MEET RESULTS

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Oakville, August 16, 2010

Kristin Klarenbach named to Team Canada to the 2010 Commonwealth Games

Team Canada held its Trials for the upcoming World Championships and Commonwealth Games on the weekend in Oakville (Ontario). Twelve (12) gymnasts competed in the Trials and Kristin ranked 4th All-Around, first on vault, third on beam and fourth on floor. Following Trials, Gymnastics Canada announced the names of the six (6) gymnasts that will represent Canada at the World Championships in October in Rotterdam and it also announced the names of the five (5) gymnasts that will represent Canada at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, also in October in New Delhi (India). Kristin posted a total score of 52.35. "Kristin competed well and hit four-for-four events. She demonstrated that she was ready and determined to be chosen for either team. She was one of the few athletes that hit all four events at the competition. Commonwealth Games is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and this will be very exciting for her. Kristin now needs to rest a little and to focus on her preparation for the Games, which are eight (8) weeks away." said Valérie Oudin, Kristin's coach. CONGRATULATIONS KRISTIN !!!!!!!

Stuttgart, Germany- November 13, 2009

Kristin Klarenbach finishes 5th on Vault at the DTB World Cup in Germany

QUALIFICATION (Friday November 13)- Kristin Klarenbach posted a 9th place finish on Vault today at the highly prestigious DTB World Cup event held in Stuttgart, Germany, narrowly edged out of Finals by .038 ! She sits as the first reserve for tomorrow's event finals and still has a chance to compete on vault in the event a gymnast placed ahead of her pulls out of the finals. This remains to be seen.
"Kristin competed a new vault for the first time at this World Cup event, a new Yurchenko Layout-1/2, on top of her solid Front-Front Pike half and averaged 13.262, right behind Bruna Leal from Brazil (13.300). We were planning to train the new vault but not necessarily to compete it, but it was so good in training that we decided to compete it. It turned out to be the right decision." said Valérie Oudin, Kristin's coach at the World Cup.
On beam, Kristin scored an unusual low score on beam (10.70). "Kristin fell twice, so this really hurt her score. She had never been in this situation, so she gained valuable experience and is sure to turn it around." related Valérie. On floor, Kristin had two out-of-bounds and three steps on her 4th tumbling line, for an uncharacteristic 11.975. "Kristin has to learn to control her power and that will be the theme in training for the next few weeks as she prepares Elite Canada. She had at least 1.5 deductions on landings alone !" told Valérie from Stuttgart. "What the story doesn't tell is that Kristin was seriously ill with the flu for the whole week before she left. Her flu turned into a cold and she had trouble training properly. She met the challenge with a lot of character. This will serve her experience well for the future. She showed she belonged at that level and now she has to trust herself in these situations." related Valérie. For now, it's a matter of waiting to see if Kristin will be called in to compete in vault finals tomorrow. EVENT FINALS (Saturday November 14)- Kristin Klarenbach posted an impressive 5th place on vault at the 2009 DTB World Cup in Stuttgart today, her World Cup debut as a first-year Senior gymnast ! After Belgian gymnast Aagje VanWalleghem withdrew from Vault finals, Kristin moved in to complete the roster of 8 athletes, having been the first reserve after the qualification round. "We know that there is always a possibility of someone withdrawing after qualifications, usually due to injury, so we told Kristin to get ready to compete and be ready to face a last minute substitution. And that's exactly what happened." told Valérie from Stuttgart.

Kristin scored an average 13.412, thus improving her score from qualification and finishing a mere .313 from a medal ! "Kristin rose to the occasion and seized the opportunity. She competed her new vault for a second time and under much more pressure than qualification, making her performance that much more satisfying. She had been a little disappointed after Day #1, so she wasn't going to let this opportunity slide by." related Valérie.

"This is a very good step in the right direction for Kristin. Although I stayed back in Edmonton for this one, I can just picture Kristin's level of energy and adrenaline on this event, her favorite. It was a bad day for the beat-board ! My other athletes had been on Facebook with Kristin and they told me that she was starting to feel better from that Flu and cold she had all last week. I am proud of her for seizing the opportunity and making her World Cup debut a good one." said Michel Arsenault from Edmonton. Kristin and Valerie fly back home on Monday and are back in the gym on Tuesday, preparing the upcoming Elite Canada at the beginning of December. Good job Kristin ! CLICK HERE TO SEE

KRISTIN'S VAULT FINALS AT THE WORLD CUP

Kristin Klarenbach wins three medals for Canada at the 2009 Rushmoor RoseBowl International

Kristin Klarenbach won a Gold medal on beam, a Silver on vault and a Bronze in the All-Around competition, which was held in Aldershot (United Kingdom) on the weekend of October 24-25, 2009.
On Saturday, in the preliminary qualification and Team competition, Kristin finished 3rd All-Around with a total of 51.90, behind Australian gymnasts Britt Greeley (53.45) and Emma Collister (53.40). Kristin qualified into all four (4) event finals, a feat achieved by only one other gymnast in the competition, out of 81 competitors.
Kristin was competing for her club (Champions Gymnastics/Canada) in the preliminary team/individual competition, but for her country in the Event Finals on Sunday.
In the Team competition, Champions Gymnastics won the RoseBowl in the club division, eclipsing the second placed club by an astounding 20.00 points ! In the overall combined standings, Champions Gymnastics finished with the Silver medal, second only to Australia’s National Team. Third place went to Team England “A” and fourth place went to Team England “B”. The fact that his club beat three National teams was not lost on coach Arsenault:
“We won the RoseBowl last year in the club division, so we successfully defended our team title this year. The RoseBowl has three divisions (Club, Composite and National Teams). When all division results are combined, Champions Gymnastics finished in 2nd place, beating the two National Team squads of England, South Africa and all other teams entered into the meet (17 teams in all), only to be surpassed by Australia! I take enormous pride in being able to field a team of six (6) gymnasts and finish with a Silver medal in the Combined Team competition, on the heels of the strong Australian National Team. National Teams bring together the best athletes from each country, so to be able to contend against entire nations when you are only a club is quite rewarding.” said a smiling Michel after the meet.
In the preliminary competition, Amy Callaghan was 8th AA (50.50), Brittany Ekstedt was 9th AA (49.75), Tamar Smith was 11th (49.55) and Shaena Bunce was 25th (46.95).
“This meet was the girls’ first meet for the 2009-2010 season. They competed at 100% of my expectations. We started on floor and every girl hit her routine. We went to vault and every girl hit her vaults. We went to bars and every girl hit her routine…and on beam….we only had two counting falls ! What more can a coach ask of his athletes for a season-opener ? They sure did their job. They had their game-face on and their collective experience really showed.” said Michel.
Miranda Meyer, who is rehabilitating well from her June elbow surgery, competed only on beam, which she easily won with a score of 14.00, thus qualifying first for beam finals.
“Miranda is recovering well from her surgery; she competed beam with confidence at this meet. We modified her content slightly and she competed last in our team’s rotation. Miranda is behaving like a true Senior gymnast and her poise was remarkable, considering what she has been through. This bodes well for the upcoming Elite Canada in early December, where she will compete on at least three events.” remarked Michel.
Event finals were held on Sunday October 25th. Kristin Klarenbach and Tamar Smith competed on vault, where they finished second and fourth respectively. Kristin competed her new Handspring-front pike half out and her Yurchenko-Layout for an average of 13.55, whilst Tamar competed her front-front-tuck half out and her Yurchenko-Layout for a 13.075.
“I was happy with the fact that both Kristin and Tamar competed their new vaults well at this, their season-opener.” related Michel.
On Bars, Amy Callaghan finished in 5th place and Kristin in 9th spot (one fall).
On Beam, Kristin Klarenbach won first place (13.05), while Miranda had one fall and finished 6th. Brittany Ekstedt had also qualified for beam finals and ended up in 8th position.
On Floor, Champions had qualified three gymnasts (Kristin Klarenbach, Tamar Smith and Amy Callaghan). Tamar posted the best performance of the day for her club on that event with another 4th place, while Kristin finished in 7th place (one fall) and Amy placed 9th.
“The girls have years of experience and they know how to compete two days in a row. I was particularly happy with Tamar Smith’s performances on vault and floor. Tamar came in vault finals as the second top qualifier with her first-ever career 14.00 Pts ! As for Kristin, two medals in Finals is a good day. Had she stuck her arabian double-front on floor, she would have won that event. As for Miranda, well, she has to put in the numbers in order to expect a rock-solid performance in a Finals situation; that will be the theme for her in the next few weeks. I was proud of Amy and the fact that she hit both her routines in finals at an international meet. With higher D-scores, she can contend for medals. Brittany fell off beam but otherwise she competed with confidence. All in all, a very good season-opener.” reported Michel after the meet.
Kristin Klarenbach is now getting ready to represent Canada at the upcoming DTB World Cup in Stuttgart (Germany) in November.
“Kristin will compete for Canada on vault, beam and floor at the prestigious DTB competition in three weeks. She will be accompanied by Valérie Oudin. Many gymnasts who have just competed at the 41rst World Championships in London will be competing at the DTB World Cup (which is a World Cup “A” event), so this will be Kristin’s first real opportunity to see how she measures against some of the best in the world. She is up and ready for the challenge…after all, that’s the purpose of all this hard work.” said Michel.

Luxembourg City (Luxembourg), June 28, 2009

Kristin Klarenbach wins two medals for Canada at the 10th FL Gym Open

Kristin Klarenbach brings home two medals from the 10th edition of the FL Gym Open competition in Luxembourg city, Luxembourg.
This was Kristin's first assignment as a new member of Canada's Senior National Team.
Kristin finished 4th All-Around in the Preliminary competition on Saturday, narrowly missing the podium.
"Kristin and I got here on last Monday, just so she could get used to the time change (8 hours) and so she could train well before competing, but unfortunately, she got sick with the flu right when we got there and was sick all week. She trained as best as she could; she would start training, she would go to the washroom, throw up, re-group and keep training despite it all. She prepared as well as she could." said her coach.
Kristin had an uncharacteristic fall on beam, bars and floor, or otherwise would have finished in second place to 2008 Hungarian olympian Dorina Boczogo.
"Kristin had two goals at this meet: to hit her new vault and to hit her new giant full on bars. Well, she did meet these two goals, but her sickness caught up to her. She was really drained and fell at the end of both her floor routine (double tuck) and at the end of her bar routine (double pike). This meet served only one purpose in our minds and that was to put these two new skills in the program. Her D-score went up on vault from 4.6 to 5.0 and her bars D-score went up an astounding .8 points. I couldn't have asked more from her. She was a trooper." related Michel after the first day.
After preliminaries were said and done, Kristin had qualified for two apparatus finals: beam and vault.
On Sunday, she redeemed herself with a Silver medal on Beam and with a Bronze medal on Vault.
"Kristin competed well on vault and hit both her vaults. I was especially pleased with her Front-front pike 1/2 turn which scored 14.15. Her Yurchenko Layout scored a 13.60, so she ended up in third place on vault. On beam, she finished second to Dorina Boczogo from Hungary. I have to say that I was even doubting that she would end up competing this weekend, because of having been so sick all week. This ended up being such a good experience for her. She learned that she can still medal internationally even though she is sick !" concluded Michel.
"This marked the end of Kristin's 2008-2009 season. This kid has a lot to be proud of herself. She came from not even qualifying to finals as a Junior at last year's Nationals to now being a Senior Canadian National Team member, a Carded athlete and an international medalist. I am very proud of her. Now, she can take a well-deserved rest and attack next season with a lot of confidence." said Michel.

Champions Gymnastics brings back 6 GOLD medals from National Championships !

