Plenty of medals awarded at gymnastics championship

With the final two competitions approaching, the Yukon Gymnastic Association has more than a few reasons to be optimistic about a strong finish to the 2007-08 season.

With the final two competitions approaching, the Yukon Gymnastic Association has more than a few reasons to be optimistic about a strong finish to the 2007-08 season.

All 15 of the association’s competing athletes at the recently held Yukon Gymnastics Championships had stellar performances, which has raised a few expectations for the remainder of the season.

“I thought it went really well,” said Kelly Mock, the technical director and head coach for Gymnastics Yukon.

“I thought the kids really did an excellent job. Some of them competed for the first time on the girls’ side as well.

We had some little pre-competitive athletes that did their routines for their parents and for the crowd.”

Presently Whitehorse has the lone gymnastics club in the Yukon, but in the past Outside competition has taken part in the event, including clubs from both Juneau, Alaska and Yellowknife.

The championships featured a separate category for girls and boys. Girls, who ranged in skill level from one to five, competed in four events, including vault, bars, beam and floor.

The boys in the club either competed in the level one or level two categories and took part in six events, including floor, pommel, rings, vault, parallel bars and high-bars.

Gold, silver and bronze medals were given out for placing in each event.

After the conclusion of all of the events, total scores were added up and the top three in each level category were awarded with an all-around medal.

The more competitive girls at the Yukon club train four days a week, which works out to around 16 hours.

The boys train three days a week for nine hours altogether.

This year has been special for Gymnastics Yukon with a select few of the competitive girls at the club competing at the Arctic Winter Games in Yellowknife.

Another highly prestigious competition is the Western Canadian Gymnastics Championships, which will be held in Prince George, B.C. this coming week.

The event is a highly competitive meet, which showcases the best talent Western Canada has in the sport of gymnastics.

Gymnastics Yukon is sending one of their athletes to compete at the 2008 Westerns.

The gymnast is Anna Rivard and this will be her second year taking part at the competition. In 2007, Rivard won a silver medal in vault event and she placed in the top 15 in her three other competitions.

The final competition will be held on the May long weekend in Juneau, Alaska.

Gymnastics Yukon expects to send around 15 athletes to the Southeast Alaska Invitational.

The Juneau meet is friendly competition between the two clubs, who have a long-standing history of a healthy rivalry with one another.

Medals and trophies will be given out as prizes at the event. The meet will conclude the gymnastics season in the Yukon.

Mock said the Yukon club always tries to take part in the Juneau meet.

“Typically we try to make the May long weekend work,” he said.

“It doesn’t always work for them down there, but this year it does.

So it’s something the kids are really excited about.”

He said he was happy with how the Yukon Championships went this year.

“It’s kind of a really fun competition,” he said.

“It’s a good chance for all of the competitive athletes within the club to kind of cheer each other on and see their routines.

A lot of times they train together, but because they are in different groups they don’t get to see what they are actually working on.

So it really gives them a chance to showcase how much they have improved and how good their routines are.”

Rivard, who is the only Level 5 gymnast at the club, was ensured a first place in each of her four events at the Yukon Championships.

She finished with an overall score of 49.68, with her highest score coming in the vault event, which Rivard finished with a 13.35 rating.

Rivard, 14, has been involved with gymnastics since she was three years old and has been competitive in the sport since she was around seven.

She said she was pleased with how she did at the Yukon Championships and she hopes to build on her performance at last year’s Westerns.

Rivard hopes to place in the top eight in every event at Westerns and said she was happy about winning the silver medal in 2007.

“I was pretty surprised, but in a way I knew I was going to be in the top eight,” she said.

Rivard expects it to be a little easier this time around because of the experience she gained from competing at the event last year.

“I trained harder and I know what the expectations are for the Westerns.”

Currently, there are no Level 4 gymnasts at the club, but the Level 3 category at the Yukon Championships featured four competitors.

Corey Baxter ended up winning the Level 3 girls’ category with an overall score of 47.14, which was nearly two points better than the runner up.

Baxter’s best finish at the competition came in the floor challenge, which is also her favourite event in the sport. She scored a 12.43.

Kelcie Henney finished second, scoring a total of 45.93.

Her highest finish was in the bars challenge, which Henney recorded a 12.23, which was nearly two points higher than the next best score in that event.

Foreste Martin came in a close third with an overall point total of 45.34. Martin’s best event was the floor event, which she won 12.17 points and placed second to Baxter.

Baxter, 12, has been involved with competitive gymnastics for the past five years.

She took part in the Arctic Winter Games, where she finished in sixth place in all of her four events.

Baxter will attend the competition in Juneau for the first time and said she doesn’t have any expectations heading into the meet.

“I always hope to medal, but mostly it is just to compete,” she said.

In his first competition at the Yukon Championships, Tyler Walsh finished first in every event in the Level 1 boys’ category.

Walsh’s final score was 38.10 and his highest individual score came in the vault event where he finished with an 8.35.

Walsh, eight, said he was initially nervous about making a mistake at the event, but was glad he took part in the meet.

He said his favourite part about the competition was the parallel bars.

Walsh scored a 7.45 in this challenge, which was his second highest individual score at the meet.

Allen Mark won the boys’ Level 2 competition, finishing with a 42.8 score.

Coming in a close second was Benoit Latour, who scored 41.9 and placed first in three of the six events.

Latour said he was happy with the second place finish and was particularly pleased with his score in the vault event, which was 8.55 and was the highest recorded out of all of the boys at the competition.

A 44.95 total was a high enough score for Lily Anne Gale to claim first overall in the Level 2 girl’s category. Gale placed first in three of the four events she competed in at the Yukon Championships.

Alana Lacosie came in first at the Level 1 girls’ category, finishing with a total score of 45.75.

Lacosie finished in first place in three of the four events at the Yukon Championships.