Crane, who is competing in her first season as a senior, finished the preliminary round with 55.350 points. Crane had a strong ball routine and flawless hoop routine to kick off the competition and never looked back, scoring 14.350 on ball and 15.150 on hoop. The second day of competition saw Crane struggle with her ribbon routine, finishing with 11.150 points, but rebounding with incredible strength in her clubs routine and scoring 14.700 points, the highest senior clubs score.
“This is one of my first big senior competitions and overall I feel like it went pretty well and I was consistent over the four routines,” said Crane following competition. “I felt the most confident going into my hoop routine and it turned out the best. I had a couple small mistakes, so I’m hoping to improve on those for tomorrow and hopefully I can continue to remain consistent and do well.”
Senior top finishers joining Crane in the final include Athena Tsaltas Of Kalev Estienne Club, Vivienne Lee Motkine of Trillium Rhythmic Club, and Carmel Kallemaa of Glimmer Athletic Club. Kallemaa lives and trains in Toronto but represents Estonia internationally.
Vivier of Viva Rhythmic Gymnastics Club dominated the competition finishing the qualifying round with 58.100 points, more than six points ahead of 2017 Junior Elite Canada champion Natalie Garcia who sits in second place. Vivier had the top score on all four apparatus including a 16.150 on hoop, 12.850 on ball, 15.050 on clubs, and 14.050 on ribbon.
“I felt really good about my competition and happy that I didn’t drop, these are all new routines so I was impressed,” said Vivier. “We made my clubs routine about a week ago and during the routine today, I threw the club really far forward and had to do a big somersault to catch it, so I was really happy with the finish. For tomorrow’s finals, I’m hoping to improve my turns, I think they could have been better today and am just hoping to still have no drops!”
“I’m very pleased with the progress our gymnasts and coaches have made the last few months,” said Teresa Orr, National Team Director for Rhythmic Gymnastics at Gymnastics Canada. “Elite Canada is our first big event applying the most recent changes to the code of points. Junior gymnast Michel Vivier has excelled in upgrading the level and quality of her routines. We are missing our top two senior gymnasts who are rehabilitating from injury; this has created an exciting fight for the top finishes at this competition, which is part of our selection criteria for major events this spring.”
The top-15 athletes in both junior and senior categories will advance to the finals on Sunday. All-around and apparatus finals begin at 9:00am for the juniors and 1:15pm for the seniors.
To watch the competition online, visit gymcan.tv.
To view the full results, click here.
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 Federations and the 700 local clubs to provide a broad range of programs and services to meet the needs of all participants. From athlete development, to coaching and judging education, Gymnastics Canada sets the operating standards and practices for the sport in Canada. Our mandate is to promote and provide positive 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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