Miranda Meyer, Kristin Klarenbach, Amy Callaghan, Shaena Bunce, Brittany Ekstedt and Tamar Smith posted impressive results at last week’s Canadian National Championships, which were held in Hamilton, Ontario.
Once it was all said and done, Champions won the following awards:
* MIRANDA MEYER: Canadian National Champion on Beam (Senior)/ SILVER on Floor/ SILVER on Vault * KRISTIN KLARENBACH: Canadian National Champion on Floor (Senior)/ BRONZE on beam * TAMAR SMITH: Canadian National Team Champion (National Open) * BRITTANY EKSTEDT: Canadian National Team Champion (National Open- alternate) * SHAENA BUNCE: Canadian National Team Champion (National Open)/ BRONZE All-Around/ SILVER on bars * AMY CALLAGHAN: Canadian National Team Champion (National Open)/ Canadian National Champion Uneven Bars (National Open 13-15)/ SILVER on Vault
In other words, every one of our athletes brought back home a NATIONAL CHAMPION title ! Something never seen before...
HIGH PERFORMANCE SENIOR (DAY #1- PRELIMINARIES):
The week-long event started off with the Preliminary competition in the Senior High Performance category, which featured Champions’ own Miranda Meyer and Kristin Klarenbach, both first-year Seniors.
Kristin Klarenbach finished in second place with a total of 52.30 and a first place on floor and a third on beam going into the individual All-Around competition to be held the following Thursday. Furthermore, Kristin was one of only two (2) gymnasts to qualify for all four (4) event finals to be held the following Saturday.
Miranda Meyer finished in sixth place with a total of 48.95 and a second place on vault and beam. Miranda qualified for three (3) event finals for the upcoming Saturday.
“Kristin competed completely un-phased and unaffected by anything around her. She hit all routines and ended up second All-Around and this is her first year as a Senior. Last year, as a Junior, she didn’t even qualify to go on to the second day of competition! She has improved enormously from last year. As for Miranda, she competed as well as she could have, given the amount of pain she was in, especially on bars. Unless one knew about her right elbow’s situation, it was impossible to tell how much pain she was in. She hid the pain extremely well, competed as best as she could under the circumstances and ended up in sixth position.” said Michel Arsenault.
NATIONAL OPEN (Day #1- TEAM COMPETITION):
In the National Open category, the Alberta team benefited from the presence of returning Gold medalists from last year’s historic team Shaena Bunce and Amy Callaghan. In 2008, Alberta won the team gold for the first time in 19 years and entered this year’s National Championships as the defending National Champion.
“Winning this team title last year was a first in 19 years, so winning it two years in a row was going to be extremely difficult. I had done some research on our opponents and I knew that this was going to be a dog-fight. British Columbia, Québec and Ontario were all gunning for the top spot and given past history, it wasn’t going to be easy. I made sure that we had all of our support staff on hand and that we were going to put up the best fight possible by a defending team. The first training camp we had prior to Hamilton had been almost a disaster and I wasn’t very optimistic by our prospects coming into Nationals, but I wasn’t going to sit down and just let things happen. Our on-site training before the meet was very good. I had made the comment to the girls that each of them would have to fight to keep their spot on the team because we were determined to put the best seven girls in the line-up. Brittany Ekstedt had buggered up her ankle a little on the previous Thursday and she was a question mark, so after verifying her health status on site, I decided to switch her for Tamar Smith, who was training well and healthy. This ended up being the right decision for the team. Brittany was a trooper and even though she was the team captain, she stepped aside with grace and maturity” explained Michel.
The meet started out on Vault and all Alberta girls hit their vaults. Bars went well for some despite a couple of falls by key gymnasts. Beam was average and floor was very good.
“We needed to hit bars and beam at this meet in order to have any chance to finish high in the standings. A couple of our better girls had falls on bars, so we ended counting one routine with a fall. Amy Callaghan hit one of her best bar routines of her life and came up really big for the team on that event. I consider her bar routine as the turning point of the meet as far as team result is concerned.” explained Michel.
After bars, we knew that all could be won or lost on our next event, beam. Some of our least likely athletes did great beam and our two best kids fell. This put a lot of pressure on us going into our last event. The girls had no idea where they stood in the standings going to their last event, but we had received word from our people in the stands that we were actually trailing Ontario. At the time, I thought “Let’s keep fighting ‘cause it’s not over until the last girl on the last event…” The girls rocked floor. When it was all said and done, we had left nothing out there. It was now a waiting game. Ontario had had good vault, average beam, good floor but not very good bars. BC had had good vault and bars, average floor but disastrous beam. Québec had had very good vault, average beam and floor and also costly bars. We were called in for awards but had no idea what our team’s position was. Personally, I thought we were going to be second, but I had no idea behind who. They marshaled us as the center team, with Ontario on our right and Québec on our left. I started being suspicious about the possibility that we had won it, but I still remembered someone telling me that we were 4 full points behind Ontario going into the fourth event….I didn’t think we had made up 4 points on the last event ! Well, as things would have it, Québec got called up for the Bronze and then I thought “well, second place is not bad after all….” and we stood there waiting for the announcement….”and in second place, the team from………Ontario!” We couldn’t believe it, we had won GOLD for a second year in a row! We were so happy!” related Michel Arsenault, the Alberta Team coach for this historic victory.
The margin between first and second was approximately 0.7 and the margin between second and third place was approximately 0.6!
The Alberta Open Team managed to successfully defend its Team title for the second year in a row, thus writing a little bit of Canadian gymnastics history. Is a three-peat possible? We will know one year from now!
HIGH PERFORMANCE SENIOR (DAY #2- INDIVIDUAL ALL-AROUND):
On Thursday, the High Performance Seniors were back in action for the Individual All-Around competition. Kristin hit three out of four events and posted a 6th place All-Around (50.10) despite two falls on beam. Miranda ended up competing on only three events, avoiding bars because of the extreme pain in her right elbow.
“Kristin competed well on her first two events but fell twice off beam. She then hit floor convincingly. We scratched Miranda from bars because she was in too much pain and we didn’t want to jeopardize her three event finals scheduled for Saturday.” explained Michel after the meet.
NATIONAL OPEN (DAY #2- INDIVIDUAL ALL-AROUND FINALS & EVENT FINALS):
All four Champions athletes (Shaena, Amy, Tamar and Brittany) had qualified for the second day of competition, which were split into two age divisions (13-15 and 16+).
In the 13-15 age division, Shaena Bunce had one of the best meets of her career and finished with the BRONZE All-Around and the SILVER on Bars.
“Shaena had an average team competition on the first day and I knew she was due for a better second day. When she is on, she is on. I was pleased with her All-Around Bronze, Alberta’s best placing in that category, but I was happier with her Silver on bars. She has been so close all year to hitting this routine and it finally happened at National Championships!” said Michel.
In the same age division, Amy Callaghan won Gold on Bars and Silver on Vault and was 7th All-Around.
“Amy was one of the favorites to win the All-Around title, but a fall on floor and two falls on beam took her flat out of the race for the All-Around title. I am most proud of her Gold on Bars. In fact, to have Amy and Shaena in both first and second place on bars was pretty sweet and quite a statement.” related Michel.
In the 16+ age division, Brittany Ekstedt finished 14th and Tamar Smith finished 25th.
“Brittany competed well on vault and bars. In fact, she hit her best vault and her best bars of the year. As for Tamar, she competed with some pain in her back, so the All-Around result suffered quite a bit from that.” explained Michel after the meet.
SENIOR HIGH PERFORMANCE (Day #3- EVENT FINALS):
Finally, after an incredibly long week of gymnastics, Miranda Meyer and Kristin Klarenbach competed in the Senior High Performance Finals, which were partially broadcasted live and taped for CBC Television.
Miranda Meyer won GOLD on beam and SILVER on floor and Vault, whereas Kristin Klarenbach won GOLD on floor and Bronze on beam!
Miranda Meyer won the title of Senior High Performance Beam National Champion and Kristin won the title of Senior High Performance Floor National Champion!
Champions Gymnastics walked away with 5 out of 12 possible medals at these finals!
Vault: Miranda competed a high and clean Yurchenko Layout full (14.35) and a beautiful stuck front-front tuck (13.55). Kristin competed her trademark Front front pike (14.00) and a nice Yurchenko Layout (13.625) Beam: Miranda competed: backhandspring back tuck-full, front somi half, back tuck, double turn, front tuck & 2.5 dismount (14.55). Kristin competed: backhandspring layout, side somi, side aerial, back tuck and double tuck dismount (14.05). Floor: Miranda competed: Front pike-front handspring-front double twist; double pike; double twist and 2.5 twist (13.45) Kristin competed: Arabian double-front tuck; double pike; front somi to 1.5 and double tuck (13.70).
“Miranda and Kristin made a huge impression in event finals and won close to half the medals available on all events in these Senior finals. I don’t remember seeing anything like this in my last 22 National Championships as a coach. They sent a strong message to our National Coach in regards to the upcoming World Championships and the 2010 season. This is a good start towards our 2012 goal.” said Michel.
CLICK HERE TO SEE

MIRANDA'S GOLD MEDAL BEAM ROUTINE !

Edmonton, April 20, 2009

Shaena Bunce, Eyana Lamoureux & Laney O'Neill win AA GOLD at the 2009 Alberta Provincials

Champions Gymnastics athletes once again earned top spots in various categories at the Alberta Championships & Trials to Nationals, which were held in Brooks on the weekend.
FRIDAY:
The competition started on Friday night with Day #1 of the Alberta Trials to National Championships in the National Open category. The competition started well on vault for Shaena Bunce, Tamar Smith, Amy Callaghan and Brittany Ekstedt. However, when it came to bars, disaster struck. "The girls came to this meet very well prepared. I have been preparing gymnasts on Bars for close to 30 years now and I have never seen anything like this" said Michel Arsenault after the meet. In fact, after it was all said and done, there were 39 falls off bars amongst 27 gymnasts ! "As a coach, my first reaction was to look at what my gymnasts were doing wrong, but everything seemed normal in what they were doing; but there kept being fall after fall. So naturally, I started wondering if there wasn't anything wrong with the equipment. It was so atypical. It didn't matter what I tried to do with the bars, they were not behaving as they should have. My gymnast left bars in total shock; we had 6 falls in 5 gymnasts ! We had never had such a terrible meet after such good preparation. The girls kept commenting about how the bars felt weird." reported Michel. "I am not one to find excuses for my gymnasts, but something seemed wrong." said Michel Shaken from their bars ordeal, the girls then had to go to beam (of all events). On that event, Shaena Bunce (historically a rock on that event) had three falls ! "Beam was shaky to say the least. The girls were in shock. By the time we got to floor, they re-grouped somewhat." Once it was all said and done, Tamar Smith sat in first place and Shaena Bunce was essentially staring at not being selected for the Alberta team to Nationals at all (the top 7 make up the team, with three additional gymnasts competing as Alberta delegation members but their scores not counting towards the team's total). Brittany and Amy were in relatively safe spots going into day #2. "I didn't sleep all night. I reviewed the entire bars ordeal in my mind and couldn't figure out the problem. Why so many falls ? I decided to go to the gym very early the next morning and look at the bars. I measured and re-measured them and couldn't figure out the problem for the life of me. So, I decided to dig deeper and I looked at the self-standing frame of the uneven bars. The frame was off-center by close to a foot ! There was no way the bars could sit properly; the crooked frame accounted for the instability of the entire set of bars. I asked the equipment guys to adjust the frame base, which they did and all of a sudden, the bars were fine." related Michel. SATURDAY: Eyana Lamoureux won the title of Alberta Provincial Champion in the P.3 Novice category, beating out over 30 other gymnasts. "Eyana was with our club when she was younger. She moved to another club in town a few years back and after some re-consideration, she came back to us last year. When she came to us, Eyana's gymnastics needed a lot of improvement if it was going to contend at Provincials. Luckily, Eyana was very constant in her work all year long. She kept improving slowly on all events. Provincials is the culmination of months of hard work on her part and that is why she won the gold today". said Michel after the awards. Eyana won GOLD in the All-Around and officially became the 2009 P.3 Novice Alberta Provincial Champion. Later on in the day, it was up to the P.4 Argo and Tyro little ones from Champions to take to the floor. Laney O'Neill and Chloe Harrison were the only two Argo 4 gymnasts in all of Alberta, so they played "musical awards", as they have all year long. Laney came out on top and was crowned P.4 Argo Alberta Provincial Champion. "Laney and Chloe are good little gymnasts. They competed well. They are learning the ropes and are improving at every meet. They presented new skills on some events. Chloe competed a full twist in her first line on floor and a layout-half in her last line. I am looking for some good stuff from both Laney and Chloe next year." said Michel. Kelly Hanasyk, Kennedy Sterenberg & Jesse Campbell competed in the P.4 Tyro category. Kennedy Sterenberg had dominated this category all year but got edged out at Provincials for the All-Around title. "Kennedy should have won. No question. She hit all four events and has superior form to other gymnasts she competed against. There were some questionable scores, that's for sure. Kelly had some good events and some so-so events, but her quality of execution is typically quite good, so that helped her in the end. Jesse over-powered a couple of her floor skills but did good bars, beam and vault." said Michel after the meet. Kelly Hanasyk came in third and Jesse came in fifth. "I am very happy that these five little ones competed well. They are still learning how to compete and how to deal with pressure and performing. It's a learning thing and I am very patient when it comes to that." SUNDAY: The real test was about to begin. Michel and his five gymnasts got to the gym 30 minutes before anyone entered the gym. Michel immediately went to the uneven bars and proceeded to adjust them for the next 30 minutes, making absolutely sure that they were going to behave the way they were designed to. "Sport is made up of a bunch of untold stories. I could tell my girls had their game face on when we stepped into the van on the way to the meet. I know them. They were ready to fight. I have been telling them all year that nothing is owed to them, that gymnastics owes them nothing. If they want something, they have to go get it. Shaena was in a deep hole after her five falls on Friday and she knew it. Brittany was OK, but not in a very solid position. Tamar was sitting in first, so she had some room to breathe. Barring disaster, Amy was going to be OK in my view. But anything can happen in sports........... and it did" said Michel. Going to their third event, all four girls had hit every routine and every vault. They were on their game. "Bars was going to be the real test as far as I was concerned because of the disaster on Friday night. Things didn't start well for Tamar. She buggered up her elbows in warm-up on a freak fall enough to prevent her from doing her planned routine; so we improvised a little routine that wouldn't jeopardize her elbows but that would keep her in the game. I knew we had some breathing room because she was first going into the second day of Trials." said Michel. "But the day belonged to Sheana. She knew she had absolutely NO margin of error whatsoever if she wanted to make that team. Sheana went on bars and had this look on her face (someone was going to have to pull her off the bars...she wasn't going to mess up this one) and she hit the best bar routine of her career. She rocked. Confidence breeds confidence; Amy also hit and then Brittany also hit. The bars situation from Friday had truly been solved and ultimate redemption lied in the results." said Michel After bars, the girls had to move on to beam to finish the meet; again, another test of character. "Shaena had fallen three times on Friday (frazzled from the situation on bars). She performed the best beam routine of her entire career in these difficult circumstances. She was a stone; no wobbles, just a rock ! Amy also hit. Tamar performed a modified routine which she also hit and Brittany had one fall in an otherwise solid routine." said Michel When it was all said and done, Shaena Bunce won the All-Around title of Alberta Provincial Champion (50.45), followed by her teammate Amy Callaghan at 50.35. The Alberta team to National Championships was named and Champions Gymnastics qualified three athletes on the counting team: Shaena Bunce, Amy Callaghan and Brittany Ekstedt. Additionnaly, Tamar Smith made the delegation list and will also be competing at National Championships in Hamilton in early June 2009. "Shaena Bunce, Amy Callaghan, Brittany Ekstedt and Tamar Smith deserve a LOT of credit for their performances on Sunday. They truly EARNED what they were seeking to achieve all year. Shaena went from being almost out of the team to winning Day #2 convincingly. Amy cruised all weekend and stayed in the top two regardless. Brittany had a better meet than the scores show as far as I was concerned and Tamar's first day performance carried her right through to the entire weekend. I am EXTREMELY proud of my four girls. They showed an immense amount of character...this is something that they will be proud of their entire life. I am SO proud of them...." said a proud Michel after the meet. Now it's on to the 2009 Canadian National Championships, which will be held in Hamilton from June 1-7, 2009. Champions will have six (6) athletes competing at Nationals: OPEN: Amy Callaghan, Shaena Bunce, Brittany Ekstedt, Tamar Smith HIGH PERFORMANCE SENIOR: Miranda Meyer & Kristin Klarenbach. Michel Arsenault was named first Alberta team coach for the Open team to Nationals. "I look forward to these Nationals, my 23rd National Championships as a coach. Last year, Alberta won the Team Gold in the Open category for the first time since 1989." said Michel.

Maribor (Slovenia), April 17-18-19, 2009

Miranda Meyer finishes 5th on Beam at the Maribor World Cup in Slovenia

by CSN for Gymnastics Canada- MARIBOR, Slovenia – Miranda Meyer of Edmonton finished fifth on balance beam on Sunday to conclude her overseas debut at a World Cup gymnastics competition. Kristina Goryunova of Russia won the gold medal with 14.350 points, Claudia Ana Silva of Brazil was second at 13.550 and Marta Pihan-Kulesza of Poland was third at 13.300. Meyer, who won a gold medal in the event at the Wild Rose International competition earlier this month in Edmonton, had one fall and placed fifth at 12.550 with a routine that had the highest start value of of the eight finalists. She was also fifth in qualifying on Friday. ‘’Her goal at this competition was to gain some international experience,’’ said Meyer’s coach Michel Arsenault. ‘’She made a very strong impression. She was the youngest competitor and showed that she is progressing really well.’’ ******************************* Miranda competed well on Friday afternoon for a 5th place in Preliminaries. She scored a 13.15 despite a fall on her double turn. She stuck her difficult backhandspring back tuck full, her front somi half, her front tuck, her leaps and her 2.5 twist dismount. The top 8 gymnasts on each event advanced to the Finals. Miranda competed against 23 other gymnasts. "This is Miranda's coming-out on the international scene and she left a great impression with her gymnastics. She had the hardest beam routine of all girls at the World Cup (D-score of 5.9). She went into Finals with a lot of confidence." said Valérie. In finals, she again stuck her backhandspring-back tuck full, her front somi half, her double turn, her leaps and dismount but fell on an easy back tuck ! After her fall, she had some wobbles that cost her. She scored a 12.55 for 5th place. "Considering her lack of experience, she did great at this event. Before she left, we had decided that we were going to focus on attitude and determination and that the end result would likely take care of itself. She sure did that. She e-mailed me right after both meets and all we talked about was her demeanor, attitude and determination. What a great experience for her young career. This is another great step in the right direction for her. Her confidence is high right now. " said Michel Arsenault. CLICK HERE TO SEE

MIRANDA'S BEAM ROUTINE !

Edmonton, April 4, 2009

Kristin Klarenbach & Amy Callaghan win the All-Around gold at the 2009 Wild Rose International Inv.

