Archive: November 2004
Back to the News Archive IndexNOVEMBER 28 – JELTKOV SHINES IN STUTTGART WITH SILVER MEDAL
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| Jeltkov
at the 2003 Worlds Photo by Grace Chiu |
Jeltkov has experienced much success competing high bar on the world stage. Prior to today, Jeltkov's most recent success in world competition came at the 2003 Glasgow Grand Prix, where he won gold on the same apparatus. In 1999 Jeltkov won silver on the apparatus at the World Championships.
Earlier today O'Neill placed fourth on the floor exercise, scoring 9.575. The event was won by Germany's Fabian Hambüchen. Ioan Suciu (ROM) took silver, with Tunisia's Wajdi Bouallegue placing third.
O'Neill qualified to the floor final in third place, posting a 9.450 in the preliminary round. O'Neill also attempted qualification for the vault final; Friday he placed 8th on that apparatus, scoring a 9.137. This year only the top 6 advanced to finals.
Next up for O'Neill is the World Cup final in Birmingham, England later this month. He enters the event as the reigning Pan American Games floor gold medallist.
| High Bar Winner's Final 1. Fabian Hambüchen GER 9.025 2. Alexander Jeltkov CAN 7.825 High Bar Final High Bar Qualifications |
Men's Floor Exercise Winner's Final 1. Fabian Hambüchen GER 9.537 2. Razvan Selariu ROM 9.537 Men's Floor Exercise Final Men's Floor Exercise Qualifications |
Men's Vault Qualifications
1. Matthias Fahrig GER 9.512
2. Razvan Selariu ROM 9.450
3. Yernar Yerimbetov KAZ 9.412
4. Leszek Blanik POL 9.337
5. Martin Konecny CZE 9.300
6. Takuya Nakase JPN 9.200
7. Jeffrey Wammes NED 9.162
8. Brandon O'Neill CAN 9.137
9. Yevgeny Sapronenko LAT 9.112
10. Robert Gal HUN 9.112
11. Niki Böschenstein SUI 9.050
12. Marco Mayer AUT 9.012
13. Filip Ude CRO 8.812
14. Sascha Palgen LUX 8.450
15. David Vyoral CZE 0.000
NOVEMBER 21 – BERNHOLTZ TAKES VAULT BRONZE AT MASSILIA; GOLDING COMPETES AT SWISS CUP
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| Bernholtz
vaults to bronze at Massilia (Pictured here at Massilia on FX) Photos/Sandy Kost-Sterner www.pottsvillegymnastics.com |
Canada was well represented in today’s other apparatus finals, with Alyssa Brown finishing fourth on the vault and sixth on bars, finishing just behind Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs in the latter. Hopfner-Hibbs also finished seventh on balance beam, where Olivia Davis finished eighth. On floor exercise, Gael Mackie and Caya Colling finished seventh and eighth respectively.
In other news, men’s national champion Grant Golding competed today at the Swiss Cup mixed pairs event in Zurich, Switzerland. Golding, the only Canadian entry, was paired with Jana Sikulova of the Czech Republic, and the duo advanced to the third round before being eliminated. In the first round, Golding contributed a 9.05 score on floor exercise, while Sikulova earned 8.80 on the vault, ranking them eighth and allowing them to compete in round two. In the second round, Golding scored 9.40 on rings and his partner an 8.85 on the uneven bars, maintaining their eighth place ranking and sending them to round three. From there, only the top four pairs advanced to the finals, and after scoring 9.15 on parallel bars and 8.45 on the balance beam respectively, they ranked sixth with a total of 53.70.
The Swiss competition was won by Olympic balance beam and floor exercise champion Catalina Ponor of Romania and her teammate, former Olympic pommel horse champion Marius Urzica who scored a 19.45 in the new life final round to outscore the Romanian/Swiss duo of Monica Rosu and Andreas Schweizer who scored 19.138. Finishing third was the German team of Lisa Bruggeman and Sven Kwiatkowski who scored 18.488 to finish ahead of Ukrainians Irina Yarotska and Olympic parallel bars champion Valery Grancharov who scored 18.30.
