If you're going to bring down the curtain on a season, you want to do it with a bang.
Winning 40 medals as a unit at a gymnastics competition is a sure-fire way to ensure you bring down that curtain with authority.
The Yellowknife Gymnastics Club's competitive season is over for 2018-2019 but not before the club's gymnasts hauled away that very amount of medals from the Canmore Summit Invitational in Canmore, Alta., this past weekend. A total of 14 made the trip and nine of them were the haulers, so to speak.
On the girls side, Lyndsey Woodford scored herself two medals in the Level 8 13 and under division: a silver on the vault and bronze on the beam.
She said she was happy with her performance but she admitted there was room for improvement.
“I did have an small ankle injury but otherwise, I think I did pretty well,” she said. “It hurt a lot on the floor – that's mostly where it was painful – but I just had to push through.”
Maggie Carson was another double-medalist for the team as she won silver on the beam and bronze on the uneven bars, both in the Level 8 13 and over division.
Carson said she was most satisfied with being able to complete all four of her events in Canmore.
“I finally got to do that this year so that was exciting,” she said.
Carson was part of the gymnastics team at the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alta., but was unable to finish the competition as she was suffering from a foot injury, causing her to miss the team event finals.
She said it isn't fully healed yet but it was in good enough shape to compete in Canmore.
“During warm-up for the floor, I could feel the tension in my ankle,” she said. “My coach (John Tram) just warned me to save it for when it actually counts. That's what I did and I think floor was the only spot where I could feel any discomfort.”
Emma Leathem was once again one of the stars of the show as she won four medals in Level 9, which included the all-around division gold medal, while Jade Ko was a quadruple medalist herself, winning silver on the vault, uneven bars and the all-around along with a bronze on the floor, all in the Level 8 13 and over division.
The boys, however, brought home the lion's share of the hardware as they won a total of 28 medals between them. Here's who won what:
Nole Barrichello, Level 2: bronze on parallel bars;
David Dragon, Level 3 13 and under: gold on pommel horse, rings, parallel bars, high bar and all-around and bronze on floor;
Tai Leathem, Level 3 13 and over: gold on rings, vault, parallel bars, high bar and all-around and bronze on floor and pommel horse;
James McCarthy/NNSL photo
Shea Escalante, Level 3, 13 and over: gold on floor, silver on pommel horse, parallel bars, high bar and all-around, bronze on vault and rings;
Zefer Jordison, Level 3 13 and over: gold on pommel horse, silver on floor, rings and vault, bronze on parallel bars, high bar and all-around.
If you were keeping score with Jordison, Leathem and Escalante, you will notice that the trio had a podium sweep in the all-around medals.
Tram said he was proud of the team's performances.
“Everyone was training really hard so I'm glad to see it pay off for them,” he said. “It was a great way to finish off the season on a high note.”