FIG JUNIOR & SENIOR PRELIMINARIES (Saturday):
Champions' own Kristin Klarenbach (Senior) and Amy Callaghan (Junior) won the All-Around gold in their respective categories at the 2009 Wild Rose International Invitational, held this weekend at MacEwan Center for Sport & Wellness in downtown Edmonton. Kristin posted an impressive 52.80 score and finished in the top three on all four events, thus qualifying for all four event finals to be held Sunday. "Kristin had as good a meet as she can have at this stage of her career. She hit all four events in a very confident manner. Her even-keel demeanor is largely responsible for her stable performances. She is finally maturing into a Senior performer. To me, she is making a statement that she is a gymnast to watch out for on the Senior High Performance scene in Canada. She has steadily improved throughout this year. Her self-confidence is high and it shows in her gymnastics." said Michel after the meet. Tamar Smith finished in 8th position All-Around while her teammate Brittany Ekstedt placed 10th All-Around. Tamar competed well and hit all events. Brittany had some difficulties on bars which cost her dearly for the All-Around. "Tamar and Brittany are the veterans of our team and their contribution to the team is essential. They are leaders in the gym and the girls look up to them for their maturity. As a coach, I always look to my veterans for leadership in and out of the gym. Tamar and Brittany are leaders in their own right. I am expecting great things from both these gymnast at Trials to Nationals in two weeks. They are training aggressively and honestly and that's a good combination." said Michel. In the Junior category, Champions' own Amy Callaghan finished in first place with an All-Around score of 49.32, edging out BC's Katie Muir. Amy's victory was made possible by strong performances on vault, bars and beam. Shaena Bunce (Champions) took the Bronze with a strong performance on beam which earned her first place in qualification. "Amy was due to have a good meet; her season had been quite disappointing up to this stage. The Wild Rose has given her a well-deserved boost. I am proud of Amy for not being overly emotional about her season so far. You always want your athletes to peak for the most important meets and being only a few weeks away from Nationals is quite a good sign. Shaena also had a good day despite mistakes on bars. Her vault and floor have really improved and I can't wait until she hits that bar routine of hers..." said Michel. There was approximately $2,000 in prize money offered in Preliminaries at this year's Wild Rose. In the Team standings, Champions Gymnastics finished with the SILVER in both the Junior and Senior categories. The Junior team was comprised of Amy Callaghan and Shaena Bunce whereas the Senior Team was made up of Kristin Klarenbach, Tamar Smith and Brittany Ekstedt. "Valérie and I are very proud of the fact that we have four (4) National Open and two (2) High Performance gymnasts (one of which is on the National Team and the other who is about to become one) performing gymnastics at a high level AND within their means. We do not ask our athletes to perform what they are not capable of doing in the gym on a consistent basis. The girls are working hard in the gym and they are aggressive in their preparation. This is a fun and productive time in all of our careers and I just see things getting better from here on." related Michel Arsenault in regards to his team.
TYRO 4 (Saturday):
In the Tyro 4 category, Champions' future was on display. At only their fourth meet ever (except for Kennedy Sterenberg), the Tyro 4 girls competed well. Kennedy Sterenberg utterly dominated the field by winning the All-Around (52.05) with a monstrous lead on the second place gymnast (49.00) ! Strong performances on vault and floor helped Kennedy win the Gold. Third place went to Laney O'Neill, while fourth place went to Jesse Campbell, fifth place to Chloe Harrison and eight place to Kelly Hanasyk. "Kennedy has dominated this category all year. Her vault and floor scores always propel her ahead of the field. She competes a beautiful Tsukahara Pike while most everybody else competes a handspring. Laney and Chloe are really Argos and we decided to put them in the Tyro category with their teammates, so they really competed against girls that are older than them. Although this hurts them short-term, it is going to have a great effect long-term. Mark my words. What the story doesn't tell also is that Kelly competed with a torn toe-nail on her big toe. She caught her toe on a beat-board in the gym and entirely lifted her toe-nail; she competed very well despite that and we are very proud of the character she showed out there. These little ones are the future generation of gymnasts for Champions and their development is going well. It's now on to Provincials in two weeks for those guys." said Michel.
P.3 NOVICE (Saturday):
In the P.3 Novice category, Champions' own Eyana Lamoureux also won the All-Around Gold (50.85) with no placing lower than first or second on each event ! "Eyana competed very well for herself. It's the first meet that I have been able to attend with her this year so far and I liked how focused she was. She is a delightful person. I was very proud of her, especially on beam. Her bars were also much better with the addition of her layout flyaway." concluded Michel after the meet.
JUNIOR & SENIOR FINALS (Sunday)
Competing only on beam at this meet was newly-named Canadian National Team Member Miranda Meyer from Champions Gymnastics. "Miranda has been assigned to represent Canada at the upcoming World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia in two weeks (she leaves Saturday), so we had to decide which event was best for her to compete at the Wild Rose. She has competed well on vault, beam and floor all year, so we decided to focus on beam at the Wild Rose. She is going to the World Cup with Valérie, given how important beam is for her. Miranda has a world-class beam routine and she needs to put it under pressure as often as possible." explained Michel. Champions qualified the following girls in Finals:
JUNIOR: Vault: Amy Callaghan & Shaena Bunce Bars: Amy Callaghan, Shaena Bunce (WR pick) Beam: Amy Callaghan & Shaena Bunce Floor: Shaena Bunce SENIOR: Vault: Kristin Klarenbach Bars: Kristin Klarenbach Beam: Miranda Meyer & Kristin Klarenbach Floor: Kristin Klarenbach On Junior vault, Amy Callaghan won GOLD. On bars, Amy won another GOLD and Shaena won BRONZE. On beam, Amy Callaghan won GOLD and on floor, Shaena Bunce won BRONZE ! On Senior vault, Kristin won Bronze. On beam, Miranda won Gold while Kristin won Silver and on floor, Kristin won Gold. "It's hard to ask for a better meet from these girls. Of course, as coaches, we will find things to improve for the next meet, but overall, we are very happy with ALL of our girls. Some of the highlights for us were Amy's two Gold medals in Finals, Shaena's two Bronze medals. In the Senior category, Kristin impressed us with her Gold on floor and her Silver on beam. Miranda really stepped up to the plate and delivered a huge performance on beam with a solidly-hit chuck-full of difficulty routine on beam." said Michel Kristin is truly coming into her own. She is a solid All-Arounder and an emerging power on beam and floor. She beat many Canadian National Team members on beam and floor and that is no small feat. Miranda had to wait for more than two hours before she got to compete on beam and compete she did. She competed exactly the routine that she is scheduled to perform in Maribor, Slovenia in two weeks (backhandspring- back tuck full, front somi-half turn, back tuck, front tuck, double turn and 2.5 twist dismount). Everybody has the right to their opinion and ours is that her score (13.60) does not represent the actual quality of her routine." said Michel and Valérie after the meet. Champions now moves on to Provincial Championships and to the Maribor World Cup in two weeks. Good luck Champions ! CLICK HERE TO SEE

Miranda Meyer's GOLD medal Beam routine

Montréal, March 8, 2009

Miranda Meyer wins GOLD at the Gymnix International Cup !

Miranda Meyer, the newest member of the Canadian Senior National Team celebrated her nomination by winning GOLD on vault at the 2009 Gymnix International Cup, held in Montréal this weekend. Miranda vaulted a solid Yurchenko Layout-full and a tuck front-front for an average score of 13.562. She had also qualified for finals on beam where she finished 5th with a score of 12.95. “Miranda is continuing to show signs of improvement. She finished 4th All-Around out of 31 gymnasts. She successfully included a second release on bars (Gienger). Bars is an event that she can now train on consistently; her elbow is not bothering her much anymore and the results are starting to show. We have a few new skills in the works that will be progressively included in her routines as time passes. On vault, she competed two vaults and qualified second going into finals. On beam, she fell on her barani and had a few wobbles. On floor, she performed to the crowd with more presence than she has ever shown in the past, but unfortunately, she ran out of gas and fell on her fourth pass. She surely would have qualified for finals otherwise.” explained Michel. Miranda’s teammate, Kristin Klarenbach hit a solid floor routine with her huge Arabian double front, double tuck, front somi to 1.5 twist and double pike last line. Kristin also hit vault, bars and beam and finished 6th All-Around in the International Cup, out of 31 gymnasts. “Kristin hit one of the hardest floor routines of the meet. She showed great character and ended up hitting all four events. Her vaults were solid as usual (huge Front-front pike and Yurchenko Layout). Her bars were solid but not as clean as we want them to be. She needs to keep cleaning things up on bars and beam. That's been the focus in the last few months. We’re very proud of her improvement.” said Michel and Valérie after the meet. Kristin qualified for Event finals on vault and floor. In finals, she performed a huge Front-front pike but wasn’t able to control the landing and a solid Yurchenko Layout; she took three long steps for a 13.075 average. On floor, the difficulty of the routine caught up with her and given some back pain during her third line, she fell on both her third and fourth lines, a somewhat uncharacteristic thing for Kristin. In the P.4 Tyro category, Champions fielded five (5) young gymnasts (Kelly Hanasyk, Chloe Harrison, Kennedy Sterenberg, Laney O’Neill and Jesse Campbell), four of them at just their second competition. Kennedy posted the best All-Around results for Champions with a 4th place All-Around (49.25). Kennedy placed 4th despite one fall on beam on a full turn. She also won GOLD on vault with a dominating 13.40. Jesse Campbell finished 6th All-Around with a score of 48.55. Kelly Hanasyk finished 10th All-Around with a score of 47.75. Laney O’Neill finished 11th All-Around with a score of 47.60. Chloe Harrison finished 15th All-Around with a score of 45.90. “These little ones are just learning their gymnastics alphabet, so the scores are somewhat un-important. As coaches, we are more interested in making sure that they control their gymnastics skills and routines. Out of five girls competing, we had only one fall out of every event ! That says a lot about the quality of these gymnasts and about their preparation.” said Michel after the meet. On Sunday morning, it was up to the National Open category gymnasts to compete. Shaena Bunce won SILVER in the All-Around (48.90). She also won GOLD on beam (13.10). "Shaena competed well, except on bars where she had two falls. She kept her composure and was steady throughout the meet. This constitutes a great return from her knee injury a few months ago. She showed great character and we're proud of her." said Michel. Brittany Ekstedt finished 4th All-Around and won BRONZE on beam (12.80). "Brittany had a tough day..an "off-day" one could say. She had a disastrous warm-up on vault and a disastrous first vault. She got shaken to her foundation and came back with an acceptable second vault. She was stunned by her warm-up and then by her first vault. So were we ! After her vault debacle, Brittany did show lots of courage for the rest of her meet. So her 4th place AA is not indicative of how good she is. It was just one of those days..." related Michel after the meet. Amy Callaghan won SILVER on bars and SILVER on vault, but fell on her first line on floor and was not able to finish the event. She ended up 18th overall. "Amy has not really done that much quantity of training on floor and although she was reasonably ready on floor, she had doubts about herself on that event. She now has three solid weeks of preparation on floor, so I am expecting a strong return from her. Her bars and vault were very good, as evidenced by her silver medals on those events." said Michel. Tamar Smith competed only three events, due to a serious hand infection which required hospitalization last week. She placed 5th on vault and 7th on beam. "Tamar developed swelling in her hand two weeks ago due to an infected rip. She had to be put on IV to control the spread of the infection and so, she hasn't been able to do bars at all. This situation truly prevented her from training comfortably. She is healed almost 100%, so we are planning to start bars in the next week or so. As you know, health always comes first." said Michel. "We have decided to remove our Open and HP Senior girls from their next meet (Jurassic Classic) in order to re-focus our preparation in the gym. We are going into the most important part of our season and we need to re-focus. Their next meet is the Wild Rose (in early April) and we are certainly looking forward to that one...on home turf in front of family and friends; it should be energize them quite a lot !" said Michel.

Dallas, February 14, 2009

Kristin Klarenbach & Miranda Meyer post impressive performances @ the 2009 WOGA Classic !

Kristin Klarenbach won a BRONZE medal on floor at the 2009 WOGA Classic in the Elite Senior division. Kristin competed her brand new floor routine which included a huge arabian double-front; a front layout-full; a front somi to 1.5 twist and a double pike in the last line. Kristin's teammate, Miranda Meyer finished second on vault, despite a two-different vault rule that didn't reflect the results of the best vaulters in our opinion. Miranda scored 14.00 on vault for her beautiful Yurchenko Layout-Full, followed by Kristin's 13.95, but still managed to rank below a gymnast who scored an average of 13.30 ! "We didn't know about the two-vault rule until we got there. We have been vaulting two different vaults all year, so for us, that would not have been a problem, but we learned about this rule too late, so our girls vaulted only one vault. I am a little frustrated about how this was handled, because it has some effect on Kristin and Miranda's Carding points in Canada", said Michel after the meet. Kristin finished 6th AA and Miranda finished 7th AA. In the Level 10 Junior category, Shaena Bunce finshed 10th AA with a 6th place on bars and Amy Callaghan competed only three events with a 4th place on vault for her nice Yurchenko Layout. "Shaena surprised us a little because she is coming back from an injury; she competed all four events with all of her content, so she is back 100%. Amy wasn't even supposed to compete. We had brought her along so she could train, but her rehabilitation has been going so well, that we had her compete on three events (except floor)." said Michel. In the Level 10 Senior category, Champions was represented by Tamar Smith and Brittany Ekstedt. Brittany was 12th AA with a 5th place on bars, while Tamar was 14th AA. "Tamar competed well on vault, beam and floor but had a little difficulty on bars. This did hurt her AA score. She works really hard on bars, so it's only a matter of time until she gets the results she aims for. As for Brittany, she finally hit a bar routine that she has been capable of hitting for a long time. It was one of her best routines ever. I really like how Tamar and Brittany comported themselves at this meet and they are truly showing their experience." said a reflective Michel after the meet. WOGA is a very friendly and well-run event. The host club is famous for having produced the last two All-Around Olympic Champions (Carly Patterson-2004 and Nastia Liukin- 2008). The caliber was strong and there were 9 countries present. Kristin was one of only two Canadian medalists at the event. "The girls are now getting ready for the Gymnix International in Montréal at the beginning of March and then for the 2009 Wild Rose, our home meet !" said Michel. CLICK HERE TO SEE

Kristin Klarenbach's BRONZE medal floor routine

Missisauga, February 16, 2009

Senior National Team Training Camp
Miranda Meyer and her coach (Michel Arsenault) flew to Missisauga on February 15 to attend the Canadian Senior National Team Training Camp. The Camp was directed by Edouard Iarov, the Men's National team Coach, also currently acting interim Women's National Coach. The Camp included training and testing on all events. Miranda showed some difficult skills at the camp: Yurchenko Double Twist on vault; backhandspring-back tuck full on beam. "This was a first for Miranda. After the first day jitters, she saw that her gymnastics stacked up against all other girls. Her confidence grew a little more each day. Being in this environment was extremely beneficial to her development. Edouard worked a lot with Miranda and she loved the interaction. Edouard was very helpful and we look forward to working with him again." said Michel.

Edmonton, February 8, 2009

Champions Gymnastics shines at the Red Deer Exelta Invitational !

