Karstadt, who recently graduated from the University of Minnesota, finished third in the AA competition at the Canadian Championships back in May, and is a member of the team leaving on Sunday to represent Canada at the Pan Am Games in Lima. He took the title Friday with a total score of 80.450, while two local BC athletes – Darren Wong of Vancouver, and Zach Clay of Chilliwack, rounded out the podium in second and third respectively.
“The competition went well for me today,” said Karstadt. “I started on high bar and hit that really well so I was happy with that good start. Nothing was really perfect, but I hit all six routines, so I can’t ask for much more. This was a great test run for Lima – it definitely helps the confidence. It’s almost a good thing that I wasn’t perfect – it means I’m kind of saving it for Pan Ams!”
“Today had its ups and downs,” said Clay, who improved on his fourth place finish in the AA competition at the Canadian Championship, and who is also a member of the 2019 Pan Am Games team for Canada. “Two of my events weren’t really what I was expecting, so this was a good preparation for the Pan Am Games that we’re going to on Sunday. This feels like a test run and so whatever doesn’t go right here, I know what I have to work on before we compete in Peru.”
In the junior 16-17 competition, Siminiuc, who just returned from competing at the inaugural Junior World Championships where he finished 9th overall in the AA, had a fantastic competition, laying down top-scoring performances on three of the six apparatus to capture his first national title. His Junior World Championships teammate, and newly crowned junior world champion on rings – Félix Dolci of Laval, QC, took the silver medal, while Patrick Talbot of Quispamsis, NB captured bronze.
“Today went pretty good for me. I’m very happy with the gold medal,” said Siminiuc who finished second in the same category at the Canadian Championships in May behind Dolci. “We recently came back from worlds, and so coming into this competition was a bit tough as training was a little bit difficult after worlds. But this was my last competition of the season, so I’m looking forward now to summer training and working on my skills and upping my D-scores.”
In the Junior 14-15 AA completion, Xavier Olasz of Ontario took the gold medal, followed by Trent Miligan and Nathan Broughton with silver and bronze respectively.
The competition wraps up tomorrow with apparatus finals for the Elite 4 level starting at 10:40am PT, and for the juniors and seniors starting at 15:55pm PT.
For full results, please visit: http://www.sportzsoft.com/meet/meetWeb.dll/MeetResults?MeetId=7AA9A19565C88DE4C58392948278A15C
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