Gloucester born and bred Kristof Willerton is a former world champion, a former world number one and still one of the very best in his sport.

His sport is tumbling, a form of gymnastics that requires speed, power and plenty of bravery, with competitors performing a series of acrobatic skills down a 25-metre sprung track.

And 29-year-old Willerton, who has been one of the very best for a decade, is certainly still right up there near the top of the pile because he won a silver at the most recent world championships in Sofia at the back end of last year.

Bulgaria’s capital has many happy memories for the one-time Thomas Rich’s School pupil because it was where he won his world championship gold medal back in 2013.

He won a world championship team gold medal, also in Sofia, in 2017 but another individual medal on the biggest stage had eluded him until the end of last year.

The championships are held every year except in an Olympic year and Willerton said: “That was always my goal, I wanted to win another individual medal.

“I’m really happy with silver and I was very close to winning gold.

“In previous championships I made small mistakes that cost me.”

Willerton also won another team gold medal in Sofia last year and he will be hoping for more of the same in this year’s world championships, which will take place in Birmingham in November.

“That will be my final world championships,” said Willerton, who has competed all over the world.

“I don’t have any connections with Birmingham but it will be nice to finish in front of a home crowd.”

Willerton has competed in such diverse places as Colombia, Japan, the US and Russia, but although he is preparing for his final world championships, he still plans to compete into 2024 before then retiring.

“I want to compete in the European Championships in Guimaraes in Portugal in the first half of next year,” he said.

“That will be my last major. Guimaraes is where I won my first European gold so it ties in quite nicely.”

Next year promises to be a very big year for Willerton because he and fiancée Jenna Barrett are also getting married.

Barrett was world junior tumbling champion back in 2015 and the couple have just bought a house in Andover in Hampshire.

Willerton returns to Gloucester quite often – his parents Jeff and Els, who is from Belgium, still live in the city.

Jeff is secretary of the Stroud Football League and his son is grateful that he was encouraged to play sport from a young age.

And while tumbling is not the most high-profile sport, it’s been perfect for Willerton.

“As well as competing I’ve done quite a lot of coaching and I’ll carry on coaching when I retire,” he said.

“I’ve also done quite a few shows so I’ve been able to make some money from it.”

And he’s very happy with tumbling’s place on the sporting map.

“It’s a pure sport,” said Willerton, who works as a science technician at a school in Andover.

“It’s not an Olympic sport so we don’t get the funding that some other sports get.

“I used to want tumbling to become an Olympic sport but I don’t now.

“Because we don’t have the major funding, we don’t get caught up in all the politics.

“I like the feel of tumbling, it’s a friendly sport.”

But while that is obviously true – Willerton has been tumbling since he was a small boy – you can rest assured he will be very competitive when it comes to the world championships later this year and at the Europeans in 2024.