The Red Deer Exelta meet often constitutes the kick-off to our competitive season. For four (4) of our gymnasts, it was not only their first meet of the year, it was their first meet period ! Jesse Campbell, Kelly Hanasyk, Chloe Harrison and Laney O'Neill competed for their very first time and posted excellent performances. Jesse and Laney hit four for four on their very first meet ! Those four gymnasts were accompanied by 11-year old "veteran" Kennedy Sterenberg. At Champions Gymnastics, each young gymnast is paired with an older gymnast in our Big Sister-Little sister mentoring program. Each of the little ones had her Big Sister watching the meet and supporting her. In the Tyro 4 category, Kennedy won the competition handily with a 50.533 total, also winning gold on vault (13.70) and gold on beam (12.55). Kennedy also won Bronze on floor. Jesse Campbell won silver on vault (12.00) and beam (12.45) and won bronze on bars (12.25) and finished 4th All-Around (47.80), only .183 behind third place ! Kelly Hanasyk won bronze on vault ( 11.85) and silver on floor (12.467) for a fifth place finish in the All-Around (45.817). "Despite this, as coaches, we paid no attention to scores whatsoever. We were entirely focused on making sure that these little ones enjoyed their first competition and making sure that they were focused on their gymnastics; They had a lot to learn today and they managed extremely well. They attracted a lot of attention. As for me and Valérie, we just had a smile on our faces the entire meet; it is so refreshing to witness the excitement on the faces of little ones who are just starting their competitive careers. For Valérie and I, this is the beginning of yet another generation of gymnasts, so I guess we haven't planned to retire yet !" said a smiling Michel after the meet. In the P.4 Argo category, Laney O'Neill and Chloe Harrison played "musical awards", since they were the only two girls in that category. Laney ended up on top (47.817), followed ever-so-closely by Chloe (47.750)....Laney won gold on vault (12.20) and beam (12.10) and Chloe won gold on bars (12.15) and floor (12.10). "It doesn't matter how many girls are in a category, a gymnast still has to perform her routines. That's what Chloe and Laney did so well. They will compete against each other all year, but at the end of the day, they are teammates." said Michel. "Valérie and I are very proud of these five (5) girls and this meet signaled the beginning of an exciting few years to come." In the National Open category, Champions Gymnastics fielded five (5) of its veteran athletes: Kristin Klarenbach, Miranda Meyer, Brittany Ekstedt, Tamar Smith and Shaena Bunce. Amy Callaghan was sidelined due to injury but is slated to compete at the Gymnix International Invitational in early March. "Amy is recovering very well from her injury and she will be ready for Gymnix." said Michel. The purpose of this meet was essentially to test our preparation and take stock of where we are since our last meet (Elite Canada for Miranda and Kristin & Rushmore Rose Bowl for Tamar, Shaena and Brittany). In a nutshell, this was simply a test. It didn't matter to us if we competed on all events or on just a few. So, the All-Around was somewhat irrelevant. Miranda came in with a brand-new vault and a new floor routine. Kristin had a brand-new first line on floor. Shaena competed on two events, as she is almost fully recuperated from an injury. Brittany and Tamar competed on all four events. Brittany won Silver in the All-Around (48.65) and Tamar was fourth All-Around (47.30) with two bronze medals on vault (13.70) and floor (12.25). Brittany stuck her Yurchenko Layout cold (13.50). On bars she fell twice but still managed an 11.00 for fifth place. On beam, she scored a 12.10. On floor she scored a 12.05. Tamar hit a great front-front tuck vault and also nailed it cold (13.70). On bars, she scored a 10.00. On beam, she scored an 11.35 and on floor she scored a 12.15 (despite a fall on her 2.5 twist last line). Shaena did not do well on bars (9.90) but won Bronze on her best event (beam) with a 12.60. "Tamar, Brittany and Shaena had a valuable test, in that it revealed to them where their preparation must be adjusted in the next week, before they compete in WOGA next week." Last, but certainly not least, Kristin and Miranda used this opportunity to compete new skills for the first time. On Vault, Miranda successfully competed a new front-front pike half, which is essentially her second vault for when she competes in Event Finals (FIG 111 rules). On floor, Miranda successfully competed a new floor routine (full in-pike, double pike, front-2/1 twist and 2.5 twist last line). She also competed her usual beam routine (13.60), but fell on her backhandspring- back tuck full. She still won gold on beam. Miranda also won gold on floor. Kristin had a brand-new floor routine with a huge Arabian-double front somi in her first line. Unfortunately she had a most uncharacteristic fall on her double pike last line, a mistake she is sure not to repeat in the future. Kristin won gold on bars (12.40) and silver on beam (13.20). "Miranda is getting closer to being the gymnast that her abilities call for. She is still improving at every meet. She has two new vaults, which we hope to compete either at WOGA or at Gymnix. Those new vaults will certainly put her on top, given their high values. Even though she didn't compete here on bars, she is steadily improving on that event. I need another 18 months to get her to where she needs to be on that event. Her beam is one of the best if not the best in Canada right now. She also has a couple of new skills she is working on to increase her D-score. She is now at 6.1. She has a long stretch of meets and camps coming up, so keeping her healthy is my number one priority. Her elbow is behaving quite well, but when it flairs up, it's a day-to-day thing." related Michel. "Kristin is emerging as quite the All-Arounder. She has a new vault which we will most probably compete at WOGA and Gymnix. Her bars is probably her most stable event right now and she is working hard on meeting all CRs. In a few months, she should be there. Her beam routine scores well when she hits. On floor, we have found a skill that makes her stand out for sure. Her arabian double front is as good as anybody in the world right now. Her confidence is high and her training attitude is as good as you can expect from a Senior gymnast. She has been invited to compete in the International Cup portion of the Gymnix meet and she will fit right in." said Michel. The next competition is WOGA (Dallas, Texas) next weekend. Miranda and Michel have been invited to attend the Senior National Team Training Camp in Mississauga and they will go straight from Dallas to Toronto next Sunday. More news on this site next week from both Dallas and Toronto.

Aylmer, December 13, 2008 (updated Jan. 6)

Miranda Meyer and Kristin Klarenbach finish 7th and 11th AA respectively at Elite Canada !

Miranda Meyer posted an impressive 7th place All-Around finish at this year's Elite Canada competition, held in Aylmer (Québec). Her teammate, Kristin Klarenbach posted a very strong performance and placed 11th All-Around, narrowly edged out of 10th place (.1). "We're happy with the results, but we see so much that can be improved in our gymnasts' performances. Miranda and Kristin were well-prepared and it showed. This was Miranda's first competition as a High Performance Senior and also her first time attending Elite Canada ! Valérie and I are not surprised at Miranda's results. She works so hard and she is so determined. In a sense, this was Miranda saying "Here I am". As for Kristin, we are extremely happy with her improvement; she's basically now doing the best gymnastics of her career and it's just the beginning ! We are extremely proud of both of them." said Michel after the meet. Miranda competed well on vault. She competed two different vaults for the first time (Yurchenko Layout Full and Front-front tuck). She scored 13.85 and ranked 4th in Preliminaries. She has a couple of other vaults in the works, so this was a necessary step for her. Kristin competed two different vaults and also qualified for finals (13.45). "I guess we are having quite a bit of success on vault this year. We qualified four (4) gymnasts out of ten (10) into vault finals in England two months ago and now again we qualify two (2) out of eight (8) for finals." said Michel. "For Kristin, her bars were the highlight of the day in my estimation; her work is so much cleaner than in the past and she now has a huge Tkatchev in her routine. We have a couple new things we are planning to ad in as the year will progress. She scored 11.75. As for Miranda, she continues to push for better bars and I am seeing signs of improvement on this event. As I have said before, given time, her bars will be on even par with her three other events. We have a few new skills that will be included soon. All will be well given time." said Michel. Miranda's beam routine was second most difficult of the entire competition (6.1 D-score) and with a fall in her double turn, her D-score ended up being 5.8. Her content is world-class; she does a backhandspring-tuck full, a front somi-1/2 turn, a front tuck, back tuck-back pike combination, a double turn and a 2.5 twist dismount. When she hits this routine, it is hard to beat anywhere. She scored 13.55. Kristin fell twice and wasn't able to repeat her strong performance on beam from the Elite Canada Screening. She scored 11.90. "Miranda is emerging as a force to reckon with on beam....her content is very difficult and very well executed. All she needs now is to get experience in international competition." said Michel. On floor, Kristin put her hand down on an otherwise huge full-in tuck in her first line. She scored 12.25. Miranda over-powered her triple twist and the compositional deductions were very costly. She scored an 11.95, which cost her a lot in the All-Around. Amy Callaghan competed in the Junior competition and finished 22nd All-Around, well below her capabilities. Despite good training on bars leading up to the event, Amy 's wheels came off on the last event, pushing her low in the standings. On Vault, she finished 8th All-Around. "Amy had a terrible meet. That stuff happens. This is one of those challenges that life throws your way once in a while. Amy has to face this challenge and show her true ability and character. We are confident that she will face this head on and bounce back a stronger athlete." said Michel after the meet. Miranda qualified for two event finals, namely Vault and Beam and Kristin qualified for one final, namely Vault. Miranda vaulted her Yurchenko Layout Full and Front-front tuck for an average 13.60 and a fifth place. Kristin vaulted her huge Front-front pike and her Yurchenko Layout for an average 13.50 and a sixth place. On beam, Miranda finished in fifth place (13.75) and showed the highest D-score of the entire competition (5.8). "All in all, this was a positive Elite Canada for Miranda and Kristin. They came well prepared, confident and aggressive. They now need to compete at this level on a regular basis to find their rhythm. Valérie and I are proud of their preparation. We will see what the rest of the year will bring, but with the way they work in the gym, something good is bound to come out of it." said a reflective Michel. The girls will next compete at the 2009 WOGA Classic in Plano, Texas (USA) in a few weeks. Stay tuned !

Aldershot, UK (October 26, 2008)

Champions Gymnastics wins TEAM GOLD at the 2008 Rushmoor Rose Bowl in the UK !

Champions Gymnastics won the Gold medal in the team competition (Club division) by a large margin over many British clubs in attendance at the 2008 Rushmoor Rose Bowl competition, held in Aldershot, England on Saturday October 25. Champions Gymnastics was represented by Miranda Meyer, Amy Callaghan, Shaena Bunce, Brittany Ekstedt, Kristin Klarenbach and Tamar Smith. Champions had to name five gymnasts out of its six as the counting athletes for scores towards the team total. The five athletes were: Miranda Meyer, Amy Callaghan, Shaena Bunce, Brittany Ekstedt and Kristin Klarenbach. When all was said and done, Champions Gymnastics won GOLD. Here’s how the story went… DAY #1: Beam- First up was Tamar Smith (competing as an All-Star and not officially counting towards the team total). Tamar had one fall but performed the rest of her beam routine with confidence (12.60). Unfortunately, disaster struck the next gymnast, Brittany Ekstedt who fell four times (10.75). Kristin Klarenbach showed a lot of character after witnessing her teammate’s situation and hit her routine cold (13.00). Up next was Amy Callaghan who scored a 12.15 despite a fall in her new layout-stepout. Shaena Bunce performed a good beam routine but fell on her otherwise solid layout stepout (13.55). Last up was Miranda Meyer, who included a few new skills, making her routine a jammed packed series of acrobatic skills (front tuck- front tuck ½ turn, backhandspring-tuck full, back tuck-back pike and 2.5 twist dismount). Miranda scored 14.15 (with a fall on her tuck full). “When it was all said and done, as a team we had 3 counting falls on beam. The great thing about this format is that you can afford one bad routine and still be in this thing. Bottom line is that the girls haven’t competed since winning Nationals in June. To be first up on beam at the first meet of the year (this early in the year) and to have added difficulty in most routines speaks volumes about the girls’ preparation.” said Michel Arsenault after the meet. Floor- Floor was an opportunity to let loose after beam. Shaena opened up with a good floor routine (12.35). Brittany redeemed herself from her beam adventures with a solid floor routine, which unfortunately didn’t score very well (11.90). Tamar, who had been nursing a sore ankle, stepped up to the plate in a great manner and hit her floor routine (double pike, front to 2/1 twist and 2.5 last line) for a solid 13.20. Next up was Amy who hit a rock solid floor set but managing only a 12.40. Miranda Meyer followed with a shaky floor routine (fall in her 3/1 twist) ending up with 12.30. Last up was Kristin Klarenbach who hit her floor routine and scored a 13.40. “The girls came out a lot more aggressive on that event than on beam. They haven’t done that many full routines on a hard floor, but they performed real well. We ended up with no counting fall.” said Michel. Vault- Shaena over-flipped her Yurchenko Pike (11.75). Brittany vaulted perhaps her best Yurchenko Layout to date for a well-deserved 13.00. Next up was Tamar, who despite a sore ankle, vaulted a strong front-front tuck (13.25). Amy followed with a new Yurchenko Layout at 13.45. Kristin vaulted her trademark powerful front-front pike and scored a 13.50 (with two long forward steps on landing). Finally, Miranda competed her Yurchenko Layout-full for a respectable 13.40. “We established ourselves as quite a strong vault contingent and ended up with four (4) of our girls qualifying for vault finals. That’s 4 out of 10 possible athletes!” reflected Michel. Bars- On what is usually Champions’ best event, things didn’t go that well, despite pretty aggressive preparation for the last few months. Tamar started out the team with a 10.25 due to a planned stop in her new routine. Amy then hit her bar routine but only scored an 11.10... Brittany followed and performed her Shaposhnikova brilliantly only to fall on an over-aggressive cast to handstand, just in preparation for her dismount (11.10). Miranda had had great routines all week but things didn’t go as planned when it came to competing; she fell on her Tkatchev (the only fall of the week for her on that skill) and scored a low 9.80. Shaena followed with a 11.20 (also with a fall on her shoot-over). “The girls prepared quite well on bars but made mental mistakes when it came to competing. They were quite disappointed. This is only the first meet of the year and they have a few new skills in their routines, so things were bound to not be perfect.” said Michel after the meet. The format was such that there were awards for Clubs, Regional Teams, National Teams and Combined. When awards came around, Champions won TEAM GOLD in the CLUB division and TEAM SILVER in the Combined standings (2nd out of 20 teams). Great-Britain won GOLD in the Combined Team event, followed by Champions Gymnastics. After Day #1, Champions had qualified the following gymnasts into event finals: Vault: Miranda Meyer, Amy Callaghan, Tamar Smith and Kristin Klarenbach. Beam: Miranda Meyer, Shaena Bunce Floor: Kristin Klarenbach DAY #2: Vault: Kristin Klarenbach won SILVER on vault with two very well executed vaults. Tamar competed well and ended up in 5th position with a 13.25 average. Miranda and Amy finished 8th and 9th respectively. Beam: Shaena Bunce scored a 12.60 and ended up in 6th position. Miranda finished 7th with 12.50 Floor: Kristin hit her routine and scored 13.00 for 4th place, narrowly missing the Bronze medal. “We are very proud of our athletes’ performances on this first meet of the year. Most of them had never competed this early in the year. They came in with new skills and they did well on most of them. This is a good preparation for Elite Canada in December and it did exactly what we wanted it to do. The Rushmoor club, Bernie & Colin Wright and their volunteers were great hosts and the meet was fantastic. If the meet fits in our plans, we look forward to going back next year.” said Michel.

Calgary, June 5, 2008 (Updated June 6)

Champions Gymnastics wins GOLD at the Canadian National Championships !

