the second routine of the qualifications (Dynamic exercise), Edward and Adam finished in 3rd position, however were still lying in 2nd place overall. Again qualifying for the Dynamic final, and all the scores reverting back to 0.00, the chances of winning were all even! The pair didn't let their 3rd position dent their confidence and went on to win the Dynamic exercise!
Dynamic final:
1stGBR MCASSEY Adam UPCOTT Edward -27.902
2ndBLR KALACHOU Yauheni FEDCHANKA Ruslan - 27.703
3rdUKR TARASENKO Dmytro PULIN Yaroslav - 27.119
The scores of the final combined routine were added together with the previous qualification rounds to give the overall winner! Adam and Edward scored the highest score for the combined exercise, although this wasn't enough to overtake the russian pair from the Dynamic qualifications...
Overall final:
1stRUS PILIPCHUK Konstantin DUDCHENKO Alexey – 28.303 - 84.753
2ndGBR MCASSEY Adam UPCOTT Edward - 28.450 - 84.570
3rdBLR KALACHOU Yauheni FEDCHANKA Ruslan - 27.353 - 82.410
Photos of Adam and Edward can be seen in the Gallery.
After the British Championships, Adam & Edward were back in the gym training hard for the first of the 2011 World Cup series. The World Cup is a series of competitions (4) throughout the year where ranking points are collected by competitors. At the end of the series, the points will be added up and the top scorers in each discipline will be crowned the overall winners!
The Great Britain men's pair of Adam and Edward are currently in the lead of this years world cup as they managed to bring home the gold medal from Belgium.
The next event will be held in Poland in September, however it is undecided if the pair will be able to attend, for financial reasons as there is no funding from their sporting body, British Gymnastics.
Edward remains the British champion at the 2011 championships and claims his 6th British title. He now holds the title from 2003, 05, 08, 09, 10 and now 2011!
February 2011, Edward re-visited the town of Vinnitsa to compete in the Acrobatic tournament, "Stars above the Boug River".
9 years ago when Edward started his competitive career in Acrobatic gymnastics, he was partnered with Adam McAssey. Together they won their first British title, and also a silver medal at the Junior World Chmapionships. In 2004 the partnership finished as new rules were introduced on height/size differences. Both Adam and Edward stayed in the sport but worked with difference partners in different disiplines. In 2010 after both becoming world champions, they finished with their other partners and decided to carry on as a pair again...
The team from Heathrow Gymnastics arrived to an extremerly cold and white Ukraine on February the 22nd with the competition starting 2 days later. Adam and Edward revealed themselves as the new Great Britian senior men's pair with a real sign of potential as they took the gold medal.
Spelbound appeared on the childrens famous TV show, Blue Peter, in an attempt to set a new guinness world record!
The record involved Edward being thrown up and over a bar 12feet in the air. There were only allowed to be 2 people throwing him, plus any contact made with the bar would not count! There were many other rules and regulations to complete the record but this didn't stop them...
Edward as part of Spelbound now holds the record for the 'highest throw of a person'!
2010 was an absolute incredible year for Edward, especially in his sporting career. In March he held on to his British title & was later selected to represent Great Britain at the world championships. Meanwhile, Spelbound was beginning to grow as they showed the world what acrobatics is. After winning Britain’s Got Talent, the team went on to tour Great Britain on the BGT tour whilst training for the world championships. The day after the tour finished, team GB flew out to Poland for the acrobatic world championships where Edward's lifetime ambition was accomplished. Edward and gymnastic partner Doug Fordyce became the Men's pair Acrobatic World Champions!
Edward also gained experience as a stunt double working on Martin Scorsese's new production, 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret.' Later on in the year Edward became Surrey's sport personality of the year, just before performing on the Royal Variety performance with people such as Michael Mcintyre, Take That and Cheryl Cole.
Edward would like to wish everybody a healthy and happy 2011, and also give a big thank you to all of his friends, family and supporters for making 2010 such a successful year for him!
