Author: Rick Mc

Adam Wong is back from an Achilles tendon injury. And tonight was named National Champion. Congratulations.

It was a tight competition between Adam, Dave, Casey and Grant. Unfortunately, Grant missed Pommels last apparatus.

Senior Men, Day 1

1. Adam Wong (CGC, AB) 90.550
2. David Kikuchi (Halifax Alta, NS) 89.450
3. Casey Sandy (Burlington BGs, ON) 88.850 … NCAA Champion
4. Grant Golding (UofC, AB) 88.000
5. Nathan Gafuik (UofC, AB) 86.250
6. Jared Walls (CCGC, AB) 86.150
7. Ken Ikeda (Twisters, BC) 85.450
8. Hugh Smith (Halifax Alta, NS) 84.950
9. Pat McElroy (UofC, AB) 84.200
10. Peter Andersen (Surrey, BC) 82.400
11. Cam Taylor (CGC, AB) 80.750
12. Matt Beiler (UofC, AB) 79.950
13. Matt Albrecht (Oakville, ON) 78.900
14. Terrance Lowe (CCGC, AB) 78.350
15. Scott Chandler (Island Gym, PEI) 78.000

Though Kyle Shewfelt sat out the official competition, in the training gym he was hitting routine after routine on 4 apparatus. Workouts have been great all week, Kyle told me.

Add Olympic Floor medal threat Brandon O’Neill who looked great, but did not compete, AA.

Bottom line — Canada will be strong in Beijing. The final Olympic training squad will be named after the second day of competition.

The All-Around Championships were not nearly as strong as preliminaries. Even National Champion Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, who had a great meet overall, stepped out of bounds on three tumbling passes.

2008 Canadian Championships
June 5, Calgary

Senior Women’s All-Around Final
1. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (Sport Seneca, ON) 57.900
2. Kristina Vaculik (Gemini, ON) 57.200
3. Peng-Peng Lee (Sport Seneca, ON) 56.200
4. Alyssa Brown (Mississauga, ON) 55.850
5. Sydney Sawa (CGC, AB) 55.250
6. Brittany Rogers (Omega, BC) 54.850
7. Charlotte Mackie (Omega, BC) 54.800
8. Emma Willis (Bluewater, ON) 53.200
9. Stephanie McGregror (Gymtastics, AB) 52.650
10. Sarah Flett (Springers, MB) 50.850
11. Barbara Gasser (Bluewater, ON) 50.350
12. Nansy Damianova (Gymnix, QC) 27.950 … (only 2 apparatus)

UPDATE:

Day 1 scores were higher:

Kristina Vaculik 58.95
Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs 58.45
Nansy Damianova 57.80

Junior Women’s All-Around Final
1. Dominique Pegg (Bluewater, ON) 55.700
2. Anysia Unick (Stampede City, AB) 55.650
3. Ti Liu (Gymnix, QC) 54.300

full results will be posted on Gym Score Depot

Hopfner-Hibbs outscored top qualifier Kristina Vaculik by seven tenths of a point to recapture the title she won in 2006. The 18-year-old Hopfner-Hibbs was the top scorer on vault, uneven bars and balance beam.

Vaculik, the defending champion, earned the high mark of the night on floor exercise. …

Nansy Damianova, third in qualification, performed uneven bars and floor exercise only in the all-around final. Damianova is currently second behind Hopfner-Hibbs in the points rankings system used to determine Canada’s two Olympic berths.

International Gymnast

I was impressed with home town girl Anysia Unick (recently moved from Regina, SK) who finished 2nd in Junior by only .050, a best ever performance.

Schedule

* Thur. – Jr 1:00pm ET / Sr 7:00pm ET
* Sat. – Jr 10:30am ET / Sr 3:30pm ET
* TV Broadcast – NBC – June 7, 4-6PM ET

Gymnast.com links to interviews:

* Nastia Liukin
* Shawn Johnson
* Alicia Sacramone
* Chellsie Memmel
* Jana Bieger
* Darlene Hill
* Ivana Hong
* Marta Karolyi
* Samantha Peszek

The best way to make yourself ESSENTIAL to the USA Women’s Gymnastics Olympic team is to show a strong, consistent routine on Bars … with a reasonably high start value.