TEAM COMPETITION: (Thursday June 4)For the first time since 1989, the Alberta Women's National Open team has won the GOLD medal at the Canadian National Championships, which are being held at the Olympic Oval in Calgary !!!!
Champions Gymnastics' athletes Miranda Meyer, Brittany Ekstedt, Shaena Bunce and Amy Callaghan all contributed to this historic Alberta victory by posting many impressive performances during the Team competition. In the All-Around, which counts as a qualification into the second day of competition, Miranda Meyer finished a solid first (52.00 pts) by a good margin over the second place gymnast. Miranda placed first on beam with a score of 14.65 and second on vault with a score of 13.95. Miranda currently leads the 56-gymnast field going into Friday's individual competition, which will declare the Canadian National Open Individual Champion.
Results are divided into two age groups (13-15 years old and 16+). Once the results are divided into age groups, Miranda ends up first on vault, first on beam, third on floor and first All-Around. The judges are using the FIG rules, so the All-Around scores are comparable to what is being competed internationally. Other categories in Canada have an additional bonus system, which makes the scores much higher than the FIG scores.
"Miranda was a little nervous going into this competition because of expectations that she had put on herself. I sat down with her and we had a heart-to-heart chat.....needless to say that what we talked about hit the spot. She's in a good place mentally now."
Miranda had her best performance on beam, where she completely hit her beam routine (front tuck mount, front tuck-1/2, backhandspring-layout, front aerial, front tuck, back tuck-back pike and front double twist dismount).
Shaena Bunce placed 13th All-Around (50.20), but once the results are divided into age groups, Shaena is 5th on bars, 5th on beam and 5th All-Around. Shaena had a consistent meet and finished 8th on beam (with a fall). Shaena hit her vault and floor routine and had an extra swing on bars after her toe-on to catch the High Bar.
"Shaena has had awesome preparation, leading up to this event. She has prepared incredibly honestly and was in a great frame of mind coming to Nationals. Shaena had the blessings of someone looking out for her from above." Brittany Ekstedt placed 14th, but once the results are divided into age groups, Brittany is first on beam and 9th All-Around.
Brittany competed very well despite a fall on bars in a usually easy free-hip Hecht. She hit vault, beam and floor very well.
"Brittany was a leader for this team; she has such a great personality; all the girls love her; she has a way with people that is truly special. What a fantastic person."
Amy Callaghan placed 35th All-Around, but once the results are divided into age groups, Amy is 6th on bars and 14th All-Around.
Amy competed despite a badly bruised ankle and showed a lot of character. Her score on bars did not represent the very high quality of her bar routine.
"Amy was truly a model of determination today, even if things didn't go her way. She showed a lot of guts to compete her double pike on floor after having bruised her ankle pretty good a few days before. What a fighter!"
"The significance of this GOLD medal for Alberta cannot be under-stated; Alberta is a small province in terms of number of national level gymnasts. For us to have beaten Ontario, B.C. and Québec is a very important feat. It speaks volumes about the quality of our athletes and coaches and about our pride as a small group. The girls came together and showed a lot of cohesion. They were really behaving like a team. They were cheering each other on and they were really there for each other. It was an honor to be associated with such a GREAT group of athletes and coaches. My coaching partner on this team was Barb Billsborrow (from Red Deer) and we made a heck of a team. My fantastic wife Valérie Oudin-Arsenault was instrumental to the success of this team; Miranda's stellar 14.65 on beam is a tribute to Valerie's masterful coaching on beam. I would also like to express my thanks to the personal coaches of all Alberta Team athletes; Dave and Judy Holmes, Barb Billsborrow and Sue Raffin." said Alberta Team Coach Michel Arsenault after awards. "Obviously, I am also extra proud of the fact that this GOLD medal Alberta team had four (4) gymnasts from Champions Gymnastics on it; Valérie and I are so proud of these four girls. They are very special to us." added Michel.
The saga continues tomorrow with the Individual competition. Results will be posted as soon as they become available.
INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION: (Friday June 5)
13-15 year olds:Miranda Meyer walked away from her third career National Championships with two National titles: Canadian Open National Vault Champion & Canadian Open National Beam Champion. Miranda had an "up-and-down" day and despite a few falls, she managed to win the All-Around bronze, only .05 from second place.
"Miranda made many mistakes today that cost her the National All-Around title, there's no question about that. She rocked on vault with two beautiful Yurchenko Layout-fulls. She fell once off bars, fell once off beam and fell twice on floor. Miranda hasn't had a fall on floor in recent memory. Her beam fall was not a big deal, given her very high start value but her falls on floor eventually lost her the title. I am proud of her regardless. Miranda has had quite a year: she had major elbow surgery in October 2007 and to be frank and honest, we weren't even sure if she would be able to even do gymnastics again...she is only 7 months into her rehabilitation and to bring back three (3) National titles is quite frankly amazing. I am excited about the idea of getting back in the gym and putting new routines together in time for her next meet in Aldershot, England (the 2008 Rushmoor Rose Bowl). Miranda needs some rest now, but will be back in the saddle real quick, in order to prepare next season." said Michel. Shaena Bunce had a very good competition and finished 6th All-Around, a career-high performance and personal best. She also finished 5th on beam, 7th on bars and tied for 8th place on both vault and floor.
"Shaena was very even-mooded and very steady allthrough her preparation leading to this event. She was incredibly focused and her dedication to doing well at this Nationals really showed. She was a model of hard work and of commitment. I am so incredibly proud of her. She competed her best Yurchenko pike of the year (12.90) on vault. She had very good bars until she missed a simple giant and had to add an extra swing. She had rock solid beam until an uncharacteristic fall on her backhandspring-layout connection, without which she would have surely medaled. Her floor routine had expression and was the best she did all year. She is maturing beautifully as an athlete and she was a joy to coach." related Michel.
Amy Callaghan finished 9th All-Around (48.00) with a 5th place on bars (despite a fall, which kept her out of the medals), a 6th on floor (12.90) and an 8th on vault (12.90).
"Amy competed despite a bruised ankle and I am so very proud of her for showing such character. She vaulted a huge Yurchenko pike on vault. She also competed her double pike on floor with success. Without a fall on bars, Amy would have also medaled, but it wasn't to be at these Nationals. Amy gathered a lot of experience and this will be very useful for her next visit at this meet !" said Michel.
16+:
Brittany Ekstedt finished 7th All-Around (50.55) at these, her second National Championships, also placing 4th on bars (11.85) and 7th on beam (12.75).
"Brittany hit six events out of eight, so she was pretty happy. Her attitude was just perfect. She was happy and aggressive in her approach; she left nothing behind. That's what she should be the most proud of. She truly acted like the leader she is. I was most happy with her bars; she hit all her skills pretty much as good as she can do them; she was so happy, when we hugged after her routine, she wouldn't let go !...." said Michel.
CONCLUSION:
Miranda Meyer: * National Team Champion (GOLD)* National Vault Champion (GOLD)* National Beam Champion (GOLD)* National All-Around Bronze medalist (BRONZE)
Shaena Bunce:* National Open Team Champion (GOLD)
Amy Callaghan:* National Open Team Champion (GOLD)
Brittany Ekstedt:* National Open Team Champion (GOLD)
Way to go CHAMPIONS !

Edmonton, April 21, 2008

Miranda, Brittany, Amy & Shaena completely dominate Alberta Provincials/Trials to Nationals

MIRANDA MEYER WINS THREE GOLD MEDALS (vault, beam and floor) and one BRONZE MEDAL (bars) and the All-AROUND GOLD in the National Open category!BRITTANY EKSTEDT WINS ONE SILVER MEDAL (bars) and the All-AROUND SILVER in the National Open category !AMY CALLAGHAN WINS ONE SILVER MEDAL (floor) and the ALL-AROUND BRONZE in the National Open category !SHAENA BUNCE WINS ONE SILVER MEDAL (beam) in the National Open category !ABIGAIL LIM WINS TWO GOLD MEDALS and an All-AROUND SILVER in the Pre-Novice category ! Read below...

DAY #1:In a perhaps never-seen-before scenario in Alberta gymnastics history, Champions Gymnastics athletes Miranda Meyer, Brittany Ekstedt, Amy Callaghan and Shaena Bunce finished 1-2-3-4 All-Around in the National Open category respectively after the first day of competition at the 2008 Alberta Provincial Championships/Trials to Nationals, held this weekend in Red Deer."The girls dominated the competition as is evidenced by the results and as proud as I am of my athletes, there is still work to be done and things to improve on Day #2." said Michel Arsenault after the meet.

"These four girls are the single hardest working gymnasts in the province; they train twice per day, they're in the gym at 6:50 am, they go to school and they come back for their second daily practice which goes from 2:30 to 6:30 PM. They condition their hearts out and they train hard on all events. They are like four sisters...they gel in an unbelievable way...they are good for each other and they stick together no matter what. It's a great feeling to see them be so close to each other. When we go to competition, they move a lot of air as a group. I keep telling them that they are the best four in their category...I think they are starting to believe me now. The job now is to hit all four events on Sunday, to improve on what we didn't like on the first day and to send a strong message nationally that Alberta is the Open team to beat this year at Nationals !" analyzed Michel.

Miranda finished first on vault and floor, while Brittany finished first on bars and Shaena finished first on beam ! Amy finished second on beam and floor !Miranda hit her two Yurchenko layout fulls for a 14.20. She had a fall on her free hip counter hecht on bars but finished her routine (Tkatchev to Back in full out dismount). She stuck her beautiful dismount cold. On beam she wobbled too much in the hardest beam routine of the meet (5.9 A-score). On floor, she hit a slightly watered-down routine (double pike, triple twist, front pike to full and double twist).

Brittany hit four events for four ! She hit her Yurchenko Pike pretty much as good as she can. She also hit her routine on bars (Shaposhnikova, free hip full, free hip hecht, free hip, giant-full, double twist dismount) for a 12.40, by far the highest bars score of the day. On beam, she also hit her routine and finished thrid on that event. On floor, she tumbled well (2.5 twist, frontt tuck to 1.5 twist and double twist).Amy hit three events on four. She vaulted two huge Yurchenko pikes. On bars, she hit her routine with very high quality body positions and her huge Tkatchev release (Her score -10.80- did not reflect at all the quality of her routine). On beam, she fell on her dismount, but she redeemed herself with an excellent floor routine (double pike, front pike to full and double twist).

Shaena hit three events out of four. On vault, she performed two good Yurchenko pikes. But on bars, she fell on her Jaeger (though she had the bar in her hands), and got stuck on her new toe-on catch. She came back strong on beam and won that event handily. She also hit floor (2.5 twist, front tuck to 1.5 twist and double twist). Oh...and by the way, she actually cracked a little smile on floor during her choreography !What the story doesn't say is that Valerie's girls also finished 1-2-3-4 on beam !"The girls should be proud of Day #1; they have put themselves in a good position going into Day #2 (Sunday). But there is still work to be done, skills to be improved and routines to be hit agressively at the meet. That's what I am exxpecting out of the girls; to take nothing for granted, to fight for hit-routines and to compete agressively." said Michel.

PRE-NOVICE COMPETITION:In the Pre-Novice Aspire category, Champions Gymnastics was represented by Abigail Lim. Abigail had her best meet of the year at the most important time. Abigail finished with the All-Around SILVER medal and won GOLD on Vault and Bars ! "Abigail walked away with two PROVINCIAL CHAMPION titles. Her vaults were very solid and all of her hard work has started paying off. On bars, she scored a dominating 16.26, miles ahead of second place.

Abigail's superior technique and flawless body positions make her a definite standout on bars. I have a lot of respect for Abigail's work ethics. She is one very committed little gymnast with a bright future ahead of her. She's a very coachable kid and that will mean a lot for her development as an athlete." said Michel.

DAY #2:Day #2 saw Champions Gymnastics come out even more in force than it did on Day #1.All four gymnasts (Miranda Meyer, Brittany Ekstedt, Amy Callaghan and Shaena Bunce) started competing on beam.Miranda hit her routine (13.267) and set the tone for what was about to become a strong meet for her.

Brittany attacked beam with determination and despite a fall on her layout-stepout, she scored 12.367.Amy also hit beam for a 12.533.Despite an uncharacteristic fall on her layout stepout, Shaena ended up winning Silver on beam (12.70) with an otherwise very solid routine.Onto floor, the girls all hit strong routines, with Miranda Meyer taking the Gold with a strong 14.10 and Amy Callaghan taking the Silver. Miranda added some difficulty on this second day of competition; she tumbled a high double pike, a gorgeous completed triple twist, a front to double twists and a 2.5 twists.

Her teammate, Amy Callaghan performed her best floor routine of the year with a montrous double pike, a front to full and a double twist.Brittany and Shaena both hit their routines for 12.50 and 12.55 respectively.On vault, all four girls hit their vaults. Miranda yet again vaulted two superb Yurchenko Layout-fulls and scored the highest score on this event and for the entire competition (14.45) ! Shaena, Brittany and Amy vaulted solid Yurchenko pikes for 13.20/ 13.25/ 13.25 respectively.Finally on bars, Miranda Meyer hit her routine (11.7).

Brittany Ekstedt had a repeat performance (in fact slighlty improved) from Day #1 and scored a 12.633.Amy Callaghan impressed the public and the judges yet again with her gigantic Tkatchev and her clean lines, but flubbed on two of her transition skills (11.4). Shaena had an adventure on bars and only scored a 9.867. This prevented her from finishing in the top 4 All-Around."Valerie and I are so proud of our athletes ! They came into these championships wanting to establish their dominance in the province. After Day #1, we were holding the first top 4 spots. After Day #2, we held on for the trifecta (1-2-3) and had it not been for Shaena's adventures on bars, we would have had the first four spots! That being said, Shaena has one of the hardest bar routines in the country for a National Open. She has a high Start Value (A-score) and she takes more risks than most other gymnasts; we even added a skill at this meet which she hit on Day #2, but she wasn't able to hold the whole thing together. I am very happy with the character she showed; we didn't play it safe with watered-down routines. This time it didn't pay off for her, but Nationals is still 5 weeks away !" said Michel.

"Miranda has a lot to be proud of; she now has both the National Novice and the National Open Provincial titles to her credit. She now has her sights set on National and International matters. Miranda is simply improving every day. I am equally proud of Brittany, who came into this meet with a good level of confidence and good preparation. Brittany was second All-Around both days and hit 7 out of 8 events ! Amy competed with much more confidence and it showed. She knows that her gymnastics is technically solid; it's just now a matter of trusting her training and letting things happen at the meet. Shaena gets an "A" from me in the effort department; she most certainly did not like the final outcome of the meet, but with hard work and an even attitude in practice, she will turn this around for Nationals." related Michel after the meet.

Champions Gymnastics is not going to rest on its laurels (no pun intended), since the four girls are competing at Elite Ontario next weekend in Ancaster."Elite Ontario is an opportunity for the girls to make a statement in the belly of the beast so-to-speak ! This will be their last meet before National Championships, which will be held in Calgary at the beginning of June." said Michel.

Edmonton, April 12, 2008

Champions Gymnastics shows off its talents in Calgary !

Fresh off an impressive 1-2-3 in the All-Around at the 2008 Trials to Westerns (National Open category), Champions Gymnastics came out in force at the 2008 Star Classic in Calgary, with the return of Brittany Ekstedt to the line-up. Brittany had to miss Trials to Westerns due to a nasty flu. Despite the presence of judges, the 2008 Star Classic was a demonstration-type event and didn't have any posted scores or awards.

were able to exchange thoughts with judges after each event in order to fine-tune their athletes' preparation for next week's Trials to National Championships, which will be held in Red Deer.On Vault, Miranda Meyer scored well with her two solid Yurchenko Layout-fulls. Shaena Bunce hit her Yurchenko pike, as did Amy Callaghan. Brittany competed a Yurchenko Layout for the first time and hit it solid.On Bars, Miranda competed yet again a different routine, which included a Free hip counter-hecht to High Bar, a high Tkatchev release and a back in-full out dismount. Shaena had hit many routines in warm-up and training but fell on her high Jaeger release. Brittany hit her routine on bars, which included her new Shaposhnikova transition, a free hip full, free hip hecht to High Bar, and a giant-full to double twist.