Also, a special thanks goes to Clive & Elaine Atkins who have sponsored Edward to help with his sporting costs and expense which enables him to contuine training and doing what he loves doing.
There have been a number of complaints
about the BBC's camera work of this years (2010,) Royal Variety
performance & especially a lot about the angles used in
Spelbound's performance.
This is a video of Spelbound's first run through on the Palladium stage.
This years Royal Variety performance was help at the famous London Palladium, on Thursday 9th of December.
As part of the prize from winning Britain's got Talent earlier in the
year, Spelbound performed in front of His Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales, and Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall.
The Spelbound Live and Exclusive DVD is now out and available to order. The DVD can be purchased from Amazon, HMV, Play.com and many more. See below for the DVD preview.
After winning Runnymede’s sports personality of
the year back in March 2010, Edward was nominated for the Surrey Sports
Personality of the year.
The awards night
was held on Thursday 25th November 2010 at the prestigious Denbies Wine
Estate, Dorking. The night was full of outstanding sportspeople,
coaches, volunteers and teams which have all contributed to great
sporting achievements within their boroughs..
There
were 14 awards to be won throughout the night with Sport Personality
being the main award. Edward was up against Sheree Cox of Heston and
Hounslow Rifle Club, and Rachel Cawthorn of Wey Kayak Club. After 13
other awards had been awarded, Edward went on to win the Surrey Sports
Personality of the year.
Edward and his partner Doug recently competed in the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships held in Wroclaw Poland. The Men's Pairs competition consisted of a total of 4 routines. Each of the 26 competitors (13 partnerships) had the scores from their first routines added together - the top 8 pairs went through to a sudden death final where only a final combined routine counted towards the final World Championship.
The first 3 routines were performed in an almost relaxed atmosphere. The crowd showed their appreciation with clapping and a few cheers. After the total scores had been announced it soon became clear that this was to be a close fought competition between (85.828) and Edward and Doug (85.367). All the other 6 pairs who made it to the final scored 83 or less.For the final combined routine the order of play was decided by the ranking of each partnership after the preliminary rounds. First were USA, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, and the Chinese. Tension was mounting and the crowd knew that only a completely faultless routine would stand any chance of winning. Ed and Doug stood on the edge of the square and presented to shouts and cheers from the GB supporters – the atmosphere was intense. During the next two and a half minutes the boys held the audience spellbound with a routine that will stick in everyone's memory for a long time to come. When it had finished both Ed and Doug knew they had given it their best. After a short wait their score came in at a very credible 28.662 - a higher mark than any of the boy's previous routines.
The final placing, and winners of the 2010 world men's pairs competition was now up to the two Russians Konstantin Pilipchuk and Alexey Dudenko.
The Russian’s routine was again faultless, was that a hint of a stumble on that landing? Were all those individual elements as faultless as Edward and Doug’s? I don’t think anyone in the crowd could have told you without having some doubts. It was all down to the judges to decide... Edward quoted, “Waiting for the Russian’s score was more nerve racking than doing the actuall routine!” Everyone waited in silence - suddenly an eruption - the Russian score 28.506 - barring an incredible performance from the Ukrainian... Edward and Doug had won, leaving third place to the Belarus pair (28.052). For the Russians and the British athletes the next few moments were unreal - Just as Edward and Doug could hardly believe they had won, The Russian pair could hardly believe they had not, and all too quickly they found themselves on the podium being presented with their medals and standing for the national anthem - not the Russian one, as just about everyone had expected, but the one for Great Britain, and as the familiar tune was played what had just been achieved finally began to sink in. Edward Upcott and Doug Fordyce, the new Senior Men's Pair ‘World Champions’.
Since Tuesday the 15th of June, Edward has been working with team mates from Spelbound and the rest of the 2010 Britain’s Got Talent finalists on the BGT Live tour. The tour started with rehearsals at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, where tour director, Stacey Haynes directed all of the acts together to create an amazing show ready to tour the UK and Ireland. The show has already covered over 13 cities including Brighton, Dublin, Cardiff,Newcastle and London.
