“I’m so proud of the girls today,” said veteran team member Ellie Black of Halifax, NS. “They went out and did their jobs – we had a few mistakes, but there were so many positives, so many good parts of the day. We ended up making history coming fourth as a team in team finals – our best-ever result, and we couldn’t be more happy with that. I think we represented Canada just the way we like to – with a smile, and aggression, and never giving up.”
The team, composed of Black, Sophie Marois of Île Bizard, QC, Brooklyn Moors of Cambridge, ON, Shallon Olsen of Surrey, BC, and Ana Padurariu of Whitby, ON scored a total of 161.644 over the four apparatus – slightly lower than their qualifying score of 163.987, but enough to retain their position just off of the podium which bodes well for Olympic qualifying at next year’s World Championships in Stuttgart, GER. The top-3 teams in today’s competition directly qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, JPN.
“Today went really well. We had a couple of little mistakes, but a whole lot of great routines – but every country can say exactly the same thing,” said team coach David Kikuchi. “It’s so encouraging to be up near the podium twice in a row, and to prove that it wasn’t a fluke on day one, and that we are becoming a force to be reckoned with.”
The men’s individual all-around finals take place tomorrow, but will unfortunately not feature Rene Cournoyer of Repentigny, QC who has had to withdraw due to injury. The women’s individual all-around finals take place on Thursday and will feature Black and Moors. The competition will wrap up with the apparatus finals on Friday and Saturday which will see Black and Olsen compete on vault on Friday, and Padurariu and Black competing on beam on Saturday, as well as Moors competing on floor.
Watch the action live via CBCSports here: https://www.cbc.ca/sports
For the full schedule and results visit: https://live.gymnastics.sport/schedule.php?idevent=13335
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ABOUT GYMNASTICS CANADA
First established in 1969, Gymnastics Canada is the national governing body for the sport of gymnastics in Canada. Gymnastics Canada works closely with the twelve provincial and territorial federations and 700 local clubs to provide a broad range of programs and services to meet the needs of our over 325,000 participants. From athlete development, to coach and judge education, Gymnastics Canada sets the operating standards and practices for the sport in Canada. Our mandate is to promote and provide 6positive and diverse gymnastics experience through the delivery of quality and safe gymnastics programming. Visit www.gymcan.org for more information, or follow us @CDNgymnastics.
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Julie Forget
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