4. Jessica Savona 54.800
5. Maddie Gardiner 54.350
6. Brittany Rogers 54.200
7. Ellie Black 53.600
8. Stefanie Merkle 53.150
9. Anysia Unick 52.850

Couch Gymnast:

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. …

click to see larger version

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 …

read more – Canada: The Getting of Depth

Click PLAY or watch Kristina’s Floor on YouTube.

Globe and Mail – Vaculik moves one step closer to Olympic team by winning national championship

related – Aussie girls looking strong for Olympics too

National Championships:

1. Ashleigh Brennan – 57.350
2. Emily Little – 57.050
3. Mary-Anne Monckton – 56.900

Lauren MITCHELL competed only 3 apparatus.

results

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… 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. …

Gymnastics Canada – Calgary’s Gafuik inches closer to claiming Canada’s only berth in men’s gymnastics at national championships

Click PLAY or watch that routine on YouTube.

Here’s another angle. (VIDEO)

And an interview with Nate. (VIDEO)

related – CTV – Kyle Shewfelt on What It Takes to Make the Games

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4. Jessica Savona
5. Maddie Gardiner
6. Brittany Rogers

Photo via Dave Brubaker on Twitter.

Dave added a photo of the results.

official results will be posted on Gym Score Depot

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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.

National Champion 2012 - Regina

Nate was 17th AA in Beijing. And took the Bronze medal at FISU 2011 with a 60+ score.

… 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.

results will be posted on Gym Score Depot

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If LIVE tweeting, please use the hash tag #CANgym2012.

Apologies for the slow uploading of results. Working on a fix.

Vaculik tops qualifying at Canadian gymnastics championships

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A.Brennan 58.400
E. Little 56.250
M.Monckton 54.600
G. R. Brown 53.500
A.K. Koi 52.800
G.Wheeler 52.300

full results

Couch Gymnast:

… All in all it was a pretty great night. …

… 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. …

details – Australian Nationals Day One

Ashleigh Brennan

Couch Gymnast – Ashleigh Brennan- Happy to Lead

Following the dual meet with Japan:

… National coach Peggy Liddick was happy …

“The difficult part now will be to select five out of the 19 who competed tonight,” Liddick said.

“There are a couple who are impressive enough they’re selecting themselves so I’ll build the team around those who are clearly shining.

“Nobody’s on the team yet but, yes, Lauren had a good night tonight.” …

Lauren Mitchell shines at gymnastics titles

Brennan and Mitchell are the key gymnasts around which the Aussie Olympic team will be selected.

related – Aussie gymnast Luke Wiwatowski gives us a behind the scenes glimpse from the Men’s point of view.

The main story line is friends Thomas Pichler vs Josh Jefferis competing for the sole Olympic spot.

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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. …

Examiner – Kristina Vaculik, Shallon Olsen lead as Canadian Nationals begins

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.

Click PLAY or watch her Bars on YouTube. (5.7 start)

Thanks Brett.

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full results will be posted on Gym Score Depot

… “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. …

GCG – Vaculik tops women’s field in qualifications at Canadian gymnastics championships

Click PLAY or watch an interview with Kristina on YouTube.

Contrary to initial prognosis, it turns out that Peng dislocated the same kneecap a second time on the same skill — double twisting Yurchenko.

Peng Peng Lee Dislocates Knee, Plans Recovery for London

Get well soon.

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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.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

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… 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 …

read more on Couch Gymnast

photos by Nadia Boyce

related – Australian Nationals: IDP Six Teams results

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