Spelbound appear twice in the show with their performances from the TV shows final and semi-final. Plus Edward creates a new duo act with presenter Paddy McGuinness, and for the finale, takes a flight over boy band Connected.
For your chance to see Spelbound and the rest of the Britain’s Got Talent finalists, visit the website ents24.comto book your tickets.
Hundreds of screaming fans lined the streets of Spelthorne on Saturday when the winners of Britain’s Got Talent, Spelbound, took an open-bus tour around their local borough. The gymnastic troupe took the opportunity to celebrate and show their thanks and appreciation to their local fans. The bus decorated in Spelbound banners, took a tour through Ashford high street and Staines town centre where the group signed autographs and posed for photos. The gymnasts finished the tour at Knowle Green, Staines to meet their mayor, John O’Hara.
Edward and team Spelbound 'leap into the big time' after winning last nights live final of Britain's Got Talent. Taking to the stage in black costumes and sprayed from head to foot in gold Spelbound performed in front of of an estimated TV audience of 19million! With all that pressure they still managed to nail their whole routine, including throwing Edward more than 20 feet over the heads of the judges! Amanda Holden told them: I am running out of adjectives to describe you. We are hosting the 2012 Olympics, what an opening act you would be.' Simon Cowell added: 'Putting that into Olympic terms, that would have won the gold medal. One of the most astonishing things I have ever seen.'
Edward said: "Wow! Getting to perform infront of the Queen... that will be a great experience. This is unbelievable, thank you to everyone out there, this just goes to show our hard work paid off."
Edward and team Spelbound appeared in the first live semi-final of Britain’s Got Talent 2010. They couldn't have asked for any more, and are now in full training and rehearsals ready for the final on June 6th.
Edward and troupe Spelbound auditioned on the latest series of Britain’s got talent. Their first audition left the judges 'Spellbound' and became the new favorites to win the series.
Edward was invited to attended the Sport Runnymede awards of after being nominated for 'Sports Personality of the Year'. On Wednesday 24th March Edward attended the awards ceremony along with his parents and younger sister Alice, as she was also nominated for 'Young Sports Personality of the Year.'
The awards evening included a presentation from world champion and olympian canoeist, Anna Hemmings. Matthew Griffin, the chairman of Sport Runnymede said, "The panel were amazed at the number of high level nominations this year."
Despite the high level of nominaions for sports personality of the year, Edward went through to win the award. His sister was highly commended in the Young Sports Personality of the Year. Both were awarded for their gymnastics efforts.
British Championships - from Friday 19th March until Sunday 21st - We trained for a couple of hours on the Friday and competed on saturday and Sunday. We had quite a few wobbles and errors in some of our routines but our scores were OK. We need to sort out some of these issues before the world championships in Poland.
Monday 22nd February, Edward and the team from Spelthorne acrobatics flew from Heathrow airport to Munich with a planned connection flight to Kiev. We arrived in Muinich to find our flight to Kiev was cancelled due the strike of the airline. The team were put in a 4 star hotel for the night, perfect for some evening training in the hotel corridors!!!
The next morning we could not get a direct flight to Kiev, so had to fly to Donetsk (another town in Ukraine) and then to Kiev. However, when we arrived at Donetsk, we found out they could not fit all 20 of us onboard the flight to Kiev, so we had to travel by coach over the rough Ukrainian roads for over 13 hours to get to Kiev, and then on another coach for 4 hours to get to Vinnitsa!
We eventually arrived at our hotel on Wednesday, 2 days late, just in time for a spot of Ukrainian style lunch, oil soup, stale bread and tomato salad, and then a quick training session as the competition started the next day.
At this competition my partner and I competed all our new elements for 2010, some of these elements had never been competed before by any GB acrobats. We finished with a bronze medal.