Amy successfully competed her huge Tkatchev release and despite being slightly short of handstand on her giant full, stuck her dismount cold.On Beam, Shaena hit one of her best beam routines of the year so far, which included a backhandspring-layout, a backhandspring-1/4 turn to handstand, a side aerial, a back tuck and a double twist dismount. Brittany also hit beam cold; her routine included a solid backhandspring-layout, a side aerial, a free round-off into a chest roll, a back tuck and a double twist dismount. Amy competed OK beam with a fall in backhandspring-whip; she hit the rest of her routine which included a front tuck, a back tuck, a chest roll and a new round-off 1.5 twist dismount. Finally, Miranda hit her difficult beam routine which included: front tuck mount, front tuck, back tuck-back pike, front aerial, front tuck-half turn, backhandspring-layout, front double-twist dismount.

On Floor, Shaena hit all her tumbling lines: 2.5 twist, front to 1.5 twist and double twist. Amy performed a huge double pike but sat on it, she then finished up with a double twist and a front pike to full. Brittany hit her 2.5 twist in first line but fell on her second line (front tuck to 1.5 twist) and ended with a double twist. Miranda hit floor with her huge double pike, a triple twist, front pike-front handspring-front layout and ended with a double twist.

"The goal in coming here was to hit 4 for 4. We're getting closer to that and the girls showed a lot of maturity in their approach to this test. I am very proud of them." said Michel after the event.In the P.4 category, Abigail Lim competed on all events. She performed very well on vault and floor and made a few mistakes on bars and beam, usually her two best events. "Abigail is experiencing was every little one must; she is learning her gymnastics alphabet and is progressing as she should." said her coach.

Combined with this event was a L.E.A.P. event, one of the largest attended so far by our club. Champions was well represented by the following gymnasts: Shyanna Bedeau, Emma Brown, Jesse Campbell, Kelly Hanasyk, Chloe Harrison, Kendra Korbut, Jaide Millington, Laney O'Neill, Appolonia Pucci, Cierra Turner and Victoria Zenon-Weir.The next L.E.A.P. event will be held at the Capital City Gym Club and is the A.G.F. Provincial L.E.A.P. event, now held annually.

St-Albert, April 6, 2008

Champions Gymnastics dominates Trials to Westerns in the National Open category !

Champions Gymnastics took back 5 GOLD, 3 SILVER and 3 BRONZE medals at the Alberta Trials to Western Canadian Championships, which were held this weekend in St-Albert.In the National Open category, Shaena Bunce won GOLD (50.77) with the most stable performance of the evening.

Shaena also won GOLD on Uneven Bars and Beam and a SILVER on floor !“Shaena had a great day ! She was the most consistent gymnast in the meet and this paid off for her. Shaena’s routine content is stabilizing now, but we still have one or two new skills which we plan to include in her routines this year, one of them on bars. With that new skill, Shaena’s Start Value (A-score) will increase significantly; this is great considering that she already had the highest Start Value on bars of the entire meet.” said Michel after the meet.“Shaena fell on her new Jaeger release; it was just a matter on holding on to the bar, because it was technically very strong…it’s just one of those falls that has to be expected in the learning process of a release skill on bars.

On beam, Shaena hit a very solid routine and won by a huge 1.3 margin over the second place gymnast! Her floor routine was quite good, but she needs to show more expression with her choreography; it’s happy music, so a smile once in a while would be great for the spectators! On vault, she flubbed her first vault but she redeemed herself on her second vault.” related Valerie after the meet.The All-Around Silver medal went to Miranda Meyer, who competed on four events for the second time this year.

“Competing on four events was one of Miranda’s most important goals this year, after her major elbow surgery in October 2007. She is improving every day and she again competed virtually pain-free. That’s a great sign. Bars is the event that is keeping her from dominating right now, but that’s not going to be the case for very long; she is a good bars gymnast, it’s just going to take time. She has three events that have scored over 14.00 points this year. In fact, at this meet, she scored 14.33 on vault (year’s best so far for her) and won GOLD by a full point over the second gymnast. On floor, she won GOLD (14.25) by an even greater margin (1.5 points) over the second placed gymnast. At this meet, she vaulted two Yurchenko Layout-fulls. On bars, we added a new skill called a free-hip counter-hecht to High Bar. On beam, her content was pretty much the same as before. On floor, she warmed up excellent Full-in Pikes but we decided against including it in the routine just yet; so she tumbled a double pike; triple twist; front pike-handspring-front layout and a 2.5 twist at the end.'

Finishing with a BRONZE medal was Amy Callaghan, who created quite the buzz on bars with her huge Tkatchev release skill.“Amy is getting progressively better at controlling all the new skills she has in her routines. She vaulted two very nice Yurchenko Pikes (12.93- Bronze medal). On bars, she didn’t catch her Tkatchev release but still managed a SILVER medal (10.80); on beam, she had an uncharacteristic fall on her usually excellent front tuck and also put her hand down on her beam dismount (11.75). On floor, she staggered a little in her huge double pike landing but otherwise had a very good routine (12.60). Amy is coming along awesome and her progress has been amazing; she is a gymnast to look out for, but all in a matter of time.” said her coach.Champions Gymnastics won the top three All-Around positions at this meet by quite a large margin (1.5) ahead of fourth place.

Champions had elected against taking part in the Western Canadian Championships, given the cost factor. Amy, Miranda, Shaena and Brittany will instead compete at Elite Ontario, scheduled for April 25-26 in Ancaster, Ontario.“The girls are starting to get the hang of their new routines and skills. Coming here was all about putting these routines under pressure again; the outcome doesn’t matter to me as much as the process….”said Michel Arsenault.In the Pre-Novice category, young Abigail Lim competed in a more difficult category (Elite instead of Aspire).

She won a BRONZE on vault and a fourth place on bars and was seventh All-Around.“Abigail did well on vault and bars, but made mistakes on floor and beam. This is all part of the learning experience; she’s only 9 years old. She is doing fine and I am again so happy with her attitude and general approach to competition. She is learning her gymnastics alphabet as all other gymnasts in our program have and she is progressing nicely. I am very proud of her.” said Michel.Next on the agenda is the Star Classic, which will be held in Calgary on the weekend of April 11-12. This event will see Champions Gymnastics come out in force, as it will field approximately 20 gymnasts to compete and test in the Star Classic L.E.A.P. Event.Good luck girls !

Calgary, 14.3.08 (Revised in Edmonton, 16.3.08)

Miranda Meyer wins GOLD on vault and floor at the Jurassic Classic !

      Champions's own Miranda Meyer made yet another strong impression at the 2008 Jurassic Classic, held this weekend at the Jack Simpson Gym on the University of Calgary campus.

PRELIMINARIES: Miranda competed on all four (4) events for the first time in one and half years, due to her two elbow surgeries, albeit with modified routines.

"We have been training bars in the gym for the last three weeks or so; we hadn't been planning to compete bars at this meet, but in the car on the way to Calgary, Miranda asked me if she could compete bars at this meet...I agreed that we could put together a safe and short routine....and we did ! She competed her new Tkatchev for the first time at this meet and dismounted with an open double tuck. Of course, she can do so much more than that, but we had to start somewhere !" said Michel.

On floor, Miranda tumbled a double pike, triple twist, front pike-front handspring-front layout full and double twist. She scored 13.10 and won GOLD with that performance. But the highlight of the day came on vault, where Miranda vaulted two beautiful Yurchenko-Layout fulls, earning her the top vault score of the day (14.35), surpassing all other Opens, Juniors and Seniors ! "Miranda rocked on vault; she vaulted two technically solid Yurchenko Layout-Fulls and even over-rotated them a little. She was pumped. What's more is that she has more difficult vaults in her bag which she hasn't competed yet...Someone out there said that Miranda Meyer would not be able to come back from her elbow surgeries; suffice it to say that they were silenced last night" said Michel after the meet. Miranda qualified for Event Finals on Vault and Floor, which were held on Saturday March 15 (see report further below).

'As I have said earlier, we are at the point where we're celebrating every little achievement in Miranda's rehabilitation process. She is currently into Week #20 after her second surgery (major elbow Osteoplasty to correct a developmental abnormality). She has been weight-bearing on her arms at 100% for only four (4) weeks now, so she is definitely ahead of the game. Furthermore, she competed virtually pain-free." explained Michel. Miranda ended up third (3rd) All-Around with a 48.60.

In the Junior category, Champions had fielded three (3) gymnasts: Brittany Ekstedt, Shaena Bunce and Amy Callaghan.

This was their first meet as Juniors, given that they had always competed in the Open category up to this point. "We came to this meet with A LOT of new difficult skills, so we were expecting some mistakes; it's just the way it goes when you incorporate new elements in your routines. But we had to do it now, because we are soon entering the "Trials" portion of the year, where every meet counts for selection onto various Alberta teams. Happily, on the whole, the girls managed the new content well. I am not one to make excuses for my athletes, but we competed bars at 10:45 PM and my athletes never train past 6:30 PM, let alone compete new skills close to midnight !" said Michel.

Shaena Bunce had a very good meet; despite a couple of uncharacteristic falls on beam, she hit floor (12.45), vault and bars. In fact, Shaena competed a new routine on bars which included her new Jaeger release, which she performed very well at the meet. Shaena won SILVER on bars (11.167) and ended up 4th All-Around. "Shaena didn't have the greatest warm-up on bars and her back was against the wall when it came to deciding if she would compete her new routine. We had put in enough work on this to convince me to stick to our game plan. I guess the proof was in the pudding...she hit her new bar routine at competition when it mattered. Shaena also competed her best Yurchenko pike yet. It was really nice." said Michel.

Brittany Ekstedt finished 5th All-Around and won BRONZE on beam (12.50) despite two falls. "Brittany competed well on floor, vault and bars but ended up with her only medal on beam. Brittany successfully competed her brand new Shaposhnikova on bars, but kind of scrambled through the rest of the routine, which is typical when so much attention is being focused on the one new skill. The more numbers she will do in the gym, the better her performances at meets will be. Brittany showed true character and I am proud of her." said Michel.

Amy Callaghan finished 6th All-Around and got a SILVER on floor (12.95). "Amy competed her brand new Double Pike on floor and it looked great. She showed off her power on floor. This was a big goal of hers for this weekend and she achieved it. Unfortunately, things caught up with her on Bars at 10:45 PM, where she made mistake after mistake, despite being very well prepared on that event. Amy and I had a heart-to-heart talk after bars and we have this thing sorted out...she learned a valuable lesson today." said Michel.

In the Pre-Novice category (Aspire sub-division), Katrina Schirmaier took the All-Around GOLD, while her teammate Abigail Lim won the All-Around SILVER, making it a one-two punch for Champions Gymnastics ! Katrina also won GOLD on Vault and Bars and won SILVER on Beam and Floor. Abigail also won GOLD on beam and SILVER on Bars. "Abigail was sick coming into this meet and she truly showed great character by regrouping at the meet and doing very well for herself. I am very proud of her." said Michel. "Katrina dominated on vault once more and did very good bars. She won hands down and gathered some more valuable experience. I am very happy for her." said Michel.

FINALS: Miranda came into vault finals as the highest qualifier (14.35) from Preliminaries, having edged out Canadian World Championships Team member Sydney Sawa (14.15). "Miranda looks up to Sydney. She was honored to be rubbing shoulders with her. On her first vault (Yurchenko Layout-full), Miranda showed off a lot of power and took a step back on landing. I told her that competing in Finals on Vault is about confidence and most of all it's about sticking the landing. Well, that's exactly what she did on her second vault ! She loved every second of it...she was so comfortable out there." said Michel.

Sydney overtook Miranda (14.40 to 14.15). Miranda walked away with a SILVER, a lot of experience and a huge boost to her confidence. On floor, Miranda finished 4th (13.05). "Miranda was first up and did a good routine. She stepped out of bounds on her huge double pike and took two steps back on her triple twist. We added a 2.5 twist as her fourth tumbling line, which she performed really well. Once finished, she waved to the crowd in appreciation of their support." related Michel.

Champions will now concentrate on training for the next couple of weeks and will compete at the upcoming Alberta Team Trials to Western Canadian Championships, which will be held in St-Albert on April 6th.

Los Angeles, February 17, 2008

Champions Gymnastics racks up the medals in California !

     Champions Gymnastics racked up 2 GOLD, 7 SILVER and 5 BRONZE medals at the recent All-Olympia Invitational in sunny Los Angeles, California in the Level 10/Open divisions.Miranda Meyer continues her progress in this her second meet of the season with a convincing GOLD medal on Beam (9.225) and a SILVER on floor (9.05).

"Miranda trained 9 straight days leading up to this event, so she was prepared. She competed on three events (like last weekend) and had repeat performances on all events. She added a front layout full on floor, making her routine a little more difficult than last week in Red Deer. She nailed beam and is gaining more and more confidence with this difficult routine every day. She has the only "F" skill in the entire competition (her front somi-half turn on beam). We have plans to increase her content some more on floor as her elbow gets better and she is able to train bars and vault everyday now with relative comfort" said Michel after the meet.

Montreal, March 2, 2008

Miranda Meyer wins Gold in Montréal !

     In this, her first competition as a Senior gymnast, Miranda Meyer took one more step forward in her comeback at the 2008 La Classique Gymnix in Montréal by winning GOLD on floor exercise (13.65) and BRONZE on beam (12.45).

"Miranda made yet another step forward in her comeback on the National scene after her second elbow surgery last October, because at this meet, she also competed a Yurchenko Layout on vault. She is capable of much more, but mentally, this was a good step in the right direction for her. This means that she is now able to compete three (3) events out of four (albeit with modified content). On bars, which (strangely enough) is the event she can train the most on at this stage of her elbow rehabilitation, we just need time to get her ready. Bars is the hardest event to prepare for competition, let alone after two elbow surgeries and a total of eight (8) months off her arms ! This kid is amazing...She competed two new tumbling lines on floor today: she added a beautiful triple twist in her second line and a two and a half twist as her fourth line ! On beam, she won BRONZE despite two (2) falls (front tuck-1/2 turn -"F" value- and double turn -"D" value). Many coaches complimented us on her comeback and on how she looked. We are celebrating each little step forward and we are taking this one day at a time. What's important is that she is getting healthier, that she is competing and that she is progressing." said her coach Michel Arsenault after the meet.

In the Pre-Novice Aspire category, Champions Gymnastics was represented by Katrina Schirmaier and Abigail Lim. Katrina won the All-Around BRONZE medal and Abigail finished 19th All-Around out of over 40 competitors, with a 12th place on Uneven Bars (despite over-shooting her beautiful cast to Handstand).Katrina also took the GOLD medals on Vault and Beam !

"This competition was Katrina and Abigail's third ever in their young careers and they competed very well. Katrina was clearly the best gymnast on vault and beam. She won GOLD on beam despite a fall, which proves how good the rest of her routine was. Katrina trains with older gymnasts in the gym and is not easily intimidated by much. She goes about her business and doesn't pay much attention to what others are doing around her, which really helps her to stay focused on the task at hand. As for Abigail, she competed well; the one thing I really like about Abigail is that she is very even-mooded at competition. This is so important for little ones to learn. Having good end-results is nice, but at that age, the most important thing is to learn to compete and to control one's gymnastics in a pressure situation. These two gymnasts are doing fine." said Michel.

