Padurariu claims first senior all-around title at Elite Canada competition in Gatineau

GATINEAU, QC (February 1, 2019) – Ana Padurariu of Whitby, ON captured her first senior all-around title at the Elite Canada competition in women’s artistic gymnastics on Friday night in Gatineau, QC, beating out her 2018 World Championships teammate and 2017 World all-around silver medallist Ellie Black of Halifax who took silver. Zoé Allaire-Bourgie of Montreal rounded out the podium with bronze.

Padurariu captured today’s gold medal one year after suffering an injury at the end of her first senior Elite Canada competition in Quebec City where she had also been looking in good position to finish on the podium. The medal is a great start to this Olympic qualification year for the world silver medallist on beam from the 2018 World Championships.

“It was a lot of fun today. I wasn’t really pressured by anything, and I’m happy I just went out there and did my routines,” said Padurariu who hadn’t competed in the all-around competition since her injury last year. “(Doing the all-around) wasn’t as bad as I thought – I thought I’d be way more tired. I’m really proud of my bars routine – I haven’t really stuck a bar routine since Worlds, so I was really happy that I was able to pull that off tonight.”

Padurariu has qualified for all of the apparatus finals that will take place on Sunday. Black has also qualified for all of the apparatus finals despite a fall on bars which put her in 5^th on that apparatus.

“Overall the weekend has been great so far. I was super pumped with my floor routine because I did the front full to triple and I landed it, and I got through the whole floor routine which is new dance-wise for me, so it was exciting to debut that, and just have fun with it,” said Black.

Allaire-Bourgie is actually a junior-aged athlete who is competing as a senior domestically to gain experience as Canada looks to qualify a team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Despite a poor vault, she laid down solid beam, floor, and bars routines to grab her first senior medal.

“I didn’t have any medal or ranking expectations for this weekend, I just wanted to enjoy the show,” said Allaire-Bourgie who was making her return to competition after sustaining an injury this past summer. “It was really good to come back to competition with the seniors for the first time. It was at first a bit intimidating, but I took my place pretty well and I think I deserve my place as a senior in Canada – I’m really happy to be here with all the girls.”

Victoria Kayen Woo of Brossard, QC looked really strong as well as she made her return to competition after injuring both of her arms last year. She finished just off the podium in fourth and qualified for the vault, bars, and floor finals. Emma Spence of Cambridge, ON who captured a bronze medal at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games this past summer made her senior debut and finished in 7^th place and qualifying for the vault and floor finals.

Saturday will feature day two of the novice competition, and the first day of the junior competition. The finals for the juniors and seniors will take place Sunday.

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

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