NOVEMBER 20 – CANADA TAKES TEAM BRONZE AT MASSILIA CUP
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| Team
Canada 1 takes bronze Photos/Sandy Kost-Sterner www.pottsvillegymnastics.com |
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Individual all-around medals were also awarded today, with Ukraine’s Maryna Proskurina, a 2003 world team member, taking first place with a 35.325 score, followed by two Chinese gymnasts, Kang Xin, a 2003 world team member, and Olympian Wang Tiantian who scored 35.20 and 34.40 respectively. For Canada, Mackie ranked eighth, Hopfner-Hibbs ninth, and Bernholtz 12th. Members of Canada 2 also fared well, with Mississauga’s Alyssa Brown finishing just behind Bernholtz in 13th, and her club mate Olivia Davis 18th, and Bernholtz’s clubmate Caya Colling 23rd.
Canada will be well represented in tomorrow’s apparatus finals, with Brown and Bernholtz competing in the vault, Brown and Hopfner-Hibbs on uneven bars, Hopfner-Hibbs and Davis on balance beam, and Mackie and Colling on floor exercise.
Full results should eventually be available at the Massilia Gym Cup web site.
NOVEMBER 20 – CANADA WINS OPEN MASSILIA, ADVANCES TO TEAM FINALS IN FRANCE
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| Alyssa
Brown, Oliva Davis, and Caya Colling win Open Massilia |
Individually, Brown took the highest scores in both the all-around competition and the vault. Colling finished fifth all-around, and Davis 16th. Also competing for Canada yesterday were junior national team members Nansy Damianova of Gymnix (11th all-around) and Calgary’s Jordan Harvie, who, based on the results sheet, did not compete on floor exercise due to injury (Harvie also sat out floor exercise at the recent Tour Selection meet, which had served as a final team preparation for the Massilia Cup). As a result, team Canada 3 finished 14th, scoring 55.15.
Team Canada 2 will join Canada 1 in today’s team final. Canada 1 earned a direct position into the finals based on its world ranking. Competing for Canada 1 are Olympian Gael Mackie of Omega, Olympic alternate Marci Bernholtz of ASF, and 2003 junior national champion Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs of Sport Seneca. Look for results from today’s competition as soon as they are available. Results from last night’s qualifying can be found at the official Massilia Cup website.
NOVEMBER 18 – GOLDING FINISHES 8TH IN SWITZERLAND
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Golding was Canada's lone entrant at the event, and tied for an 8th place finish. Winner was China's Li Dezhi (37.825), with Romania's Marius Urzica (37.650) posting second. Local Swiss competitor Niki Boschenstein (37.400) thrilled the home crowd by taking bronze.
1. Dezhi LI (CHN) 37.825
2. Marius Urzica (ROM) 37.65
3. Niki Boschenstein (SUI) 37.4
4. Jordan Jovtchev (BUL) 37.1
5. Rafael Martinez (ESP) 36.6
6. Sven Kwiatkowski (GER) 36.4
7. Enrico Pozzo (ITA) 36.2
8(t). Andreas Schweizer (SUI) 36.05
8(t). Grant Golding (CAN) 36.05
10. Valeri Goncharov (UKR) 34.55
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| 2004 Olympians Kylie Stone and Heather Purnell |
NOVEMBER 13 – REMEMBERING ATHENS
Three months ago to the day, the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad opened in Athens, Greece. Canadian gymnasts fared well at the Games, with national attention focused on medals earned by Kyle Shewfelt (gold on men's floor exercise) and Karen Cockburn (silver in women's trampoline).
Canada's women's artistic gymnastics team placed tenth in Athens, and qualified two women to the all-around (Kate Richardson, Melanie Banville). Richardson also advanced to the floor final, becoming the first Canadian to advance to a WAG final in a fully attended Olympics.
Join Gymn.ca in re-living Athens, by enjoying a sampling of photos from the personal collection of Olympian Heather Purnell. Purnell is currently training for Elite Canada, and next fall will attend Stanford on a full scholarship.
