“Our main goal was to make a final, and our secondary goal was to come in the first 20,” said coach Vali Stan following the morning’s competition. “I feel very good about his performance. It’s very hard to open the Olympic Games and to be first and he did a wonderful job. This was one of the best floor routines I’ve seen him do in his entire career, so we couldn’t be more happy about it.”
An apparatus specialist who does not compete in the all-around competition, Morgan also laid down solid performances with minimal errors on rings where he scored 14.533 to finish 27th overall, and 14.470 on vault to finish 14th.
“I’m feeling pretty awesome, it was pretty cool out there. It’s always a pleasure to wear the leaf,” Morgan enthused following the competition. “I think you’ll never be able to experience the Olympics until you’re here and it’s a pretty surreal experience. And to be all with one big family – I’ve never been to a competition or a meet or another Games where your country supports you no matter what, and they make you feel like a champion no matter what happens and it was because of all the hard work by my friends and family and their support that allowed me to get here, and the support from my team and guys back home.”
China, the USA, and Russia took the top-3 spots in the team competition, with home country favourites Brazil also exciting the crowd with their performances during Morgan’s sub-division to advance to the team finals in 6th position. In the all-around competition, Oleg Verniaiev of the Ukraine took the top qualifying spot followed by the 2012 Olympic all-around champion and six-time World Champion in the all-around, Kohei Uchimura of Japan, and David Belyavskiy of Russian in third.
The top-8 teams qualify for the team final, while the top-24 individuals advance in the all-around, and the top-8 on each apparatus advance to apparatus finals. The team final takes place on Monday, August 8th at 1500 ET; Individual all-around on Wednesday, August 10th and the apparatus finals run August 14th, 15th, and 16th.
Canada’s women’s artistic team will be looking to improve on their record-setting fifth place finish from the 2012 Olympic Games tomorrow when they wrap up the women’s qualifying rounds in sub-division five of five at 1930 ET.
For full results, visit: https://live.fig-gymnastics.com/schedule.php?idevent=6405
Click here for the broadcast schedule: http://olympics.cbc.ca/online-listing/
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.
-30-
For more information, contact:
Julie Forget
Director, Communications and Marketing
Gymnastics Canada
Cell: 819.210.2064
Email: jforget@gymcan.org