Gymnastics Canada – MONTREAL, QC (May 25, 2017) – In her first all-around competition since the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Ellie Black of Halifax, NS is back on top. Black currently sits in first place following the qualifying round at the 2017 Canadian Championships in Artistic Gymnastics in Montreal, QC.

Black’s all-around qualifying score of 55.517 is less than two points more than fellow Rio Olympian Rose Kaying Woo of Brossard, QC, who currently sits in second place. For the first time since the Olympics, the entire Rio 2016 Canadian Olympic team is competing this weekend.

“I’m so excited to be back competing with the girls,” said Black following competition. “This is my first all-around competition back since Rio so I’m looking forward to what day two holds. I’m looking to go out there in the finals and hopefully improve on some things but just have a blast.”

Ana Padurariu of Whitby, ON dominated the junior competition and is sitting first overall with 55.567 points following qualification. Padurariu finished first on all four apparatuses and leads Emma Spence of Cambridge, ON, who sits in second, by more that four points.

“Ana is always leading the group, she has some work to do but we’re going to see something new from her in the finals on bar as she’s trying a new combination,” said Dave Brubaker, National Team Director for Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. “I enjoyed seeing some new athletes emerge that we haven’t seen before, some had really good combinations. Emma Spence did a difficult combination on the bars, which is great since this is an area where Canada needs to improve overall on the world stage.”

The L9 teams also took to the floor today where team Alberta took top prize, winning the gold medal with an overall team score of 108.440. The team comprised of Abby Hilton, Abigail Diamond, Savannah Holman, and Shae Romaniuk showed impressive skill throughout the competition and reaped the reward. Team Quebec composed of Charlie-Ann Barbeau, Cloé Martineau, Frédérique Sgarbossa, Lauricia Bellemare, and Marie-Ange Boardman-Lachapelle took home the silver medal while team Ontario comprised of Cassandra Rafuse, Cassie Lee, Kiora Peart-William, Lily Sihapanya, and Maria Chronopoulos won bronze.

“I’m really pleased with the whole day, the junior and seniors were all much better than at Elite Canada,” said Brubaker. “The Olympic team all needed a good rest following the gruelling process of qualifications and competing in Rio, so it’s nice to see them all back. And what I like is that they’re all enjoying the competition, of course it’s not great to come out here when you’re not at your peak but they understand the benefit of continuing the process and they are on board.”

The junior and senior women will compete in the all-around and apparatus finals on Saturday. Tomorrow features the first day of novice competition as well as L9 finals and the L10 (12-15) team competition for the women. The men’s competition kicks off tomorrow with the open division, while the juniors and seniors kick things off on Saturday.

To view all the results, click here.

To watch the competition live stream, click here.

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First established in 1969, Gymnastics Canada is the national governing body for the sport of gymnastics in Canada. Gymnastics Canada works closely with the twelve Provincial Federations and the 700 local clubs to provide a broad range of programs and services to meet the needs of all participants. From athlete development, to coaching and judging education, Gymnastics Canada sets the operating standards and practices for the sport in Canada. Our mandate is to promote and provide positive and diverse gymnastics experience through the delivery of quality and safe gymnastics programming. Visit www.gymcan.org for more information, or follow us @CDNgymnastics.

 

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Julie Forget
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Gymnastics Canada
Cell: 819.210.2064
Email: jforget@gymcan.org