While all of the sporting attention in the North was glued to the Arctic Winter Games in Alaska last month, there was one event which largely flew under the radar.
And it’s one that saw a Yellowknife gymnast stand atop the podium not once, but twice.
Zefer Jordison scored himself two individual titles at the inaugural Inspire Cup meet in Victoria, B.C., in March. The 18-year-old managed to secure wins on the floor with a winning score of 13.300 and the vault with a score of 12.000. Both of his winning scores were personal bests on each apparatus.
Jordison said he was quite happy with his performance overall.
“It’s been a while since I’ve competed, so I was excited to get back into it and a good way to start my (competitive) season off,” he said.
His score in the floor is the highest he’s ever received in any competition, he said, recalling 13.100 at territorials last year as his previous best.
In the vault, the rules are different for male and female competitors. Female gymnasts get two tries at the vault, while the males only get one.
Jordison’s vault involved a Tsukahara layout, which consists of a half-turn off the springboard onto the vault table, then a push backwards and into a layout before the landing. Each vault has a degree of difficulty attached to it, which goes toward the final score. Jordison’s vault was the highest of them all at a 3.2 degree of difficulty.
“This was a new vault for me, so it was my first time doing it in competition,” he said. “It obviously went well.”
Coach John Tram said the gap between Jordison and the second-place finisher, Logan Velisek of Vancouver, was quite large in terms of gymnastics scoring: six-tenths of a point.
“Zefer won by quite a bit in that one,” he said.
Going into Victoria, Jordison wasn’t thinking about two podium finishes and two personal bests and he didn’t even know how well he had performed until the results were made final.
“John doesn’t let me see the scores until I’m done and I have to wait until the awards,” he said. “I felt pretty good about things, but going into the award presentation, I didn’t think I would come out with two golds, so that was pretty exciting when I heard my name.”
With his gold medals firmly tucked away, Jordison’s focus now turns to the Western Canadian Championships and it will be a return to B.C. for him as that’s happening in Langley starting on April 18. He’ll be joined by fellow Yellowknife Gymnastics Club members Shea Escalante and Jack Fox.
Jordison said the Victoria meet acted as a bit of a benchmark for the Westerns.
“Last year, I didn’t do as well as I wanted to, but I made the finals in the floor,” he said. “Hopefully this year, we’ll get (to finals) on the vault and get some good scores.”
His success in Victoria also saw him qualify for the Canadian Gymnastics Championships in Gatineau, Que., in June. He’ll be the first male gymnast from the NWT to hit the mats nationally since Zach Sullivan did it in 2011.
“It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a male gymnast from the territory at nationals,” Tram acknowledged. “Emma (Leathem) was the first female from the NWT ever to compete at nationals a couple of years ago, but Zefer will be the first since Zach did it. We’re just trying to improve on what we’ve done already and meet all the goals we’ve set out.”