JUNE 15 - IG: GARDINER GEARS FOR NEW PHASE OF GYMNASTICS CAREER
In an interview with
IG magazine, Maddie Gardiner discusses her return
to competition after breaking both wrists late 2012, her experience at
the Olympics as one of two alternates, her impending move to Oregon to
compete NCAA, and being crowned Prom Queen.
Add yet another accomplishment to Kyle Shewfelt's list:
Gym owner! Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics will be opening soon. The
11,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility in Calgary will offer
gymnastic programming to students of all ages.
Links:
Calgary Herald For more details:
info@kyleshewfelt.com
JUNE 11 - SAMANTHA HAGHIGHAT-JOO MOVES TO FLICKA
Samantha Haghighat-Joo has followed several former
teammates, switching to Flicka Gymnastics.
JUNE 9 - FLETT AND GERVAIS UNIVERSITY GAMES INTERVIEW
JUNE 1 - DICK TO REPRESENT TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO AT WORLDS
Marisa Dick has claimed a spot to the 2013 World
Championships, representing Trinidad and Tobago. Dick recently
competed at the 2013 Canadian National Championships, winning gold on
floor and finishing fourth all-around in the National Open 16+
category. Marisa is a dual citizen with Trinidad and Tobago, by
virtue of her mother being born in the Carribean country. Two years
ago, as a junior, she represented the country at the 2011 Pan Am
Championships in Columbia, placing 15th all-around in preliminary
competition and 7th on both vault and floor apparatus finals.
MAY 30 - IG: MASELA MOTIVATED BY RECENT TRIP TO CANADA
International Gymnast magazine spoke with Wyomi Masela
about a recent 3-week stint at Bluewater Gymnastics training with
Dominique Pegg under coaches Dave
and Liz Brubaker.
MAY 26 - INTERVIEW WITH BRITTANY ROGERS
Arabian Punch Front has posted an interview with 2012 Olympian
Brittany Rogers. She discusses feeling like a "kid in
a candy store" at the London 2012 Olympics, the post-Olympic burnout,
getting inked, her Freshman year as a Georgia Gym Dawg, and her hopes
for a comeback for Rio 2016.
MAY 25 -
WHAT'S NEXT FOR OUR NEW NATIONAL CHAMPIONS?
Hugh Smith is looking for a ticket to World
Championships in Antwerp, Belgium. There is no team competition at
Worlds this year, just all-around and apparatus finals. Smith feels
his best chances for a spot are with his vaults and floor. He'll be
looking to perfect his new vault over the summer, a Tsukhara Triple
Twist (SV: 6.0). On floor he's hoping to up his start value.
Ellie Black has her eyes on the
Universiade (World University Games), set for Kazan, Russia. After
that, World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.
Canada's women's team for the Universiade includes:
Ellie Black Sarah Flett Mackenzie Itcush Natalie
Gervais Erica Devereaux
A young Canadian men's team will also compete in Kazan.
Update! (May 31) Men's roster has now been
announced:
Tariq Dowers Evan Cruz Aiden Marsden
Cory Paterson Josh Stuart
MAY 25 - MEET YOUR CHAMPIONS: CHANT, HOFLAND, BLACK AND DOUGLAS
Today's apparatus finals saw four champions
crowned in the senior women's category. Maegan Chant vaulted to gold,
capitalizing on a fall by Ellie Black.
Kaitlyn Hofland was the class of the
field on bars, retaining her lead from preliminaries. Hofland's bar
work aside, bars looks to be an event that could plague Canada for
awhile. Black took topped the field on beam, and Gabriella
Douglas was golden on floor. Douglas was also runner-up on
beam.
VK Woo suffered a fall on
vault, and was forced to withdraw from the bars final. Victoria
Moors also withdrew from bars, saving her strength for floor.
Unfortunately, the move did not pay off, and she fell on her laid out
double-double. These withdrawls opened the door for Nicole Chow
and Mariana Colussi-Pelaesz, with the latter
capitalizing on the berth to take bronze.
In the junior category, Shallon Olsen
emerged the only double gold medalist of the day; She won
vault and floor. Sydney Soloski took gold on beam and
Brianna Clark swung her way to gold. Clark finishes
the day as the most decorated gymnast, with a medal on every event. In
addition to gold on bars, she took silvers on vault and beam and
bronze on floor.
