Archive: May 2002
Back to the News Archive IndexMAY 25 - COMMONWEALTH GAMES TEAMS NAMED
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Danielle Hicks and Heather Purnell guaranteed themselves spots onto Canada's 2002 Commonwealth Games team by placing in the top 2 in the AA at the recent 2002 Canadian Artistic National Championships.
At the close of these Championships, Vanessa Meloche and Kate Richardson were added to the team. The Commonwealth Games will mark Richardson's return to major competition following back surgery in January.
The final spot will be determined between recent Pacific Alliance Championships team member Kylie Stone and 2001 World team member Jennifer Simbhudas.
Junior standout Gael Mackie will instead focus on an aggressive training schedule this summer, to perfect her repertoire of skills with longer term goals in mind.
Earning automatic bearths from their top 3 performances in the men's all around are Richard Ikeda, David Kikuchi, and Kyle Shewfelt. Added by the selection team are Grant Golding and Brandon O'Neill. 1999 World medallist Sasha Jeltkov is the alternate. Coaching the men in Manchester will be Takashi Kobayshi and Tak Kikuchi.
MAY 21-25, 2002 - CANADIAN ARTISTIC CHAMPIONSHIPS
MAY 25 - FOUR WOMEN WIN IN SENIOR EVENT FINALS
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| Hicks picks up 2 more medals in event finals (shown here with coach Davydova) |
The final day of women's competition at the Canadian Championships saw different winners in each of the apparatus finals. Home town girl Jholeen Ponce took gold on the vault, with Quebec's Vanessa Meloche taking first place on bars, Mississauga's Ashley Peckett winning beam, and new all-around champion Danielle Hicks of Oshawa taking the floor title.
Read more about the women's event finals in our reports section of our 2002 nationals coverage.
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| New National Champion Richard Ikeda |
MAY 24 - IKEDA DEFENDS SENIOR TITLE
National team veteran Richard Ikeda of B.C. took a come from behind victory at the Canadian championships last night, earning a combined 105.775 score after two days of competition. The win earned the 27-year-old veteran an automatic berth on the Commonwealth Games team.
Finishing a very close second was Nova Scotia's David Kikuchi, who scored 105.72, followed by Alberta's Kyle Shewfelt in third with 105.35. Both gymnasts also earned berths on the Commonwealth Games team with their performances, the latter proving his all-around improvement by taking the highest 6-event total on night two of the competition.
Very low scores on parallel bars (6.55) and high bar (7.95) dropped day one leader Grant Golding of Alberta to 5th place overall (his day two total was 9th best).
Read more about the men's all-around competition at our 2002 Nationals news page.
MAY 23 - HICKS CROWNED NEW WOMEN'S CHAMPION
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| Danielle Hicks |
On a day of surprising results at the Canadian Championships, Gemini's Danielle Hicks took the women's title and secured a berth on Canada's Commonwealth Games roster. Hicks, a native of Oshawa, Ontario, was solid when others faltered, giving her the title over Ottawa's Heather Purnell, 35.975 to 35.350. Purnell's performance was also good enough to earn the 16 year-old automatic consideration for the Commonwealth Games, to be held in Manchester this July.
In third place was Quebec's Vanessa Meloche, who trains in the United States at the Parkettes Club. Meloche was in contention for the title until three major mistakes on balance beam dropped her out of contention for the title.For more information on the women's competition, see our 2002 Nationals news and reports.
MAY 22 - GOLDING LEADS MEN'S FIELD AFTER DAY ONE
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| David Kikuchi, 2nd |
The University of Calgary's Grant Golding dominated the first day of men's competition at the 2002 Canadian Championships today. Golding, who finished 22nd all-around at the 2001 World Championships, scored 54.500 points to lead current runner-up David Kikuchi by more than 1.5 points (52.950). Both Golding and Kikuchi relied on their consistency on day one, with neither athlete taking a top score on any of the six apparatus.
