Friday�s Local Hero: Scotland�s sixth most populous town may have incubated an intriguing ensemble of actors and musicians during its 60-year stint as a new town, but its athletic heritage does not extend much further than Ally McCoist.

EAST KILBRIDE'S history of sporting excellence is not noted for its length. Scotland's sixth most populous town may have incubated an intriguing ensemble of actors and musicians during its 60-year stint as a new town, but its athletic heritage does not extend much further than Ally McCoist.

That surprisingly impoverished state of affairs could soon be enriched, however, thanks to the unlikely sport of trampolining.

The discipline, it is fair to suggest, is not one readily associated with South Lanarkshire, but a pocket of potential is being carefully nurtured in the John Wright Sports Centre and is attracting admiring glances from the sport's cognoscenti.

Under the tutelage of Olivia Sorbie, East Kilbride Trampoline Club have established themselves as the best in Scotland, with their members competing with the best in Britain at various age group levels. Cara Jamieson, the 16-year-old who is under consideration for the 2012 Olympics, is the most prominent but one of her younger club-mates is already threatening her status.

Pamela Clark may be just 11 but the cheery youngster is already regularly triumphing over older rivals. Indeed, the term "rivals"

in itself is misleading given her dominance of the under-13 category, in which she secured the British title in July two years after quelling all efforts to beat her at under-11 level.

"It's good competition against the older girls because the standard is much higher than if I was still doing under-11," says Clark, apparently bemused at the suggestion that the age difference between the entrants might cause her problems. "In Scotland there's not many girls of my age competing so when I go to England, there's more people against me that I can beat."

Her chastened opponents are often overwhelmed before the event begins, such is the effect of Clark's presence, and the authorities even employed the trampolining equivalent of Tiger-proofing in an attempt to stifle her potential.

"She was going down to England and winning and they didn't like it," reveals proud father Robert. "They began capping the tariffs to try and bring her down to the level of the rest of the girls and make it more even. It didn't work, though."

"I kept getting a higher mark," adds Pamela with a grin.

Next year will bring relief for her demoralised victims, as Clark intends to move up to under-15 level. First she intends to inflict a final few doses of her merry misery at the World Age Group Championships this November in Quebec. Flying out to Canada on her birthday with Sorbie, Jamieson and Rebecca Ogilvie - another East Kilbride colleague - Clark sees no reason why she cannot add another medal to the array in her living room.

The most significant blow to her hopes could be financial. Clark has already had to miss prestigious events, with the pockets of parents Robert and Loraine only so deep and the club maintained through goodwill and fundraising events. With resources focused on the 2012 Games, those like Pamela who will still be too young to compete in London are left to scrabble around for loose change.

"I work nightshift so I'm spending my days going round local businesses trying to get some kind of sponsorship for the world championships," says Robert. "There are three girls plus the coach going and that won't be cheap so we need help.

"It's never-ending because there are so many competitions and it's not easy. We tried to get lottery funding but that's just a minefield, with barrier after barrier in the way and the Institute of Sport can't help Pam because she's not 16, which seems strange when other countries get kids at seven or eight."

Clark was first spotted by Sorbie aged four bouncing on a trampoline at a birthday party, the same way Jamieson was discovered. She was invited for a trial and her parents told she had a talent for the sport.

More often than not she was found running around underneath the trampolines - "you're not allowed to do that," she cautions sternly - but soon engaged with the training and began to move adeptly through the grading system.

Her schedule would be demanding enough for an adult without the added burden of beginning secondary school later this month and the attendant woes of becoming a teenager.

A place at the Glasgow School of Sport has been offered to Clark, also an award-winning badminton player and keen swimmer, but she is, as yet, undecided about what she plans to do. Longer-term, she seems reticent about committing herself to a career in trampolining, preferring perhaps a job as a PE teacher, but confesses the chance to write her own chapter in the annuls of East Kilbride's sporting history is tempting.

"I'm going to keep doing it as long as I enjoy it and I'm good at it. I'd like to stand on the podium with an Olympic medal. That would be good. But there's the Commonwealth Games as well and the world championships and the European championships . . ."