Junior Aleeza Yu medalled on
three apparatus, winning two silvers and a bronze. Senior Ellie Black also
took three medals, a medal on every event she competed. In addition to
Olsen and Douglas, Stefanie Merkle was a double
medalist today. She claimed a silver on bars and a bronze on floor.
Senior Vault: 1. Chant 2. Tsang
3. Black 4. Chow 5. Lennon 6. VK Woo 7. Cyrenne
Senior Bars: 1. Hofland 2. Merkle 3. M. Colussi-Pelaesz 4. N. Vaculik
4. Chiarelli 6. Chow 7. Chant 8. Carvahlo
Senior Beam: 1. Black 2. Douglas
3. Hofland 4. Lennon 5. Chant 6. Colussi-Pelaesz
7. Gardiner 8. N. Vaculik
Senior Floor: 1. Douglas 2. Black
3. Merkle 4. Chiarelli 5. Chant 5. Moors 7.
Colussi-Pelaesz 8. Gardiner
Yesterday's podium ceremony saw VK Woo take bronze in the women's all-around. Today's press release cites
Maegan Chant as the bronze medalist. What happened?!?!
Update: The explanation? The announcer got it wrong,
apparently....
Hugh Smith topped the field in the men's competition at
today's Canadian National Gymnastics Championships. In the process, he
also qualified to four apparatus finals (floor, pommels, rings, and
p-bars).
Second place went to Robert Watson, with Rene Cournoyer
taking third. Bobby Kriangkum actually finished ahead of Cournoyer,
but the Calgary trained gymnast competes for Thailand (not Canada).
Last year's lone representative for Canada in men's artistic
gymnastics at the 2012 Olympics competed only four apparatus, sitting
out pommels and rings. Nathan Gafuik qualified to only one
final (p-bars) but goes into Saturday's competition ranked first.
Olympic alternate Kevin Lytwyn qualified to finals on four of
the five apparatus he competed.
Senior Men's AA 1. Hugh
Smith 2. Robert Watson - Bobby Kriangkum (hors de concours)
3. Rene Cournoyer 4. Tariq Dowers 5. Evan Cruz 6. Kal Neimer
7. Aiden Marsden 8. Taylor Mitchell
Canada's top gymnasts are in Ottawa this week, for the 2013 National
Championships. Artistic gymnasts took to the floor today, for their
first day of competition. Kaitlyn Hofland posted the
top all-around total (53.425) in today's preliminary competition,
ahead of Ellie Black (53.150) and Maegan
Chant (52.525). Hofland was absent from Elite Canada last
February, where Black and Chant finished 1-2.
Hofland also posted the highest score on bars (14.075), an apparatus
that caused struggles for many in both junior and senior competition.
Top scorers for the other apparatus include Victoria Moors
(vault; 14.400), Ellie Black (beam; 14.150) and Gabrielle
Douglas (floor; 13.575).
On vault, Black debuted a new second vault: Tsuk 1 1/2.
Today's competition saw the return of Olympic alternate
Maddie Gardiner,
who debuted a
new floor routine. Were it not for a 0.1 deduction, she would've
won the event. Gardiner's only other event was beam, where she placed
second.
The big talk of the town, however, was the debut of Moors' monstrous
layout double double on floor. Moors is the second to compete the
skill, with American
MyKayla Skinner
debuting hers earlier this year. Whichever girl successfully competes
the skill first at a World Championships or Olympics will have the
skill named after her. Moors stands a greater chance of being named to
Canada's World team for the upcoming World Championships in Antwerp,
Belgium than Skinner with the USA sporting such depth.
In the junior category, Shallon Olsen vaulted to the
lead thanks largely to the strength of her double twisting yurchenko.
Aleeza Yu placed second, and Brianna Clark
third. Absent from the field was Heaven Latimer, the
runner-up at February's Elite Canada.
Tomorrow sees the men's first day of competition. Competition for the
women continues Thursday, with the all-around finals. Finals will be
contested Saturday, with live web commentary from Kyle
Shewfelt.
ESPN 2 is airing coverage of last weekend's USA vs The World, an
event held last weekend in Pennsylvania. The International cast
included two Canadians, Laura-Ann Chong and Nathan Gafuik.
The event is expected to be available online after June 30.
After the competition, Chong received a contract with
Cirque du
Soleil. She'll be traveling to Edmonton at the end of the month to
perform in
Amaluna, and then onto Denver.
MAY 10 - GYMNASTICS IS A WAY OF LIFE!
Check out the "Perfect Balance" Promo spot featuring Sydney
Townsend!
