Ballarat's Nicholas Howard wins first international medal in DTB Pokal in Germany

Nicholas Howard, from Eureka Gymnastics Club, competed against some of the best young gymnasts in the world at the Junior World Championship in Turkey as well as the German event, producing an outstanding series of vaults to claim the bronze medal in Stuttgart.

It was an outstanding international debut for the 17-year-old, who qualified for three apparatus finals, relishing the opportunity to compete in front of a vocal crowd.

"Germany was a really cool experience. There were so many people there and I was lucky enough to make three finals, top six in each," he said.

"I finished sixth in the high bar, fifth in rings and was lucky enough to grab a bronze on vault which was not something I was expecting.

"Vault has always been one of my stronger apparatus. When we got over there, I was doing some of the best vaults I have ever done in training. So, the lead up was going well."

After two strong vaults in the final, Howard had a nervous wait to see if he had claimed a medal.

"I did two nice enough vaults to qualify in fourth which I was happy with, then came the final. I thought I'd done another two pretty decent vaults and I remember sitting there in the third-place seat with just one person to go who had qualified first," he said.

"I was wondering if I was going to get booted back to fourth. His first vault was very nice, but the second one he didn't make great contact and didn't quite get the height and landed a bit short.

"I was talking to one of the US boys who was sitting next to me in second-place position. I said 'hopefully I'm still here after this guy has finished but if not, nice to meet you', then we watched the vault and he turned around to me and said 'you're here for a bit longer yet'.

"It was sort of like, I was in awe, I couldn't quite believe what had happened."

For Howard gymnastics has been in his blood since his mother tried to get him to stop jumping on the furniture as a child.

He now lives full-time in Melbourne where he trains with the high performance squad, but returns to Ballarat every Sunday to coach juniors at Eureka Gymnastics Club.

"I started competition when I was five or six and for a lot of my early career I trained here at Eureka. Then, slowly I started to do more and more work down at the High Performance Centre in Melbourne," he said.

"In 2020 I moved down there and since then, I've been full-time at the High Performance Centre."

But of course, 2020 was to throw some curve balls at the then 14-year-old.

"I started off the year in 2020 loving it. I moved to a new school but after about a month, we were straight into lockdown. I came back here," he said.

"It was interesting because I wasn't allowed into the gym. The first two lockdowns in 2020 I couldn't train at all. I was lucky enough that Eureka lent me some equipment, so I ended up with a pommel horse in the living room.

"I think Mum was happy I was active as long as I wasn't in her way."

Howard said despite the late nights at home, pommel remained his weakest apparatus. He said despite this, he saw himself as an all-round athlete rather than a specialist.

"I'm very much an all rounder, my weakest apparatus is the pommel but I'm more all around. I'm fairly similar in difficulty and how clean I am - there's no super standout event for me," he said.

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He said getting an opportunity to see other countries train and compete was an eye-opening experience.

"Everyone is so close. The finals I was in - everyone was perfect. You have to be better than perfect, it's usually just .2 or something like that between everyone," he said.

"Representing Australia was one of the biggest goals I'd set from a really young age. But I know everyone does that.

"You see people at big competitions and I've always aspired to be like them. Then on top of that you see photos and videos of all the boys coming back with international medals - you want to do that too.

"These were my first international competitions, so I was just excited to go out and do my best in the uniform.

"I wasn't expecting to make as many finals. To finish the day off hitting all the routines in finals, it made me proud to be able to handle the pressure."

Howard said the local Commonwealth Games was definitely on his radar, but he knows a lot of hard work will be required.

"Goals are always there for Commonwealth Games and Olympics. You talk to any athlete who's my age or younger, they want to be at those major events," he said.

"There's a lot of gymnasts at the pointy end - there's always national squads and right now I'm in the junior squad. I'm hoping to be able to break into the senior squad in the next couple of years.

"But those squads work with say 20 athletes, but only five get chosen for international events, so it's pretty competitive right at the top."

Battling illness leading into the World Championships in Turkey, Howard placed 13th on vault and 26th on rings.

"I'd been ill leading up to it, but I felt pretty good on the day.

"I finished 13th on vault in that one, 26th on rings and then I had a couple of small mistakes, but overall I was pretty happy with how I went against the best in the world," he said.

"When I'm up to senior level, it's those same people I'll be up against. It was a great experience to see how training operates in different countries too."

While he is based in Melbourne most of the time, Howard said he loved giving back to the sport in Ballarat.

He said he enjoyed helping young gymnasts and could see himself one day, when his own career is over, moving into coaching ranks.

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