Certainly China will have higher start values on Bars. But the Americans do not want to be too far behind.

Gymnicestics posted 3 routines from VISA Championships podium training. I like Chellsie Memmel’s best.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

See the other two on Gymnicestics.

That’s what we tell people. Three realistic Olympic medal contenders:

Canada’s power trio of trampoline led the way at the Canadian gymnastics championships on Wednesday, with Karen Cockburn and Rosannagh MacLennan finished 1-2 in the women’s preliminaries and while Jason Burnett easily topped the men’s field. …

all levels trampoline preliminaries – full results (PDF)

Cockburn and Burnett have already qualified. Everyone expects MacLennan to be confirmed, as well, this weekend.

“It was nice to know I didn’t have to peak here because I already have the Olympic berth,” said Cockburn, who is taking aim at her third straight Olympic medal after winning bronze at the 2000 Games and silver four years ago in Athens.

read more – Gymnastics Canada

All 3 train under coach Dave Ross at the Skyriders Trampoline Place in Richmond, Hill, Ontario.

Despite his not feeling 100%, I thought Jason looked GREAT. Very clean. Very early opening on every skill.

If he competes close to his world record degree of difficulty in Beijing, Jason’s a contender for a medal.

(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) – JAMD

====

UPDATE: Tramp and Tumble posted the ranking list for the USA. Here are the top contenders to choose a single competitor in each to go to Beijing:

Women:
Blanchard, Erin (66)
Hebert, Alaina (63)
Williams, Alaina (51)

Men:
Devine, Michael (54)
Dooley, Logan (51)
Estrada, Chris (46)
Gluckstein, Steven (45)

A tight race. The final selection meet is July 1st. Details

Another comprehensive general fitness tutorial from Jim Bathurst on his beast skills site.

Jim includes variations from EASY …

… to BEAST SKILL

John Gill – One arm front lever

Front Lever – Beast Skills

(via Straight to the Bar)

Related Beast Skills tutorials:

muscle-up

conditioning – single leg squat

learning “the Flag”

Chicago is such a hot favourite to win the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympics that only they can mess it up, a senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) member told AFP.

The Windy City is bidding to succeed where New York failed in the 2012 race won by London …

National Post

The IOC narrowed the field to Chicago, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid. Prague, Doha and Baku in Azerbaijan failed to make the cut.

=== UPDATE

Chicago 2016: Sure Thing, Say Oddsmakers; Long Shot, Says I.O.C. Report – NY Times

Championships begins Thursday with Jr women at 1:00 p.m. ET and Sr women at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Competition will finish on Saturday.

Marta Karolyi will be intently focused on selection of gymnasts to advance to Olympic Trials.

more photos – USAG

Commentaries on podium training:

The big news is that Ashley Priess will not be competing.

photo – Kristina – Leslie Foster – Gymn.ca

The first competition ran Tuesday night: Jr and Sr FIG High Performance Women.

Most of the talk on the floor was about achieving qualifying “points” towards Olympic Selection. Unlike most other nations, Canada will select 2 Olympians and alternates this weekend. Quite early.

Likely the two assigned to Beijing will come from this trio: Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, Nansy Damianova and Kristina Vaculik.

All three look great. All three would be very strong competitors on individual apparatus in the Olympics.

It’s a shame all 3 cannot compete. In fact, Canada should have qualified a full team to Beijing. Right now they are easily one of the 12 strongest teams in the world. Beam is the most impressive apparatus, overall.

Senior High Performance AA – day 1

Sarah Flett was the biggest happy surprise to me, a name I didn’t recognize. On Floor she competed double layout, piked full-in, 2 1/2, double pike. Very powerful tumbler.

Note that some Juniors — Peng Peng and Charlotte — opted to compete Senior in preparation for the next Olympic cycle.

Junior High Performance AA – day 1

day 2 – Thursday. Apparatus finals Saturday.

full results – Gym Score Depot. Thanks Stu.

Yet another Cirque du Soleil show confirmed. Just learned the name today.

Preview performances start Friday, August 15, 2008. That makes 3 new shows opening this summer.

Zed – official home page

related post: Cirque du Soleil opens in Macau – ZAIA