Seven girls and three boys from Nelson’s Glacier Gymnastics Club, strutted their stuff at the 2014 BC Provincial Championships held in Kamloops in March.
All the gymnasts’ performances fit in seamlessly with the Lower Mainland and other BC clubs.
Almost every local competitor came home with an award and many brought home medals, including five gold, eight silver, four bronze and one All Around Championship Gold.
“These results show how amazing our Nelson gymnasts are. Our club’s gymnasts train four to eight hours less per week than the clubs we compete against, and our girls and boys look just as refined and are very competitive in the province,” said Sandra Long, Glacier Gymnastics head coach.
While pleased with the results, Long said the success did not surprise her, in fact she expected the club to do well.
“We know what they (the athletes) look like when they are going into the competition... We’re happy everybody went and everybody came back with something. It’s kind of normal for us.”
While the provincials are over, the gymnastic season isn’t. The local club has many more events to get ready for.
“We are just getting ready for hosting a big competition at our club on May 3 to 4. It’s actually the Zone Championships,” said Long.
Clubs from all over the Kootenays will compete. The event attracts about 250 competitors.
This weekend, four members of the club — all the Level 3 competitors — are heading down to Abbotsford to participate in another tournament.
“We are a full year sport so we keep training, even though our main season is over.”
Results from the 2014 BC Provincial Championships in Kamloops were:
Girls Provincial Level 2
12-years-old: Gwen McCrory — 10th on bars;
13-years-old: Olivia Kelly — Fourth on vault;
14-years-old: Sara Tolles — Silver medal on floor, Bronze medal on vault, fifth on beam and fourth all around;
15 years and older: Hailey Lothrop — Gold medal on floor, Silver medal on vault, Bronze medal on beam, fourth on bars and Silver medal all around.
Girls Provincial Level 3
14-years-old: Victoria Lawrence-Jeffery — Silver medal on beam, Bronze medal on floor, sixth on all around;
15-years-old: Ella Keelan — All Around Championship Gold Medal, Gold medal on floor, Silver medal on beam, Bronze medal on bars, and fifth on vault;
Kylee Dyck – Gold medal on beam, Silver medal on floor, Silver medal on vault, Silver medal all around, and seventh on bars.
Boys Provincial Level 3 (Under 13)
River Murphy — Seventh on floor, seventh on vault, seventh on horizontal bar;
Chris Lawrence-Jeffery — Gold medal on horizontal bar;
Matthew Bullen — 15th on horizontal bar.