Gymnastics Canada  – EDMONTON, AB (June 1, 2016) —  The battle for one of five spots on Canada’s women’s artistic gymnastics team was on full display Wednesday evening at the 2016 Global News Canadian Championships in Artistic & Trampoline Gymnastics at the Universiade Pavilion in Edmonton, AB as the senior women hit the floor for their qualifying rounds.

Canada’s top two all-around athletes, Isabela Onyhsko of Brandon, MB and Ellie Black of Halifax, NS sit first and second respectively after laying down a series of rock-solid routines. Brittany Rogers of Calgary, AB sits third, Megan Roberts of Toronto, ON fourth, and Madison Copiak, also of Calgary, in fifth. Onyshko and Black traded top spot back and forth with Onyshko placing first on the uneven bars with a score of 14.450 and Black placing first on the beam with a score of 14.700. The two athletes then tied for first on the floor with a score of 14.250, setting the stage for an exciting night of finals on Friday night.

“I started off on bars, and I had a little mistake in the middle there so that’s a little bit tough on your first event to not have your routine go the way you exactly want it, but it’s also important, because sometimes things do go wrong and you have to be able to pick yourself back up and leave that aside and look forward to your next event – for yourself, but also for your team because they’re counting on you. So I was really happy to move to beam and hit a really nice routine,” said Black who last competed at the American World Cup in February where she took the bronze medal in the all-around competition.

In the junior qualifying rounds, Ana Padurariu of Oshawa, ON sits first with a total score of 55.475, Haley de Jong of Vancouver, BC sits second with 53.000, and Jade Chrobok also from Oshawa, currently sits third with a score of 52.850.

“Today went pretty well,” said de Jong who trains out of the Flicka Gymnastics Club in North Vancouver. “I had a few little mistakes that can be fixed for the next day but overall it was a pretty good day. I was just trying to stay clean and hit all four of my events, so that was a good thing that I accomplished today.”

Making their Canadian Championships debut on Wednesday were the Level 9 Junior Olympic women’s artistic gymnasts who were competing for the overall team title, and a spot in the finals which take place on Thursday afternoon. Taking the team title in this division was Team Alberta, followed by Team Quebec in second, and Team BC in third. Alberta was anchored by Moira Evans who finished first all-around, followed by Megan Lacerte, and Gabrielle Deslauriers of Quebec in second and third respectively.

In trampoline gymnastics, the qualifying rounds for Level 5 novice synchro trampoline, and senior trampoline took place in the evening with the top-10 athletes from those competitions, who achieved the appropriate minimum score, advancing to the finals which take place on Friday afternoon.

It was a busy day of training and physical testing for the men’s artistic gymnasts – their competition kicks off Thursday with the novice competition starting at 9:30 MT, the open category at 1pm MT, and the juniors wrapping the day up from 7pm-9:30pm MT.

Thursday also features the women’s artistic Level 10 Junior Olympic team competition in the morning, followed by the Level 9 finals in the afternoon, and the novice qualifiers from 5:30pm to 8:30pm MT. It will be a busy day for trampoline as well with preliminary rounds in Novice (L5) and Espoir (L6) trampoline, tumbling, and double mini-trampoline in the morning, junior prelims in the afternoon, and senior prelims in the evening.

For full results, please visit: http://gymcan.org/events-results/2016-canadian-gymnastics-championships-mens-and-womens-artistic-and-trampoline/results

ABOUT GYMNASTICS CANADA

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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For more information, contact:

Julie Forget
Director, Communications and Marketing
Gymnastics Canada
Cell: 819.210.2064
Email: jforget@gymcan.org