Eleven athletes from Powell River Gymnastics Club attended their first meet of the season last month, travelling to Comox to participate in the 19th annual Comox Pajama Party Invitational.
Gymnasts competed in five separate junior olympic categories, bringing home a total of nine medals, 40 event placement ribbons and six all-around ribbons.
“These are our junior competitive girls,” said club administrator Karyne Bailey. “Most of them only went to two competitions last year and this was their first competition this year. We’re extremely pleased with how they did.”
Gabrielle Marshman competed in the junior olympic four division. She finished with four event placement ribbons including a fourth place finish in the beam event, just missing the bronze medal by 0.75. Marshman placed eighth overall in her category.
Naomi Harrison was the top athlete of the day representing Powell River, bringing home three medals in her division of junior olympic level three. She achieved the gold medal in vault, silver for beam and bronze in the uneven bars. Harrison took fifth place overall in her division.
In the junior olympic 3A category, Cheyenne Choo, Olivia Raffin and Larissa Laing placed in every event. Choo achieved the silver medal for vault, earning seventh place all around. Raffin brought home four event placement ribbons, her two best being fourth for vault and bars, landing her in ninth place overall. Laing also brought home four placement ribbons, her best being seventh for the vault, earning her a 10th place all around.
Melodie Ouellet competed in the junior olympic 3C division and earned four placement event ribbons, beam being her best event of the day where she achieved fifth place and placed 10th all around.
Five of the club’s junior olympic level-one athletes also took part in the meet. At level one the gymnasts were scored with bronze, silver or gold based on how well they performed their routines. Natalie Klauzer earned three bronze and one gold placement, achieving bronze all around. Rachel Turner earned two silver and two gold placements, earning a silver all around. Panagiota Rounis and Kyla Randle both earned one silver and three gold placements, earning them gold all around. Arwen Anderson had the top placement in this level placing gold on all events for an all-around gold.
“Every girl came home with ribbons and medals so it’s pretty exciting,” said Bailey. “They did very well.”
Next up for these athletes is the Aviva Cup Invitational held in Coquitlam from April 26 to 28. The Lower Mainland meet will see the athletes up against a much larger group of competitors, according to Bailey.
“Instead of it being 10 to 12 clubs you’re competing against it could be 20 to 30, sometimes even 40 different clubs,” she said. “It’s going to be telling to see how they do at the next meet but they’re hard at work preparing and tweaking all of their routines to get ready.”
