Super Cooper from Chesterfield swoops on gold medal as first ever UK contestant in European Gull Screeching Championships

Nine-year-old Cooper Wallace soared to victory in the European Gull Screeching Championships in Belgium at the weekend where he was the first ever UK competitor. Cooper not only won the juvenile section but earned the highest marks in the competition, outstripping contestants in the adult and colony sections.

Cooper, who lives in Newbold, said: “I was bit nervous. I thought they were cheering because they wanted me to stop and then I realised that they were all smiling and cheering me on to keep me going. It was awesome.”

He performed his winning screeches in front of a pub which was so busy that his dad Andy had to stand outside and watch his son through the window. Mum Lauren, six-year-old sister Shelby and grandparents David and Lyn Charlesworth perched on seats inside the packed pub.

Dressed for the occasion, Cooper carried a lucky charm – a tiny felt bird which he named Stephen Seagull. He said: “If I didn’t have Stephen, I wouldn’t have been able to win.” The keepsake was made by his gran’s friend Gill Leatherday, who lives in Holmewood.

Lauren said: “I was so proud, I wanted to cry. Cooper is very loud and very talkative but is quite shy and doesn’t really like being the centre of attention. When he's on stage in school productions, he's hiding at the back.”

Cooper has had to overcome nerves and shyness since returning to England as a gold medal-winning champion. The past two days have been a whirlwind of radio and television interviews and he’s got another one tomorrow morning on BBC Breakfast before he goes back to Abercrombie Primary School.

He learned his unusual talent for mimicking sea birds while on holiday in Woolacombe, Devon three years ago. His grandad David, who lives at Moorland View Road, Walton, said: “Cooper was having a sandwich on the beach when a seagull swooped over, jumped on his shoulder, grabbed his sandwich and nipped his finger at the same time. It frightened the life out of him. His little sister, who was only about three at the time, grabbed a spade and chased the seagull down the beach shouting ‘don’t you dare hurt my brother’.

Lauren, who teaches at Arkwright Primary and Nursery School, said: “During that week we kept hearing a seagull that sounded hungry, saying the same thing over and over again. Cooper said ‘that was me’ so we said do it again and kept encouraging him while we were at the seaside. But then it became this annoying noise and we said to him ‘please stop’.

"We were at the Darwin Forest soft play centre about 18 months ago and Shelby lost her brother so I said ‘follow the seagull noise, off you go’. The gentleman beside me could not stop laughing and apologised for listening to the conversation. He said ‘where else do you hear a seagull in soft play?’ He said that he’d heard on Radio 5 that there was a competition for it and he You Tubed it on his laptop.

"We put the idea of the competition to bed for a while as we thought it was crazy. More people heard Cooper and said you should go, we looked into it and realised it was in Belgium. We registered our interest with them and they asked for a video and they said ‘wow, he is so ready for our competition...he would be our first UK contestant.’ I said ‘it’s going to cost us a fortune – we can’t go all that way for a seagull competition that doesn’t coincide with school holidays but then we thought it would be a once in a lifetime. We didn’t pressure him – we told him that if he didn’t want to do it then we’d just have a nice weekend in Belgium.

"Now Cooper says we’re going to go every year. He reckons we’ll go back eight more times until his voice breaks when he’s 18”.

Cooper said: “I’m a baby seagull at the moment, by the time I’m 80 I’ll be a fully grown seagull!”

Meanwhile he’s basking in new-found fame under the name of Seagull Boy, inspired by action hero Spider Man who was bitten by an arachnid.