Tasha Lawrence, of Ipswich, who is a coach at Spectrum Gymnastics in Bury St Edmunds, speaks of experience on BBC’s rebooted Gladiators
A Suffolk woman who starred on the recently-rebooted Gladiators has spoken of her experience on the TV show.
Tasha Lawrence, 42, of Ipswich, made it to the quarter finals of the revamped show on BBC One, agonisingly missing out on the semi-finals by a split second.
She is also a coach at Spectrum Gymnastics, in Bury St Edmunds, and said being a part of Gladiators was ‘the best experience ever’.
When it came to tryouts for the show, Tasha headed to Sheffield, where it was filmed, almost straight off of the plane from Egypt, where she had been holidaying
“I flew back from Egypt at 6am, came home and dumped my bags, got on the train and was in Sheffield within about four hours of being back in England,” she said.
“The whole thing was so surreal and the best experience ever. The show was my childhood; it was a nostalgic childhood dream. Hearing the theme tune from upstairs, I just wanted to be in that position as a contender.
“I watched it religiously as a kid and walking into the studio in Sheffield I just thought ‘this is crazy’.”
Tasha made it through to the quarter finals as a fastest runner-up, having been just pipped by Kerry Wilson in her heat.
She competed against Bronte Jones in the semi-final, building up a 1.5 second head start for the Eliminator after winning the events 36-33, but was agonisingly overtaken on the penultimate obstacle, the travelator.
Tasha said: “We were literally within a split second of each other as we crossed the paper.
“It was so, so close, and I couldn’t wait to see it on TV. People were messaging me saying they were screaming at their tellies and saying I gave it a really good go.
“I’m really happy with how I performed and how far I got. I completed the eliminator twice.”
The show was filmed in June last year, which Tasha said was difficult in terms of keeping it quiet from her friends, but the support of her family both while on the show and afterwards was very important.
Tasha also said the gladiators themselves, as well as father-and-son hosting duo Bradley and Barney Walsh, were all supportive of the contestants and helped to create an ‘amazing’ environment.
She said: “They’d be gearing us up (Bradley and Barney) before the events, and everyone worked together as a team.
“We were really well looked after, from the Gladiators to the producers to Brad and Barney, it was amazing. Having my family around to support me was so good as well.”
