The Canadian National Champion all-around finals has wrapped. …
One sad absence, of course, was Peng Peng Lee, who, as most of you know, injured her knee in training at the start of the Championships and had to withdraw. She was expected to challenge strongly for the title and is hoping to still vie for the Olympic team. …
It wasn’t so long ago that Canada was only able to send two women to the Beijing Games due to a dearth of national elite gymnasts available to put together a fit, competitive team in the preceding quad. …
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All of a sudden they have the potential to make regular top eight teams like Japan, Italy, Australia and Great Britain peer nervously over their shoulders.
All through these ups-and-downs of the last few years has been one steady-and steadying presence in this year’s National Champion Kristina Vaculik. One of those consummate quiet achievers, Vaculik has been the one gymnast who has been present on all of these teams since 2008, when due to a complex and befuddling selection system she was not selected to compete in Beijing …
It’s looking that way so far, after Nate hit a BIG 7.1 Horizontal Bar routine last night
… Gafuik placed first in three of six events for a total score of 85.300 points to claim his second Canadian all around title in the last three years. …
… took a huge step towards clinching the highly-coveted Olympic men’s berth with one of the most difficult high bar routines in the world.
Gafuik’s high flying routine was awarded 15.300 points, a score that would have placed him fourth in the event at the 2011 world championships.
“When I saw the score it there was a huge sigh of relief,” said Gafuik, a 10-year national team veteran and two-time Olympian. …
Gafuik and others in the running have four meets, including the Canadian championships, to earn a score in an individual event that would have put them in a final at the most recent world championships last October in Tokyo. The gymnast with the highest ranking among those that meet the standard wins the Olympic berth. So far only Gafuik has met the standard with the two final selection meets coming up next month in Europe. …
The veteran looked great tonight. He easily won the all-around in a competition where the guys were trying the maximum start scores on their best apparatus. (25 competitors)
1. 85.30 Nathan Gafuik AB
2. 83.75 Jayd Lukenchuk SK
3. 81.95 Robert Watson BC
4. 80.55 Anderson Loran SK
5. 79.75 Tariq Dowers ON
6. 79.00 Hugh Smith NS
Talk is that Nate will be awarded the sole Men’s Olympic spot for Canada.
His 7.1 start on H Bar scored 15.30. That would rank him higher than any other Canadian man on any apparatus.
… Still, there are several World Cup meets left where Canadian men can try to top Nathan’s ranking on Horizontal Bar. Nothing’s been decided yet. Good luck to the rest of the guys at those events.
Hugh Smith is the first Canadian to compete Tsukahara with 3/1 twist (7.0) … but fell on landing. He was trying to make a claim on the Olympic berth.
Scott Morgan won Floor 6.2 / 14.30 and Rings 6.5 / 13.80
Ken Ikeda won Pommels 6.0 / 14.65
Nate won Vault, P Bars and Horizontal Bar. But Jayd had a 6.90 start on pipe. Anderson and Jackson Payne a 6.80.
… Ashleigh Brennan killed it on floor and beam and was deserving of her huge scores. She also landed her Tsuk 1.5. Lauren Mitchell was fabulous on beam. Her floor was pretty decent too. …
Our results page is now being updated. Thanks Stu.
On Day 1 only Women’s Artistic FIG Junior and Senior women competed. You’ll find full results via the link above.
Though Blythe Lawrence had to miss the Canadian Championships this year, she still posted the best overview of WAG FIG prelims I’ve seen:
… Night one was a boon for (Ellie) Black, who in spite of her World Cup medals is still a newcomer, as well as Savona, who has been out to prove that she can be as competitive post-ACL operation as she was early last year. Savona posted the third-best scores of the day on vault and floor, her best events. That could be significant later on. …
… Canada, like many of the former British Commonwealth countries, has so many exceptionally talented, Olympics-worthy gymnasts this quad that it’s impossible to predict a five-person Olympic team even given these results. …
LIVE video streaming seems to have worked for some viewers on some apparatus. But we don’t have many routine videos online as yet. Here’s one, future Georgia Bulldog Anysia Unick.
… “There’s a lot of pressure right now and it’s really good to see how everyone is doing,” said Vaculik, who is vying to earn one of five spots on the Canadian women’s team heading to London this summer.
Results from the Canadian championships and a final selection meet at the end of June in Gatineau, Que., will count heavily towards the outcome. …
Vaculik, a two-time Canadian all around champion taking a year off from Stanford University to pursue her Olympic dream, played a key role in helping Canada earn one of just 12 full-team berths at the final qualification for the Games last January. …
Sr FIG women are first up at 3:30pm. Followed by Jr FIG women at 6:30pm. The PLAN is to LIVE VIDEO STREAM every routine from our VIDEO page. You choose the discipline and apparatus you want to watch. Of course it only streams while the competition is in progress.
NCAA Coaches will be welcomed with a VIP credential. And be given start lists.
A fan wishing Peng a speedy recovery from her knee injury suffered yesterday posted this montage of her and Victoria Moors.
… the Australian senior WAG team and the visiting Japanese team took to the floor for podium training.
As ever in a podium training there were mixed performances. The core group that started on floor and is ostensibly the group Peggy will select her team from for the head-to-head with Japan consisted of Lauren Mitchell, Emily Little, Ashleigh Brennan, Larrissa Miller, Mary-Anne Monckton, Nikki Chung and Georgia Rose Brown. …
Lauren Mitchell looked super-fit and dynamic and much like a former World floor champion two months before the Olympics. …
There were some very welcome returns on floor too. Angela Donald … NCAA returnee Olivia Vivian … Dasha Joura …
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