Groulx wins junior all-around title; Padurariu dominates apparatus finals on final day of Elite Canada competition

GATINEAU, QC (February 3, 2019) – Rébéka Groulx from Gym-Richelieu, one of the youngest competitors in the junior division at the Elite Canada competition in women’s artistic gymnastics that took place this weekend at the Centre sportif de Gatineau in Gatineau, QC, improved on her day 1 routines to walk away with her first junior all-around title on Sunday.

Clara Raposo from Manjak’s Gymnastics took the silver medal while Alexa Tucker, the other competitor born in 2006 like Groulx, grabbed the bronze.

“I did pretty well – I made some mistakes, but I’m proud of my performance. I’m proud of my beam routine because I didn’t fall and I was a little bit stressed about it, and I’m also proud of my two good days on bars,” said Groulx who also ended up taking home the gold medal on beam, and bronze on the uneven bars.

Rapaso was leading the all-around competition leading into the second day of competition, and ended up winning gold on floor, and bronze on vault to go along with her silver in the all-around. “My favourite event is floor for sure. It’s just super fun and exciting and it feels really great to be able to go out there and show what I can do. It’s definitely one of my strongest events,” said Rapaso.

In the senior apparatus finals, it was newly crowned senior all-around champion Ana Padurariu from Whitby, ON who again stole the show, winning gold on bars, beam, and floor.

“It was a pretty hectic leading in to this weekend, but all the hard work with my coaches definitely paid off and it was pretty incredible to get back out there and do well,” said Padurariu who is fresh off of her silver medal-winning performance on beam at the 2018 World Championships. “I was definitely more confident than I thought I would be which is great leading in to the rest of the season.”

Ellie Black, the silver medallist in the all-around competition which took place Friday night was really happy with both her, and her team mates performances at this first meet of the year: “2019 has started off great. It was amazing to see the great performances that we were able to accomplish this weekend at the first competition of the year, and I think it’s going to be a great year as we build towards the World Championships this fall,” said Black who took gold on vault, silver on bars and beam, and bronze on floor.

Other senior medallists included Victoria Kayen Woo from Brossard, QC taking silver on floor, Mia St. Pierre from Mercier, QC capturing silver on vault, Zoé Allaire-Bourgie grabbing bronze on bars, and Laurie-Lou Vezina taking bronze on beam.

For complete results, please visit: http://bit.ly/2BeILEs

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