Lismore’s Tyson Martin-Durrington wins gold at Gym Championships on Gold Coast

Two months ago elite gymnast Tyson Martin-Durrington was cleaning flood debris from his workplace in Lismore. Now, he is a gold medal winner with an eye on the international stage.

For the last two months, elite Lismore gymnast Tyson Martin-Durrington was teetering on the edge of giving up a shot at the Australian Gymnastics Championships on the Gold Coast.

He had spent weeks cleaning up flood debris from his workplace and barely training on a warped and ransacked gym alongside his coach Pam Behan.

Despite the challenges and the heartache of the last few weeks and with very little training, Martin-Durrington said his only option was to “wing it” and it worked.

His ‘Hail Mary’ earned him top spot on the podium, taking home the gold medal and showing that not even the worst flood in Lismore history can beat down the spirit of an aspiring athlete.

The aerobic gymnast, who grew up in Lismore admits he almost gave up on his chance.

“There were times where I was talking to my coach saying ’should we keep going?’ I thought the year was done,” he said.

“We kept pushing through the training times I thought I should pull out.”

Martin-Durrington regularly trained ten hours a week but had replaced that time with cleaning up Lismore Embroidery on Molesworth St.

The whole shop went under during the catastrophic floods on February 28.

“I never lived in a flood zone but this was something else,” he said.

“We spent weeks cleaning out everything that couldn’t be saved, the smell was gross the whole place looked like a tornado had been through it.

“This all happened mid-season for gymnastics as well and in the back of my mind I was thinking about what the rest of the year held for me”.

The 28-year old and his coach Pam Behan went through extraordinary lengths to get him prepared for the tournament.

Tyson Martin-Durrington (L) and his coach Pam Behan (R) from Lismore after winning gold at the 2022 Australian Gymnastics Championships on the Gold Coast. Picture: Supplied.

Before each session she steam cleaned the floors of the North Coast Gymnastics club to make it safe for training with the venue still open to being damaged by bad weather.

With a makeshift gym to train in, he still wasn’t able to practice all his routine which is highly intensive and involves a great deal of physical fitness.

He couldn’t practice elements like rolling on the ground because the wooden floor was dirty, broken and uneven.

With all the odds against him on the Gold Coast, the Lismore man says the adrenaline spurred him on and once his routine began, there was no stopping him.

“I thought to just hope for the best, see what you can do, if it happens it happens,” he said.

“I was proud I managed to do it without much time to train I feel like I achieved something great.

“Being able to push through after such a horrible year was great.”

His efforts fill him with confidence as he heads to the National Clubs Carnival as well as the opportunity to trial for overseas competitions.

The result opens the door to make an Australian development squad, a moment which only two months ago seemed impossible.