Finishing third with a score of 52.875 was Abbotsford's Richard Ikeda, the 2001 Canadian champion.
Read more about the men's competition by clicking here.
MAY 22 - SHEWFELT INTERVIEW
Prior to departing for Winnipeg and the 2002 Canadian Championships, 2000 Olympian Kyle Shewfelt conducted an in-depth interview with gymn.ca. After a year of struggles, Shewfelt, the 2000 World Cup silver medallist on floor exercise, has found his way back to the podium, and is looking for greatness in the years to come. Read more about Shewfelt's past successes and his prospects for 2002 by clicking here.
MAY 21 - MACKIE CLAIMS JUNIOR TITLE
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British Columbia claimed the first title of the 2002 Canadian Artistic Gymnastics Championships with a gold medal in the junior women's competition from Omega's Gael Mackie. Mackie, 13, scored a total of 36.00 points under modified scoring to take the title over Seneca's Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs. In third place was Saskatchewan's Lisa Pattison.
Mackie is fresh off a successful showing at the Pacific Alliance Championships, where she placed 7th all-around, and won silver on balance beam.
For more information, visit our 2002 Nationals report section.
MAY 20 - GYMN.CA COVERS THE CANADIAN ARTISTIC CHAMPIONSHIPS
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Winnipeg is the host city of the 2002 Canadian Artistic Gymnastics Championships. Competition takes place May 21-25, at the University of Manitoba's Max Bell Center and Investors Group Athletic Center.
For Canada's high performance athletes, these championships play a critical role towards the selection of athletes for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England. The top two and three finishers earn automatic berths to Canada's women's and men's Commonwealth Games teams, respectively.
Gymn.ca is pleased to welcome Mia Rabson and 2001 Canadian National champion Kate Richardson as special correspondants for Gymn.ca from these championships. Mia and Kate will provide news and reports as often as possible.
Check our 2002 Nationals page for regular updates.
MAY 18 - COCKBURN AND GREENE DEFEND NATIONAL T&T TITLES
The reigning men's and women's individual trampoline champions successfully defended their titles at the Canadian National Trampoline and Tumbling Championships today in Red Deer, Alberta. Olympic bronze medallist Karen Cockburn of Toronto won her fifth consecutive title with a margin of victory of nearly 10 points over second place finisher Savija McManus of Ottawa, 105.80 to 95.90. Ottawa's Brenna Casey - a world age group champion in the double mini tramp event - took 3rd, scoring 92.20. Cockburn is next looking forward to competing on the world cup circuit this summer (which will include a stop in Edmonton), where she hopes to show a more difficult routine. In Red Deer, Cockburn also teamed up with partner Heather McManus of Ottawa to win gold in the women's synchro competition.
In the men's event, Montreal's Michel Greene earned his 8th career title after increasing the difficulty of his routine from the preliminaries, where he had trailed Olympic bronze medallist Mathieu Turgeon of Toronto. In the end, Greene took the title by a full point over Turgeon (108.50 to 107.50). Greene has now won the last 7 national championships in which he has competed (injuries kept him out of contention in 1995 and 2000). He hopes this momentum will lead him to a berth in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Earning the bronze medal with a score of 105.00 was Montreal's Bryan Milonja, who in his first year of senior competition also took gold in the double mini competition.
Other senior winners this week-end included the defending champions in both men's and women's tumbling (Red Deer's Matt Dial and Sudbury's Julie Pilon respectively), Turgeon and Burlington's Chris Mitruk in the men's synchro trampoline event, and Alberta's Julie Warnock in the women's double mini-tramp.
Look for complete results at the official T&T Nationals website.
