A double mini-trampolinist has won a bronze medal in her first major senior international.

Nicole Short, from Radcliffe, competed in the senior ladies double mini-trampoline tournament (DMT) at the world championships in Bulgaria last year and took third place.

The 19-year-old, who is studying Applied Sport Psychology at Liverpool John Moore’s University, took up artistic gymnastics when she was two-years-old. She then went on to trampoline gymnastics for 10 years, before switching to DMT in 2012.

Mum June, who runs Bury Trampoline Club, said: “Nicole and her sister, Natasha, were talent spotted by the coach at City Liverpool Gymnastics, and at the age of nine, Nicole quit artistic gymnastics and moved to Liverpool for her training in trampoline gymnastics.

At the age of 13, Nicole decided to take a break from the sport.

“She had anxiety problems and left the sport for 18 months,” said June.

However, Nicole returned to trampolining when she was 15-years-old and went on to win a world age group bronze medal in 2011.

The high level junior then competed for Great Britain’s under-21s at the Junior European Championships in St Petersburg in 2012, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal.

As a result of a loss of confidence, Nicole began to use the double mini-trampoline.

“She began using the DMT to keep her calm because she was struggling to do her routines.

“The national coach then approached her and said ‘why don’t you do DMT Nicole’, so she decided to give it a go.”

On her return from the junior European’s in 2012, Nicole entered the last DMT gala of the season. She qualified for the British Grade C Championships and became the national champion.

From there she entered into several international competitions for her club, winning silver in the senior ladies in Portugal and gold in Belgium in November 2012.

Nicole then had to qualify from Grade C to national Grade B and then to Fig A to compete in the World Games in Cali, Columbia in 2013.

She qualified for the final in third place, missing out on a medal by finishing in fifth place overall.

On her return from Colombia, Nicole was back in training, determined to bring back a medal from the World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria last November.

At the championships, Nicole competed in the individual event and qualified for the final in fifth place. With a very high standard in the final, Nicole held her nerve to secure the bronze medal, behind winner Krystle Lowell (USA) and defending champion Svetlana Balandina (Russia).

However, a lack of top quality training facilities is now causing Nicole problems as she bids to win more medals at the European championships in April and the world championships in the USA in November this year.

“She can’t train properly because she doesn’t have the right equipment,” said June. “If she had proper equipment to train on, not only would it be easier on her body, she would be much better prepared for competitions. “However, a new double mini-trampoline costs around £4,000.

“DMT is not a funded sport so we can’t gain access to any funds through British Gymnastics to help her,” said June, who is looking to secure sponsorship in order to get training equipment for Nicole.

Anyone who can help should email Junemike.short@ntlworld.com.