Readers of a certain age will remember the romantic comedy There’s Something About Mary, which was a huge box office hit back in the late 1990s.

When it was released in July 1998, Kristof Willerton was only four, but while there was Something About Mary for her gaggle of suitors played by Matt Dillon and Ben Stiller among others, for Kristof there is certainly Something About Sofia.

That’s because he has not long returned from the Bulgarian capital where he helped Great Britain win team gold in the world tumbling championships.

And that success came four years after he became the first Briton ever to win individual gold in the world tumbling championships in, you guessed it, Sofia.

It’s fair to say that Willerton is probably the best tumbler that this country has ever produced.

The 24-year-old one-time Sir Thomas Rich’s School pupil is a many times British champion, as well as a serial medal winner at the European Championships. If he’d been born in Russia or China where the sport is big with a capital ‘B’ he’d be a household name.

As it is, he’s certainly a big name among British fans of tumbling and, if he has his way, he’s still got several years left in a sport that he first became aware of a year before Cameron Diaz was exciting Ben Stiller and the like while playing the title role of Mary in the aforementioned film.

“My mum used to take my sister Annelies to a tumbling class in Gloucester,” he recalled. “I’m pretty sure it was at Sarah’s Gymnastics Club. I was four at the time and she was two years older than me. I’d be sat on the side but I had so much energy that I’d be rolling around all the time.

“They let me have a go and I found out I really liked it even though not many boys did it. It was a way to release all that extra energy.”

Kristof’s mum Els, who is from Belgium, was into her gymnastics but she and husband Jeff, a big noise with the Stroud Football League, didn’t push their kids into any particular sport.

“They let us decide for ourselves,” said Kristof. “I played a bit of football at school and I also trained with the local football team – I think it was at Abbeymead Rovers. The first training session I got kicked in the face. I got a black eye and that was pretty much it for me and football!”

Football’s loss was tumbling’s gain and it was soon apparent that the young Kristof was quite good at it.

“I had quite good spatial awareness,” he explained. “I knew where I was when I was in the air. My parents joked that it was because they threw me around when I was younger.

“I didn’t have great eyesight or hearing when I was growing up – I still don’t – so maybe that wasn’t such a disadvantage after all.”

It’s not quite that straightforward of course.

“You have to be quite brave,” added Kristof, “and I suppose you’ve got to be a bit crazy. You’ve got to be willing to throw yourself up into the air and I was, I had no fear.”

By now Kristof had joined Checkers in Gloucester, an acrobatics and tumbling club which met at GL1.

He was also trampolining at Oxstalls Springers – now Aspire – but he was a bit of a late starter when it came to taking part in competitions.

That was at the age of 10 but he was soon making up for lost time.

“I got my first lucky break when I was 12,” said Kristof. “Matei Todorov, a national coach, came to Checkers looking for acrobats. He looked at me and thought I’d make a better tumbler, so he invited me to trial out at Lilleshall Sports Centre for the national junior programme.

“I didn’t know what to expect but then I had another bit of good fortune.

“A couple of the other boys made a couple of mistakes and the next thing I knew I’d been selected for the world age group championships.”

That was in 2005 and the championships were held in Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

“It was my first trip abroad without the family,” remembers Kristof. “I was a bit behind the pace but I finished 12th which was a very good result in my first competition.”

And that wasn’t the only ‘good result’ for Kristof in a country renowned for its whirling windmills.

“It’s where I met my longstanding coach Alan Lavelle,” said Kristof. “He was a coach in Andover and I’ve been training there since 2006.

“To start with it was three times a week, then it was five. It was a lot of travelling for my mum in particular but last year I moved to Andover so I am much closer to the gym now.”

While he has cut down on the road miles, his air miles continue to go up. World championships and Euros in locations as diverse as Florida and St Petersburg have seen to that.

It’s meant many hours, days and weeks away from home over the years but all the success has certainly made the hard work worthwhile.

Not that it has been a success all the way for Kristof, even though he “progressed quite quickly as a junior” after linking up with Lavelle.

“I won one individual gold in the junior British championships,” he said. “I had the potential but I couldn’t compete in all the competitions because I broke my foot three times in 18 months. I also broke my arm as well.”

It’s not a sport for the faint-hearted, but Kristof wasn’t put off by the injuries and, once he was 17 and eligible to compete in the adult ranks, he started to turn up the heat on his rivals.

“I came fourth in my second individual world championships,” he said. “They were held in Britain and that was a really good result.”

Indeed it was but that was just a warm-up for the impressive Kristof, who two years later shocked the world of tumbling by taking individual gold in the sport’s flagship event.

“That was my breakout year,” he said.

That’s something of an understatement because only a few months earlier he’d finished third in the World Games – an event for non-Olympic sports including tug-of-war and billiards.

That place on the podium gave Kristof, who was still a teenager, the confidence to believe there was plenty more in the locker.

That confidence wasn’t misplaced of course.

But while he is a household name within the confines of his sport, he admits he’s not well-known outside it. Indeed, the sport of tumbling is hardly high-profile.

So how would he describe tumbling?

“They call it the 100 metres sprint of gymnastics,” laughed Kristof, “because it’s over in eight seconds.

“You go down a long tumbling strip which is about 25 metres long. Speed and power are the main focus and you need to be fearless because you’ve got to jump big tricks.”

While many of the big tricks are the same, Kristof has devised his own routine.

“There’s a skill which I do which is unique,” he said. “It’s a triple straight somersault. You go round three times in a fully stretched position in the air. There’s quite a bit of force on the body.”

It’s pretty impressive but the big shame is that it won’t be seen on the world’s biggest stage any time soon, because tumbling is not an Olympic sport.

“I’m still hopeful,” said Kristof, “although if it does happen I think I will be too old. Maybe I can coach someone who goes to the Olympics.”

Coaching is something that appeals to Kristof. He worked for the British Gymnastics Federation for 18 months and has already done some tumbling coaching, and it’s something he’d like to get more involved in.

Mind you, he’s got plenty of options because he’s a bright boy having got a 2:1 in bio-chemistry at Oxford University.

For now, he’s happy to keep on tumbling.

While most men in this country give up the sport at around 21 – and the girls three years earlier – because of the lack of funding, men in countries such as Russia and China can go on tumbling until they are 30 or 32.

“I really enjoy tumbling,” Kristof said. “I want to keep doing it for a long time and hopefully give something back to the next generation. It does get harder, the body can’t take as much but I’ve got no plans to retire any time soon.”

And what about Annelies, whose tumbling classes got Kristof into the sport in the first place?

“She carried on doing her tumbling when she was younger and was also a coach,” said Kristof, “but these days she’s into CrossFit.”

It’s unlikely that Kristof will follow her into that sport!

The last word should go to Kristof’s proud dad, Jeff. “I know that he is my son, but I have to say that he is a model sportsman who has made what talents he has go a long, long way,” said Jeff.

“He’s a highly impressive individual who is lauded by the gymnastics community for his talent, humility and generosity.

“So many gymnasts quote him as a person they look up to, and he gives back in buckets with his time and support. The fact that he also did a four-year Oxford University masters degree in bio-chemistry and still achieved all that he has still baffles me.”

Jeff is also keen to spread the word about all things tumbling.

“There are at least a few starter tumbling clubs in Gloucester – Checkers Gymnastics Club and Severn Valley Gymnastics – and there’s Flip and Twist Gymnastics in Stonehouse,” he added.