Author: Rick Mc

Payne won the all-round title on the opening night of the senior men’s competition at the Canadian championships, … in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Payne, 19, finished with the top three scores on the high bar, the floor and the pommel horse on Thursday, …

The reigning champ, Nathan Gafuik, pulled out of the competition after a sub-par start on the pommel.

“I am happy with the results, but I also know that in some events I can score higher. There’s room for improvement there,” Payne said …

read more on the Edmonton Journal – Payne’s plan right on track
Edmonton gymnast prepares for a run at 2012 Olympics

I saw that linked by Blythe on Gymnastics Examiner – The gymnastics week in review: Nationals, Nationals, Nationals…

Essential reading for me as I’d missed much of what happened last week, consumed by the PEI competition.

Ono sends us this link to the NY Times:

… two groups are asking the National Collegiate Athletic Association to recognize a new version of cheerleading as an “emerging sport” for women, a precursor to full status as a championship sport. If successful, dozens of athletic programs could begin to fully finance cheerleading teams, recruit scholarship athletes and send them to a national championship.

The implications go beyond giving cheerleading a stamp of legitimacy. If this more athletic form of cheerleading — technically known as competitive cheer — evolves into a sport with rigorous competitions and standards, college athletics programs will be able to count the new teams for the purposes of complying with Title IX, the federal law banning gender discrimination in education.

The development could provide relief to institutions that have struggled to show they are offering enough opportunities for women, who make up 53 percent of students at Division I institutions, but just 46 percent of all athletes. …

Yet even as the idea has been met with enthusiasm, a fight has broken out between two groups competing to have their vision approved by the N.C.A.A. Each of the proposals calls for athletic displays that incorporate elements of traditional cheerleading, like flips and pyramids, but the groups differ over how to administer and run the new sport.

One group, USA Cheer, is backed by Varsity Brands, a for-profit company that sells pompoms and uniforms and has been running competitions for high school and college cheerleaders for decades. The other group is the National Collegiate Athletics and Tumbling Association, which comprises six universities that have been competing against one another for the last couple of years and have the support of USA Gymnastics. …

read more – Born on Sideline, Cheering Clamors to Be Sport

Alex Seifert won both Sr. Men’s Tumbling and Double-mini at Canadian Championships 2011. (full results)

Click PLAY or watch an edit of his routines on YouTube.

Alex trains at Calgary Gymnastics Centre.

Welsh Gymnastics is seeking to appoint a Chief Executive Officer. It’s an important role to enhance the growth of the organisation in what is a challenging but very exciting time leading to London 2012 and Glasgow 2014.

details

The closing date for applications is Friday 24th June 2011.

For application forms or further details, please contact annette.brown AT welshgymnastics.org or for an informal discussion please contact the Chair of the Board Helen Phillips +44 7970052343 or via Email Helen.Phillips AT Welshgymnastics.org

Thanks Oliver

Thanks to Lea Rand her organizing committee for putting on a great event in Charlottetown, PEI.

Sadly, it’s all over.

We’ll keep the 2011 Canadian Gymnastics Championships blog online as a legacy.

Most of the athletes who competed are in transition phase right now. Naosaki spoke specifically to the FIG male gymnasts, advising a minimum number of days “active rest” before return to training.

Next … start building for Elite Canada and Canadian Championships 2012 Regina.

See you in Regina 2012

Klara Miller and her Saskatchewan team are famously good hosts. Nationals was last in Regina in 2007. We’re already going back.

Check out that website designed by Topwater.

… notable features include:

• Language options – choose from either French or English

• Advertising Packages – ability to add flash or static image ads into the website

• facebook and twitter integration

• Future enhancements include streaming video (courtesy of Prairie Wave Productions) so visitors can view gymnasts compete in each of the 4 disciplines, LIVE, during the event

One of my missions at the Canadian Gymnastics Championships was to promote athletes, especially those who get less than their share of press.

Cory Paterson has won Nationals 3 times already, this year in the challenging High Performance Tyro division. (Boys are growing rapidly in this age group.)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… includes Cory’s P Bar and Horizontal Bar routines.

Sergio Sazaki from Brazil – New Skill on Parallel Bars

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike. (Full routine 2009 via that link, as well.)

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/NTc0NDkzMjU4?related=1

Watch more video of Sergio Sasaki on gymnastike.org

We had a 13yr-old boy compete something like this … Back Toss to long swing. His name was Ashwad Springer.

_____ Update:

Click PLAY or watch Sam Mikulak training the same thing (only better) on YouTube.

Thanks for the link, Mike.

World Champion Thomas Bouhail pushing the limits in training.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via International Gymnast on Facebook)

Mihai Brestyan was up coaching Talia Chiarelli for one day at the Canadian Championships.

I heard he was not impressed with Canadian judging, finding the scores of the top routines too low relative to the rest. And relative to international judging.

Grace Chiu GraceClick’s Photo on Facebook.

She finished 6th AA (52.375) affiliated with Bluewater, ONT.

Talia Chiarelli was born and raised in Ottawa (1995). Her mother is Alicia Brancato, daughter of former Ottawa Rough Riders football coach George Brancato.

Talia’s father is Peter Chiarelli, GM of the Boston Bruins who are currently in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.

She’s in the mix of gymnasts who might qualify to Worlds 2011. Like her more famous Brestyan’s teammates, she’s strong on all apparatus … except Bars.

Bluewater trained down at Brestyan’s recently. The conditioning is tough.

Watch the Gymnastics Examiner interview.

Grace Chiu on Facebook:

Some chalk (magnesium carbonate) at the gym got on the top of my photo booth kit bag and set off CSTA alarms for traces of explosive chemicals at YYG. Forms got filled out and everything got hand checked, including my body. I’ll be happy to get home soon to do some laundry.

Leave a comment if you’ve ever heard of gymnastics chalk being flagged at an airport. That stuff is about as inert as any substance.