In the National Open category (here called the Senior National category), Champions' athletes did an outstanding job.Represented by Brittany Ekstedt, Amy Callaghan and Shaena Bunce, Champions collected a total of 1 SILVER and 5 BRONZE medals and three (3) fourth-place finishes.

The best result of the day came with Amy Callaghan's All-Around BRONZE medal. Amy also won SILVER on beam (13.20) and two other BRONZE medals on Bars (11.30) and Floor (12.20).

"Amy was very aggressive today. She competed a beautiful Yurchenko Pike; she hit her bar routine as well as she can do it; and she hit beam and floor. When you do that, you're likely to come out on top. Amy's total A-scores (the base value of her routines) will increase at the next meet, because we have some new skills to include in her routines. At this meet, her A-score total was significantly lower than the two girls who finished ahead of her but that's about to change. Amy is constantly surprising herself these days; we keep telling her that she is better than she thinks...she just can't get that smile off her face...." said Michel.

Brittany Ekstedt put in a very solid performance at this meet with an All-Around 4th place, only .7 behind her teammate Amy.

"Brittany vaulted well (she stuck her first vault) but didn't get the score I thought she deserved (12.40); she hit bars and scored 11.80, which I also thought was a little questionable given some of the other routines I saw...I made my concern known to the judges and they were gracious enough to consider it...these judges are experienced individuals whom I actually trust to have given what they thought was a fair score, so it's one of those things that I just have to live with I guess...Brittany had one fall off beam but competed aggressively all through her routine and that really pleased us as coaches. Brittany's A-score will also be going up at the next meet, because we're adding new skills, especially on bars." said Michel.

Shaena Bunce had a good meet with a 7th All-Around and a BRONZE medal on Beam (13.0). This was only Shaena's second meet of the season.

"Shaena should be proud of herself; she competed her new Yurchenko Pike for the first time and she faired quite well with it actually. Her bars were a little off but she fought through and that's something a coach can accept from an athlete. Her beam was very good; she has good content (backhandspring-layout stepout, side aerial, backhandspring-quarter turn, double twist dismount) and she works that event very well. She also competed a really good floor routine. She competed her new two and a half twist in her first line for the second time. It was very well done. If anything, she just lacked being sharp and truly aggressive, but she has really improved in that area in the past year or so." said Michel"

The three National Open girls had a theme: "To compete aggressively and leave nothing out there." I say they achieved that goal in very large part and it showed in the results. These girls are turning out to be quite the trio at meets. At awards, they play musical chair. Champions had three (3) gymnasts in the top 7 at this meet, out of 16 girls. One of things that clearly stood out is that Champions won SILVER, BRONZE & fourth-place on beam. This is truly a credit to Valerie's incredible coaching on beam. Finally, it begs to be mentioned that Quebec was having a separate trials competition as part of this event. To get a better idea of where our girls fit in the grand scheme of things (on the Canadian scene), this means that there were in fact another 32 gymnasts to factor in; if you combine both sets of results, Amy would still have been 3rd All-Around, Brittany 7th and Shaena 16th out of 48 athletes ! This bodes well for the rest of the year." said Michel.

The Classique Gymnix is one of the most important meets in Canada this year and what the story doesn't tell is that the entire competition was held on a full-size Olympic podium. All events are essentially on a raised stage (called podium) and this makes the event look much more grandiose.

Next is Jurassic Classic in Calgary in two (2) weeks.

Red Deer, February 9, 2008

Champions Gymnastics makes its season debut at the 2008 Exelta Invitational in Red Deer

Champions Gymnastics was represented by five (5) gymnasts at the 2008 Exelta Women's Invitational in Red Deer, Alberta on February 9th.

In the National Open division, the club was represented by Amy Callaghan, Brittany Ekstedt and Miranda Meyer.In the National Pre-Novice Aspire category, Champions fielded two newcomers to the Alberta competitive scene: Abigail Lim and Katrina Schirmaier.

"We came to this event with the regular expectations of a first meet of the season: to put our new routines under the pressure of competition and to get the process of competing under way." said Head Coach Michel Arsenault.

In the National Open category, Amy Callaghan finished in 2nd place All-Around (50.20), in this her very first competition on the National scene !Amy collected a BRONZE medal on bars (11.55) and a fourth place on vault (13.20).

"Amy had so many new skills compared to last year ! She is a different gymnast ! Amy wasn't sure if she belonged at this level....the results sure spoke for themselves ! She has plenty of other new skills being prepared and she is sure to turn a few heads...Confidence breeds confidence and this is a great start for Amy. She made a few small mistakes, but it's all part of learning" said her coaches after the meet.

Fellow teammate Brittany Ekstedt finished in fifth place All-Around (48.333) with two fourth places on bars (11.05) and beam (13.233)."Brittany has improved a lot since last year, but she has spent a large portion of her preparation time on new skills on all events. Today she was a little off and she let her guard down on easier skills (fall on a simple full turn on beam...). She has been doing so well on bars in training but she just didn't pull it off at the meet. We expect her to bounce back much stronger at the next meet....she has a history of redeeming herself quite well..." related Michel.

One of the best stories of the meet belonged to Miranda Meyer. For anyone who doesn't know the story, it really begs to be told.

In May 2006, Miranda proved that she was one of Canada's best upcoming gymnasts by winning the title of Canadian National Champion on floor. But behind the scenes, nagging pain on her left elbow required further investigation. Miranda was diagnosed with Osteocondritis Dessecans, a degenerative bone/cartilage condition which has been known to bring a number of gymnasts to early retirement. In January 2007, Miranda went to Indianapolis and underwent elbow surgery with Dc. Hill Hastings, the leading authority in this field. The surgery for OCD was successful and required close to three (3) months of painful rehabilitation.Amazingly, throughout that time, Miranda was able to accomplish some major progress in gymnastics, despite not being able to train on all events on a regular basis. However, despite her rehabilitation, Miranda was not able to regain full mobility in her elbow.

Her surgeon was perplexed by this and after further investigation, it was discovered that Miranda had a serious developmental abnormality in her elbow, which had caused the Osteocondritis Dessecans. On October 16, 2007, Miranda returned to Indianapolis and underwent major Osteoplasty of her elbow (plastic surgery to completely re-shape her elbow).Not only was surgery successful but her rehabilitation was as well.Miranda's rehabilitation timelines called for a 16-week process of physiotherapy, massage and comprehensive strengthening, under the close watch of her US surgeon (Dc. Hill Hastings), of her canadian physical therapist the-reknowned Dc. Magee (University of Alberta and Oilers fame) and of her massage therapist (Kinsmen Massage Clinic), Aurel Hamran.Miranda had clearance to start training beam and to progressively start training vault, floor and bars until such a time that she could get back to 100% of her program.

At this meet, Miranda competed on three (3) events and won GOLD on beam (14.00 pts and by a sizeable margin over second place) and won SILVER (13.40) on floor !"The floor routine that Miranda competed was the first one she did in over four (4) months with this caliber of tumbling !...this speaks volume about her commitment and about her level of gymnastics ability." said Michel.

"There are only so many words in the english language that I can find to describe what this little girl has endured in the last one and a half year. Anybody else would have given up long ago..... She is an inspiration to everybody in the gym, kids and adults alike. She has a silent ambition and a truly deep commitment to her dreams, which I have never seen from any gymnast in my 30 years of coaching. Her parents (Peter and Jodi) have sacrificed so much to support their daughter; they are so inspirational to me. This meet was the beginning of Miranda's comeback; this comeback will take the time it will take, but we are all determined to put this behind us and to finally get to help Miranda achieve her goals and fulfill her dreams.In her normal demeanor, Miranda is a pretty serious athlete but she couldn't stop smiling throughout the meet and that's the first thing her mom told me after the meet ..."I haven't seen Miranda smile as much as today in the last year and a half..."This is truly a story to follow.

In the National Pre-Novice category, Katrina Schirmaier made an impressive debut and won GOLD on both vault and bars and finished 5th in the All-Around ! Her teammate Abigail Lim won bronze on bars and finished 9th All-Around."Katrina competed really well. It was hard to tell that this was her first meet; she was well prepared and seemed right at home out there! We had told the girls to just go out and enjoy themselves and to do what they learned in training....Katrina did just that !, said her coach after the meet.

"Abigail did so well for her first meet. She kept her wits about her and was truly enjoying herself throughout the event; her bars were very good. She made some mistakes on beam which she is sure to correct; beam is an event that she will do really well on in the future. I was very happy with how Abigail competed." said Michel.

Miranda, Brittany, Amy, Katrina and Abigail will be happy to be joined by their teammate Shaena Bunce (sick at the time of the Exelta meet) for the 2008 All-Olympia Meet in Los Angeles, next week. Details forthcoming on this site next week.

Regina, May 25, 2007

Alberta wins the Silver Medal in the National Open category !

Brittany Ekstedt and her teammates brought Alberta the Silver Medal in the National Open category at the 2007 Canadian National Championships, held in Regina this week. Alberta gymnasts performed well during ther team competition and finished a close second to Ontario, but clearly ahead of Quebec and B.C. "Typically, Ontario is the province to beat and our team almost did that. The difference between first and second was quite small. Alberta should be proud of these gymnasts; they really competed well and were quite agressive, especially on beam. Quebec had major problems on floor and BC had problems on bars. Our team was to compete last on beam, which is usually nerve-racking, but our veterans came up big for the team. A special mention to Kelsey Lang who really hit a solid beam routine. When your veterans come up big, you know you've done well." said Michel after the meet. On that team, Champions' own Brittany Ekstedt had a good competition and showed a lot of determination throughout the day. She scored 12.45 on vault, 12.75 on bars, 12.55 on beam and 13.05 on floor, for an All-Around total of 50.80. Brittany ranked 12th All-Around in her age division (13-15 years old) and qualified to compete in the All-Around Finals, which were held on Friday evening. On Uneven Bars, Brittany was going into finals as the third ranked gymnast and had a chance at a medal. "Brittany had prepared very honestly and we could tell she wanted to do well at her first National Championships. This is an environment that she thrives in; she likes the fast pace and the atmosphere of being with all of these other athletes. Brittany was like a fish in water and it showed in her preparation and in her performances. She didn't really have her best vault, but she competed some of her best bars all year. On beam, she fell twice and on floor she did really well." said Michel Arsenault, Brittany's coach. Jacquelyn Phillips was also competing in this category at these, her seventh and LAST National Championships and in what was her last competition in Canada. Jacquelyn has signed on with Central Michigan University and will be moving to the USA in August to compete for her college team and to pursue her academic goals in the Pre-Med program. Jacquelyn scored 13.05 on vault; 12.45 on bars; 13.60 on beam and 12.75 on floor. She scored 51.85 in the Al-Around and finished in 20th place. "Jacquelyn is competing for the first time since February, when she dislocated her elbow at a meet in California. Her elbow is back 100%. She hit all events and competed with the maturity you can expect from a seasoned veteran like her. There was a lot of emotion riding on this meet, because we knew that this is her last National Championships and her last meet with us. Valerie and I have been coaching Jacquelyn for the past 12 years and you can imagine the emotions we are feeling at this time." said Michel. Jacquelyn also qualified for the All-Around Finals, which were held on Friday night. That session was her actual last ever in Canada. "The rules say that coaches cannot clap or cheer for their gymnasts during the competition. Well, they can kick me off the floor if they want, because I will cheer for Jacquelyn anyway." said Michel half-jokingly. In the All-Around meet, Jacquelyn started on beam. She scored 13.45 (fall on free aerial) and scored 13.10 on vault, 10.80 on bars (fall on dismount) and 13.35 on floor. "The meet was extremely long and it was hard for the girls to keep their focus; there was almost 4 hours between Jacquelyn's warm-up on bars and her actual competition! The competition was fierce and Jacquelyn wasn't able to repeat her performances from last year where she was 5th AA and 3rd on Bars. Her two falls hurt her and she ended up 23rd AA (50.70). For Valerie and I, the results mattered less than the fact that this was her last meet with us. This was a celebration of the last 12 years together and the beginning of the next 40 years ! Needless to say that we all shed a lot of tears when it was all over and done." reported Michel after the event. However, there was some good news! In the 13-15 year old category, Brittany Ekstedt was coming into Finals in third place with a realistic shot at a medal. Brittany hit her bar routine (11.90) and finished 4th on Uneven Bars, missing the Bronze medal by only two tenths. She also ended up 11th All-Around (50.45). "These were Brittany's first National Championships and she really put her best foot forward. National Championships made such an impression on her that she wants to be back next year ! We're looking forward to good things for Brittany's future. She had a good year and we're happy for her." said Michel. In the National Novice category, Shaena Bunce didn't have a very good competition and didn't qualify for the All-Around finals. "What the story doesn't say is that Shaena came to National Championships with a seriously bothersome lower back and she hadn't been able to train and compete comfortably at all. In fact, we weren't even sure that she would be able to travel and compete. Her back showed good signs of improvement in the gym in the last few days before departure and she was able to perform all of her routines in the gym before she left, but her overall preparation had suffered." said Michel.

Edmonton, April 14, 2007

Shaena Bunce, Brittany Ekstedt & Amy Callaghan rack up medals at Western Canadian Championships !

The 2007 Western Canadian Championships wrapped up in Edmonton on April 14th after showcasing the best female artistic gymnasts in Western Canada. Alberta came away with very good results. In the Provincial Novice category, Champions' own Amy Callaghan won the All-Around Bronze medal (51.65) during the team competition on Friday April 13 ! Amy also finished first on bars and third on beam during the team competition. She consequently qualified for three event finals (bars, beam and floor), which were held on Saturday. Her balance beam routine was one of her best, if not the best of her career so far. "Amy's year has been a storied one; she started the year as a P.4 athlete and because of her success in that category, she was upgraded to the P.5 category. Qualifying for Westerns was a big deal for her....to finish third All-Around AND to qualify for three finals was great !" said Michel Arsenault after the meet. Throughout the meet, Amy was battling a slightly sprained ankle, which made competing on vault and floor that much harder. Despite this, she managed to do extremely well, showing a lot of character. Amy qualified for three finals and was 6th on Bars (11.20 with a fall), 4th on Beam (12.40) and 7th on Floor (13.00). Amy was part of the Alberta team, which won the GOLD medal ! At the end of it all, Amy won an individual BRONZE medal and a team GOLD ! In the National Novice team, Champions' own Shaena Bunce finished tied for 8th place All-Around (49.30) during the team competition, thus helping the Alberta team win SILVER in the team competition. Shaena also qualified for beam finals, where she won the BRONZE medal (13.85) for herself and for Alberta. "Shaena competed well in the team competition. Our goal was for her to compete with an even-mood throughout the meet. She did, and she had a no-fault competition, hitting all events. Shaena qualified for beam finals and had to wait for more than two hours before she competed ! Despite that wait, she hit her routine with confidence and calm; and she won bronze. This is very good preparation for the upcoming National Championships to be held in Regina later in May of this year." said Michel. Shaena was part of the Alberta team, which won the SILVER medal ! At the end of it all, Shaena won an individual BRONZE medal and a team SILVER ! In the National Open category, Brittany Ekstedt finished 12th All-Around (51.35) and competed without any falls. She helped Alberta win the BRONZE medal in the team competition. She also qualified as the first alternate for Beam finals. Because of an injury to a Manitoba gymnast, she ended up competing in beam finals, where she hit her routine (13.30) and finished 6th. "Right before beam finals, I told Brittany that she was being handed a great opportunity and that she should just take it and give it her best shot...she had nothing to loose. She sure rose to the occasion." said Michel. "This experience was a great way to set the tone for the upcoming National Championships for Brittany and Shaena. That was the whole point of even being at Westerns. They need the experience; Brittany, Shaena and Amy had never been through a finals format and they sure handled things beautifully. All three are sure to take away many positives from this meet." said Michel. "We're very happy with the girls' performances; for the record, all three of our gymnasts hit ALL of their beam routines on both days! That is a credit to their coach, Valerie Oudin, who was very proud of her athletes. "I'm proud of all three girls; they competed well overall." said Valerie. Brittany and Shaena will now join their team-mates Jacquelyn Phillips and Miranda Meyer and will represent Alberta and Champions Gymnastics at the upcoming National Championships, to be held in Regina at the end of May ! Congrats to all three girls and good luck at Nationals !