NOVEMBER 7 – SIMBHUDAS PICKS UP EVENT SILVER AT ŠIŠKA
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| Simbhudas, 2003 Elite Canada |
The 2004 Šiška International wrapped up today, with event finals contested. Canada's Rebecca Simbhudas built on her third place tie in yesterday's all-around finish with a silver today on bars. Winner was China's Guo Li (8.925), who yesterday also won the all-around competition. Italy's Francesca Benolli grabbed third, with an 8.70 score.
Simbhudas also competed on the balance beam, finishing in fourth with a 8.725. Hang Bin (CHN) took top marks on the apparatus, scoring 8.950. Yesterday Hang finished second in the all-around. The Romanians rallied from disappointing all-around performances yesterday, to place 2-3 on beam today. Sandra Izbasa, a member of Romania's Junior European Championships team, placed second (8.85). Teammate Rodica Marinescu finished third, with an 8.760. The pair also medalled on floor, and Izbasa on vault.
| Vault: Guo Li (CHN) 8.894 Francesca Benolli (ITA) 8.876 Sandra Izbasa (ROM) 8.788 Alenka Dolnicar (SLO) 8.500 Lynn Moonen (BEL) 8.419 Adela Pavoukova (CZE) 8.307 Gaelle Mys (BEL) 8.119 Lauren Beck (GBR) 7.294 |
Uneven Bars: Guo Li (CHN) 8.925 Rebecca Simbhudas (CAN) 8.775 Francesca Benolli (ITA) 8.70 Hang Bin (CHN) 8.680 Lynn Moonen (BEL) 8.462 Rodica Marinescu (ROM) 8.06 An Perdieus (BEL) 7.78 Tünde Pentek (HUN) 7.465 |
Balance Beam: |
Floor Exercise: Sandra Izbasa (ROM) 9.125 Federica Macri (ITA) 9.088 Rodica Marinescu (ROM) 9.025 Gaelle Mys (BEL) 8.525 Francesca Benolli (ITA) 8.438 Hang Bin (CHN) 8.40 Guo Li (CHN) 8.375 Tjasa Asanin Gole (SLO) 7.512 |
Quick hits are available at the Šiška 2004 web site.
NOVEMBER 6 – SIMBHUDAS THIRD AT ŠIŠKA; MACKIE MAKES FINALS IN GHENT
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| Gael Mackie, 2003 Elite Canada |
It is a busy weekend for the Canadian women’s team, with competitions taking place at the Šiška Cup international in Slovenia as well as the final world cup qualifying competition in Ghent, Belgium.
At Šiška, Canada was represented by junior national team members Rebecca Simbhudas of Pulsar’s and Seneca’s Nicole Heikkila. Simbhudas, who has already represented Canada internationally this year at the junior Pacific Alliance and junior Pan Am Games, earned her best international result to date, tying for the bronze medal with a score of 34.175. This equaled the score of Italy’s Francesca Benolli. The Chinese took the top two placings, with Guo Li scoring a 36.40 points for first, followed by Hang Bin with a 34.20.
According to reports on the Šiška 2004 competition site, Simbhudas performed well on three events, including a Yurchenko layout on vault, a stalder 1½ to Jaeger on bars, and a gainer double twist off beam – but missed a double pike last line on floor to finish a close third. Heikkila was less fortunate, struggling on the uneven bars (after two falls she did not perform a dismount) and balance beam, to finish out of the top 10. (Her AA score and ranking are not known at this time).
In Ghent, Olympian Gael Mackie of Omega competed in the uneven bars finals today, scoring an 8.8 to finish sixth – an improvement from her 8.75 qualifying score, but which qualified her in fourth position. The uneven bars final was won by Olympic finalist Li Ya of China who scored a strong 9.712, followed by Melanie Sinclair of the US who scored 9.65. Brazil’s Daniele Hypolito took bronze with a 9.30.
Mackie also competed in the qualification round on the balance beam, where her 8.625 score left her in 11th place, and in the floor exercise, where she scored a 9.025 to finish seventh. Unlike most world cup qualifying events, only the top six advanced to finals.
"To make a final here is beyond my expectations," Mackie later told Gymnastics Canada. "I was feeling quite nervous but overall I did some good routines. On bars I was most pleased that I stuck my landing."
Full results from Ghent can be found here.