MAY 16 - T&T NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: DAY ONE RESULTS
The 2002 Canadian Tumbling and Trampoline Championships got underway today in Red Deer, Alberta, with competitions in individual trampoline, double mini trampoline, and tumbling. Leading the way after day one in senior men's individual trampoline is Olympic bronze medallist Mathieu Turgeon of Ontario, who took the top position in men's preliminaries with a 68.00 total. Turgeon, who finished fourth at last year's national championships, displayed the highest level of difficulty in his voluntary exercise, with a rating of 15.2 that helped him move ahead of rival Michel Greene of Quebec. Greene, the reigning national champion, won the earlier compulsory exercises, but sits second overall with a 66.90 total. Quebec's Bryan Milonja rounds out the top three with a 65.90 total over the two rounds. The top ten men will advance to Saturday's final round.
Olympic bronze medallist Karen Cockburn, a teammate of Turgeon's at the Skyrider club in Toronto, leads a small, but powerful field in senior women's individual trampoline after the first day of competition. Cockburn, the four-time defending Canadian champion, won both rounds of competition to take the top position over Ontario's Heather McManus, 66.90 to 65.70. All five women's competitors will advance to the final round on Saturday.
In men's senior tumbling, Red Deer's own Matt Dial finds himself in a tie with Jamar Young of the United States after the preliminary round. Athletes from the U.S.A. have been invited to participate in the championships this year, and Young's result was the most significant of the day for their team. Both Dial and Young finished with a total of 70.60 after their two passes, and will decide the title with two more passes on Saturday.
Ontario's Julie Pilon sits atop the senior women's tumbling rankings with a 61.20 total, although only three women are participating in this year's senior event. Neisha Davis of Ontario finished only one point behind, however, and could challenge Pilon in the final. Ontario's Amanda Dellapenta stands third.
Competition continues throughout the weekend at the Collicutt Centre Field House at 3031 - 30 Avenue in Red Deer. Admission is free for Thursday and Friday's competitions, while tickets for Saturday's finals range from $2 to $5. Further event information and complete results can be obtained through the official site of the championships.
MAY 14 - SANDERS 22ND AT CORBEIL-ESSONNES
Canada's Mary Sanders continued her string of recent international successes with a 22nd all-around finish at the 28th Corbeil-Essonnes Tournament, held last weekend in France. Sanders, who was Canada's most decorated athlete at the recent Pacific Alliance Championships, scored 92.525 to become the top finisher from the Americas. Teammate Alexandra Orlando, also a multiple-medal winner at the Pacific Alliance Championships, placed 36th all-around with a score of 86.975. The all-around was won by Russia's Liasan Outiacheva, who was followed by teammate Zarina Gizikova and the Ukraine's Anna Bessonova.
MAY 8 - CATCH THE PACIFIC ALLIANCE CHAMPIONSHIPS ON CBC THIS WEEKEND
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) first broadcast of the Pacific Alliance Championships is set to debut this Saturday, May 11, at 2pm E.S.T. The broadcast will feature one hour of men's competition. CBC's second broadcast highlights the women's competition, and airs May 18 at 2pm E.S.T. As usual, check your local listings for any last minute changes.
Gymn.ca also videotaped the senior women's team/AA, junior and senior women's EF, and junior and senior men's EF. Look for mpegs of Canadian routines to be uploaded in about one month's time.
MAY 1 - GYMN.CA COVERS THE PACIFIC ALLIANCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
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The Pacific Alliance Championships are a bi-annual event aimed at giving non-European countries the opportunity to compete in a major international event. In 2002, Vancouver plays host to the Championships. Competition takes place May 3-5, at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre.
With the increased prestige of the Championships comes an expanded competition format. For the first time, rhythmic gymnastics will be contested and junior events in each of men's, women's, and rhythmic gymnastics have been added. The competition format is 3-3-3: Three gymnasts on each team, all three competing on each apparatus, and all scores counting. The team competitions will also serve as all-around finals, and athletes will qualify to event finals, to be held on Sunday May 5.
Gymn.ca will be on-hand in Vancouver to bring you the most current information possible. Check our featured event page for regular updates.