There’s nothing quite like kicking off a new season of competition by sailing through your first meet with flying colours.
The Sudbury Laurels coaching staff could not have asked for much more as their relatively inexperienced crew returned from the first qualifier of the year in Orangeville, ON.
“As a whole, I think that every one of our level six athletes exceeded expectations,” coach Julie McEwen said.
Over and above the time that has spent perfecting routines on each of the four disciplines, the gymnasts received a little fine-tuning that was specifically designed to deal with the stress of elite competition.
“We did a lot of mental training, a lot of mental preparation, which really helped them,” said McEwen.
It would be difficult to dispute the results, especially with the newcomers. Making her first appearance at a provincial meet, 11-year-old Brooklyn Basso earned silver in the all-around aggregate, largely on the strength of her bars (silver), vault (silver) and beam (bronze) routines.
“I was competing my giants for the first time, and my clear handstands for the first time, and I hit both of them,” noted Basso. “I was pretty excited.”
With second qualifier now less than a month away, the talented young gymnast knows where her focus will lie, even if she received a bit of a helping hand in identifying the specifics.
“I’m working on the floor, on leaps, because that’s where I lost the most points, I find,” she said. “I looked at my points, and my mom took videos, so I looked at them too. My back knee on my leaps was pretty bent, so I have to work on that.”
Born in Calgary but moving to Sudbury at a very young age, Marin O’Malley did not need a whole lot of convincing to make the jump to provincial level gymnastics this year. “I like competing,” she stated. “I get really bored when I’m not doing gymnastics. Since I train more now, it’s more entertaining and more fun.”
Also making the jump easier was the fact that she moved from level four to level six, and with it, enjoyed a lot more flexibility in terms of planning her routines. “To be honest, level six is actually easier than level five, because you get to choose more skills,” explained the chatty ten-year-old.
Much like Basso, O’Malley lists the bars as her favourite event, something of a rarity among female gymnasts. Of course, she sees her personal skill-set as differing a little from the norm, anyways.
“I’m very strong because my dad is very strong,” she suggested. “I think that’s where I got it from.” O’Malley placed fifth, overall, in her age/level bracket, garnering a bronze medal on bars and sliding in at fifth in the vault.
Other Laurels’ medal winners included Renée Blais (silver – bars, beam and aggregate), Brielle Charlebois (gold on floor, bronze aggregate), Abigail Dumontelle (gold on vault), Abbygayle Dupuis (bronze – vault and aggregate), Charlotte Eberlein (gold on vault), Alana Killeen (bronze on floor), Brooklyn Lavallee (bronze on vault), Chanelle Lazure (silver on bars), Madysen Mulligen (gold on bars), Chloe Pitura (silver – vault and aggregate, bronze on floor), Savannah Starling-Brisebois (bronze on vault and bars), Marisol Toupin (bronze on floor), Rachel Uguccioni (bronze on vault) and Abby Managhan (6th on beam).
