With Danielle Gruber of Kelowna, B.C., leading the way with the highest score among all competitors in the five-team final, the Canadian team claimed the top spot on the podium with 103.900 points. Great Britain won silver with 103.400 points and the United States took the bronze with 103.00.
Other members of the Canadian team were Arden Oh of Calgary, Tamara O’Brien of Coquitlam, B.C., and Karine Dufour of Laval, Que.
“I was having trouble landing my pass on my feet in the warm up, but it ended up working out,” said Gruber, who will be going for another medal in the women’s individual DMT final on Sunday.
“I just have to stay focused and not be overconfident because anything can happen.”
Competing for the last time on the international stage, retiring national men’s team veteran Denis Vachon of Hamilton, Ont., placed sixth in the men’s DMT final and teammate Douglas Armstrong of Surrey, B.C. was seventh.
Austin White of the United States finished well ahead of runner-up Mikhail Zalomin of Russia to claim the gold medal.
“One of the reasons I’ve continued to train and compete is that I’ve never felt like I had the best world championship, but after today I feel satisfied,” said Vachon, who intends to shift his focus now on coaching at the Burlington BGs club where he heads up the trampoline and tumbling program.
“I love this sport more than anything else and I will miss it as an athlete but I’m definitely going to keep coaching. I think I was meant to be a coach and to bring athletes up to this level.”
Vachon’s pride as a coach was on display at this year’s world championships with one of his top athletes, Jordan Sugrim of Mississauga, Ont., placing 7th in a strong women’s tumbling final.
In the men’s tumbling team final Jonathan Schwaiger of Burlington, Ont., Nick Jackson of Cambridge, Ont, Michael Chaves of Mississauga, Ont., and David Findlay of Hamilton, Ont., placed fifth.
Russia took the gold, followed by China and the United States.
Competition concludes on Sunday with finals in DMT, tumbling, and trampoline.