MAY 3 - GYMNASTICS STAMPS BY CANADA POST
Bluewater Gymnastics coach Dave Brubaker unveiled
some of the best stamps ever produced by Canada Post!
Two weeks before the BC provincial championships, Jordan de Jong (HP
Novice) and Haley de Jong (Junior HP) switched to Flicka gymnastics.
Previously, they trained at Omega Gymnastics.
APRIL 30 - GERBER SIGNS WITH UCLA
Following in the footsteps of older sister Aisha Gerber,
2011 Worlds team member Mikaela Gerber will soon be off to
UCLA! Today, Head Coach Valerie Kondos-Field announced that
Gerber has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete for the UCLA Bruins
next season.
"We are excited to add Mikaela Gerber to our team this next season,"
Kondos Field. "Mikaela brings the same level of powerful gymnastics and
artistry that her sister Aisha did, only with a style uniquely her own."
Gerber plans to close out her Elite career at the upcoming Canadian
National Championships in Ottawa. One of the most elegant floor workers that
Canadian has ever produced, she plans to treat fans to a new routine in her
farewell competition.
Video of Mikaela in 2010:
APRIL 28 - BLACK LEAVES SLOVENIA AS MOST DECORATED GYMNAST
Ellie Black dominated World Cup competition today in Slovenia, winning
gold on both beam and floor.
Long considered just for her vaulting, Black has consistantly been
proving her all-around prowess in competition this year. Today she hit a
beam routine that many have long known her capable of doing.
“I’ve never really hit
my beam routine exactly the way I want to in competition and it was great to
go out in the final and do it the way I planned."
Black's final medal of the meet came on floor, where she's
re-introduced the triple
twist mount that had been part of her 2012 Olympic program.
“It feels incredible,”
Black told Gymnastics Canada. “I came here to get more experience and try
out some new skills and it turned into a really great trip for me.
The wins bring Canada's medal tally from Slovenia to five!
Canada had two other entrants in today's competition:
Victoria-Kayen
Woo finished 6th on beam, in her World Cup debut and
Mathieu Csukassy placed eighth on vault. Both Woo and Csukassy hail
from Quebec.
Scott Morgan
and Ellie Black put Canada on the map in both the men's and
women's fields, in the first apparatus contested at this weekend's Salamunov
Memorial World Cup in Llubjana, Slovenia.
Scott Morgan earned a bronze on vault, while Black took the title on her
speciality, the vault.
I couldn’t have asked
for much more,” Morgan told Gymnastics Canada.
“It’s still a new routine and to do that well in a such a strong field was
pretty cool, it really gives me a big boost.”
Morgan also finished
fifth on rings, with Black capping off her day with fifth on bars.
Victoria-Kayen Woo placed seventh on bars, in her only event of the
day.
Black burst onto the scene a year earlier, in neighbouring Croatia.
Winning gold on vault and floor, Black announced herself as a contender for
Canada's Olympic team. She went on to make the team, and compete in the
vault final at the Olympics.
Competition concludes
tomorrow, with Black competing both beam and floor, Woo on beam, and
Mathieu Csukassy on vault.
The favourite amongst many for the NCAA title the past few years, the
University of Florida always came up short at Nationals. Not any more! Today
the Gators rallied, after counting a fall rom beam, to finish ahead of
Oklahoma and two-time defending champs Alabama.
The team has a token Canadian in 2006 World team member
Bianca Dancose-Giambattisto, who competed in the bars line-up.
APRIL 18 - SAMARATUNGA RECEIVES CORNEA TRANSPLANT
Former gymnast Alyssa Samaratunga recently spoke to CTV, promoting organ
donation. Ravaged by a fast-acting infection, Alyssa lost her sight within
24 hours. Now, thanks to a cornea transplant, she is living the life of a
normal teen. Her days with gymnastics may be done, but she's transferred her
talents to cheerleading.
APRIL 7 - BLACK TAKES BRONZE IN ALL-AROUND AT TOKYO WORLD CUP
Asuka Teramoto of Japan took the gold with 56.825 points, overtaking
first-day leader Peyton Ernst of the U.S. who settled for silver with a
score of 56.550.
“It was different this
time because it was an all around event, so I was very excited to see
what it was all about,” said Black.
“Vault is my favourite event and
it went really well but I was also very pleased with my uneven bars
performance because it’s been a difficult event for me,” added Black. “I’ve
been working really hard to bring up the level and I think I did a pretty
good job.”