Grande-Prairie, April 1, 2007 (revised April 6)

Brittany Ekstedt & Shaena Bunce qualify for Nationals & Amy Callaghan is Provincial Champion !

The 2007 Alberta Provincial Championships & Trials to Canadian National Championships were held this weekend in Grande-Prairie. Champions Gymnastics came away with strong results. Brittany Ekstedt (National Open) and Shaena Bunce (National Novice) both qualified onto Team Alberta and are heading to the 2007 Canadian National Championships, which will be held in Regina during the third week of May. In order to qualify, Brittany and Shaena had to compete two days (Friday & Sunday); the cumulative scores from both days would determine the teams that would represent Alberta at Nationals. The National Open team would be comprised of the top 7 athletes after the two days. The National Novice team would be comprised of the top 6. After Day #1, Brittany was sitting in the precarious 8th place. She had a fall on bars (free hip full), which kept her bars score low (11.55). So, things were pretty simple for Brittany; she would need a good second day in order to give herself a chance. On Day #2, she performed well on her first three events and her last event was beam. After a solid beginning to her routine, Brittany fell twice, but despite that, she still managed to score a 12.30 on that event. Brittany was convinced that her goal to make it to Nationals had essentially vanished because of that last event. It would now come down to how well others performed. When it was all said and done, Brittany placed 7th All-Around (101.166), edging the next gymnast by only .334 ! "After beam, I was pretty sure that I hadn't made it to the top 7. But, when they announced the results and called the team members for Nationals, I was called up! I was very happy." said a reflective Brittany after the awards. "Brittany has never been in the situation of competing two days for a Trials of this importance. In my view, she stepped up to the plate and controlled her emotions well for a newcomer on the National scene. Valerie and I are more about the process than the end result; Brittany is a hard-working gymnast and what she has achieved so far is clearly because of her hard work. In less than one year and a half, she has gone from being a provincial stream athlete to being a National stream athlete ! That's pretty impressive in itself. But before we get to Nationals in May, we have Western Canadian Championships to deal with in two weeks." said Michel Arsenault after the meet. In the National Novice category, Shaena Bunce was coming in as one of the favorites to make this team and she did just that. On Day #1, Shaena ended up in 2nd place (48.183) and in second place on Uneven Bars. Beam proved to be Shaena's most costly event of the weekend (two falls on Day #1 and two falls on Day #2), and beam is usually Shaena's best event ! On Day #2, Shaena finished second on Uneven Bars (11.45) and third on vault (12.55), ending up with the All-Around Bronze with a total of 96.549, well ahead of the fourth placed gymnast. "Shaena didn't compete exactly the way she needs to if she wants a strong showing at National Championships. She needs to be more agressive...more fire in the belly! We weren't worried about her making this team; we knew she had very good chances and we're very proud of her, but we wanted to see her be more in charge....more of a leader if you will. She will have to step it up for both Westerns and Nationals if she wants to compete well in what are definitely more competitive circumstances." said Michel after the meet on Sunday. In the P.4 Novice category, Tess Rochemont had an incredibly solid meet and she won the All-Around Silver (49.95), only .35 behind first place. Tess won Gold on Vault (13.15) and is now the Alberta Provincial Champion on that event in the P.4 Novice category. She also took a Silver medal on beam (12.65). "Tess competed exactly like she needed to. She didn't leave anything out there and can be proud of herself. Tess has improved a lot since last year and she is a good competitor; she goes out there to perform, not just to do a routine; she also keeps her head together and doesn't let things get to her much. She competed as well as she could and as she should have. Second place is not where we think she should have finished at this meet, but that's another topic of discussion all together." said Michel. Tess has been Alberta Provincial Champion for the last two seasons and narrowly missed a three-peat ! In the P.5 Novice category, Amy Callaghan won the All-Around Gold by a healthy margin (1.366), also claiming the Gold on Vault (13.566) and Beam (12.75). She now is the P.5 Novice Alberta Provincial Champion. Amy was also Provincial Champion last year. "Amy competed well on all events, and she really tried hard to contain her emotions when things weren't what she wanted them to be. Her warm-up wasn't the best and she was a little off on pretty much everything, but as time passed, she settled down and just got down to business. She is a good competitor and the results show it." said Michel. Amy now has to prepare for the upcoming Western Canadian Championships, where she will represent Team Alberta for the first time. A.G.F. presented various special awards in all the categories. Tess Rochemont won the Most Dynamic Uneven Bars Award and as a choreographer, Valerie Oudin won three awards as a freelance choreographer for Best Floor Choreography for Camille Rigazzio (Norfort), for Danielle Alexander (Norfort) and for Chantelle Altares (Norfort). She also won the Best Beam Choreography on Beam for Danielle Alexander (Norfort) ! "We're proud of our girls and of their hard work in preparing this meet." said Michel. "I have a bitter-sweet feeling left from the weekend, because despite the fact that our athletes did their job, their scores didn't reflect that at all. In the overwhelming and vast majority of cases, this is NOT an attack on the judges; this current Code of Points is seriously upsetting a lot of coaches and there are a lot of judges who agree that the Code is too complicated for nothing...there are simply too many rules. This has to change." said Michel Arsenault.

Red Deer, March 18, 2007

Brittany Ekstedt, Shaena Bunce and Amy Callaghan on their way to Westerns !

The Alberta Team Trials for the upcoming Western Canadian Championships were held this weekend at the Exelta Gym Club in Red Deer, Alberta. Champions' own Brittany Ekstedt easily won the All-Around Gold in the National Open category (52.033), a full two points ahead of second place ! Brittany collected the Gold on Uneven Bars (12.333) and on Beam (13.45); she also won Silver on Floor (13.3) and placed fourth on Vault (12.95). In the process, Brittany won the first berth on the Alberta Team. Because of a point system in place to select the team coaches, Brittany's results gave Champions Gymnastics one of the coaching spots on this team. "I was very happy to have won, but mostly I was happy because I hit four-for-four events !" said Brittany after the meet. "Every competition has seen a steady increase in Brittany's ability to control all of her routines. She competed well and that is due to her hard work in the gym. We're very proud of her!" said Michel Arsenault. Champions Gymnastics will name a coach to the Alberta Open Team in the coming few days. In the National Novice category, Shaena Bunce finished third (47.533), with two silver medals on Bars and Beam and two Bronze medals on Vault and Floor. She also qualified for the upcoming Western Canadian Championships. "Shaena had an OK meet; she only had one fall and that was on a new tumbling line on floor. Our goal for this meet was more of a psychological one. We wanted Shaena to go through this meet with an even mood. She achieved that. She's on the team and now it's time for her to get agressive." said Michel Arsenault. In the Provincial Novice category, Amy Callaghan finished in second place All-Around (49.10) and also won Gold on Bars, Silver on Beam and Bronze on Vault. Amy therefore qualified to represent Alberta at the upcoming Championships. Champions Gymnastics also got to choose a coach from its staff to be on that team. "Amy had three good events and one poor one. She hit vault, bars and beam but completely messed up her second tumbling line on floor, which dropped her to 16th place on that event, thus seriously affecting her All-Around standings. We're happy that she placed so well on the strength of her three other events, but we were really concerned coming to floor. This was a bit of a comeback meet for Amy, because she had been injured in California and only competed two events at her last meet. This was her first full meet in a while and the lack of time to prepare on floor really taxed her. She still competed her double twist on floor for the first time." related Michel after the meet. Also competing in this category was Tess Rochemont. Tess competed well on three events but fell off Bars (her first fall on this event this season and in well over one year !). She placed sixth on Vault and on Floor. Unfortunately, she missed to make the Alberta team by only a few tenths. "What the story doesn't say is that Tess was a P.2 level gymnast less than a year ago! She has improved so much, that she now competes against P.5 girls ! Had she hit her usual Bars, she would have been up there, so there's a lot of positives that she can take out of this. As her coaches, we're very happy with where she is at, at this stage of her career. She even has new and harder skills that are borderline ready to be included in her routines." said Michel after the event. Western Canadian Championships will be held in Edmonton in April. More details to follow. GO CHAMPIONS ! GO ALBERTA !

Surrey, British Columbia, March 3, 2007

Brittany Ekstedt & Tess Rochemont win All-Around Gold at the Carol Lenz Memorial Invitational !

Brittany Ekstedt won the All-Around Gold medal in the National Open category at the 2007 Carol Lenz Memorial in Surrey (BC) on Friday March 2, 2007. Brittany also won gold on Bars (12.3) and Floor (13.2). She won the All-Around Gold with a total of 51.15, a little over two full points ahead of the second-placed gymnast (49.10). She was also 4th on vault and 5th on beam (despite two falls!).
Brittany competed in front of a large number of family members (given her Vancouver roots) and this added to the significance of her performance. "It was cool to compete in front of my family, many of whom I hadn't seen in a long time and most of them had only heard about my gymnastics training. To win on top of it, was really cool." said Brittany after the meet.
"I told Brittany that there is always a rainbow after the rain." said Michel Arsenault. "Brittany has increased her difficulty level on all events this year and she had some troubles at the beginning of the year; she worked really hard in the gym and it sure is starting to pay off. She hit vault, bars and floor and still won the meet despite two falls off beam." said Michel.
At the end of the competition, the Organizing Committee presented some special awards and Brittany was honored by receiving the Carol Lenz Memorial Award for BEST ARTISTRY. Also competing in this category was Shaena Bunce. Shaena is a National Novice level gymnast and she competed against older National Open level kids. She managed a 6th place All-Around and won the Bronze on Beam (13.85). "Shaena did not compete her best at this meet. She fell on both vaults and on her bars dismount. Shaena has the tendency to exaggerate the importance of small mistakes in her mind and then gets down on herself. She has to learn to put mistakes behind her and not carry them from event to event. The past is the past. Hopefully, she will learn from this meet." said Michel after the meet.
In the Provincial 5 Novice category, Amy Callaghan competed on only two events (Bars and Beam) and won Gold on beam (12.75) and Silver on Bars (11.95).
"Amy is coming back very nicely from a sprained ankle in California a couple weeks ago. She demonstrated a lot of character at this meet. She had to wait very long periods of time between events due to the fact that she was competing only two events, but she kept her focus. I am expecting a full recovery in time for Trials to Western Canadian Championships which will be held in Red Deer in two weeks." related Michel.
At the end of the competition, the Organizing Committee presented some special awards and Amy was honored by receiving the BEST BEAM CHOREOGRAPHY award ! In the Provincial 3 category, Lauren McKone won Gold on Vault (13.00) and tied for the Bronze on Bars (11.20). Unfortunately, her floor routine wasn't up to her usual, and the score (11.85) dropped her to 4th place All-Around (48.10).
"Lauren is new to the program at Champions and she is fitting in very well. She is starting to demonstrate confidence in her performances. We're proud of her effort this weekend. What the story doesn't say is that she had been nursing a wrist condition that has just now started to improve, so she really didn't have a lot of routines under her belt. Given that, she did well." said Michel.
So now, it's on to preparing for Trials to Westerns in two weeks.

Sherwood Park, Alberta, February 18, 2007

Tess Rochemont & Brittany Ekstedt win GOLD at the 2007 Mardi Gras Inv.

Tess Rochemont won the All-Around Gold medal in the P.4 Novice category at the 2007 Mardi Gras Invitational, while her teammate, Brittany Ekstedt won the Gold in the National Open category. Tess also won gold on vault and beam and won Silver on bars and floor. Brittany was a late addition to the competition and competed as a National Open, the only one to compete at this event under those rules.
"Although there were few kids in each of the categories, we had definite personal goals for each gymnast. Tess competed a new vault (Handspring 1.5 twist) and this gave her valuable experience for the upcoming meets. We were hoping for better beam, but that's a hard event to control. Tess came into this meet with good beam preparation, now she just has to deliver with confidence. As for Brittany, we registered her late for this event, because it became apparent to us after her California meet last week that she needed to compete more. She improved on all events and also included new skills (front somi to double twist as a second line on floor and double twist dismount off beam)." said Michel Arsenaulty after the meet.
"The girls looked aggresive and in-charge and they handled the new skills well. This bodes well for their next meet in Surrey (BC) in two weeks." concluded Michel.
"We want to thank the Salto Gym Club for hosting a fun event and for allowing Brittany to compete as a last minute addition." said Michel and Valerie.

Los Angeles, February 10, 2007

Tess Rochemont wins Gold in California !

Champions Gymnastics had an eventful weekend at the 2007 All-Olympia Invitational held at the John Wooden Center (UCLA) in Los Angeles, California. In the Level 8 category, Tess Rochemont won the GOLD medal on Bars (9.375) with a beautifully executed routine and a stuck landing and finished 8th All-Around (34.90). Her teammate Amy Callaghan sprained her ankle in training prior to the meet and did not compete. "Tess rocked on bars; her line and technique were far superior to the other competitors and she hit yet another good routine on bars. We're proud of her work on this event where she had been struggling a little at the beginning of the year." said Michel Arsenault. Her routine included a straddle back, a free hip to handstand and two giants to a layout flyaway. In the Level 9 category (14-15 year olds), Brittany Ekstedt placed 9th All-Around (33.725) and was fifth place on floor (8.775).  Brittany competed against a very strong field of Level 9's. "Brittany made a few mistakes but sure redeemed herself from her last meet ! She overpowered both her vaults, which in a sense, is a mistake that coaches tend not to dislike too much. She fell on a transtition skill on bars and still managed an 8th place on that event. We're proud to see that Brittany has put her previous meet behind her. She looked confident and agressive. On floor, she really performed her best floor routine to date. She hit her 2.5 twist and tumbled both other lines very well." said Valerie Oudin. In the Level 9 category (12 years old), Shaena Bunce completely hit her meet on all events and finished 7th All-Around (34.825) against a very strong field of Level 9's. She was 4th on beam (9.2), fifth on floor (8.75), sixth on bars (8.2) and eight on vault (8.675). "Shaena is a good competitor because she prepares well at practice. She does her own thing and is not bothered by the environment or by others. She competed calmly and agressively against a strong list of competitors. Every meet is giving her more and more experience and that's what she needs at this stage of her career. She overpowered her second Tsukahara pike on vault and stood up the first one. On bars, she took her Endo right to Handstand and it looked very good. She has a minuscule step on her dismount (1.5 twist) but otherwise performed a clean routine. On beam, she hit every skill with confidence and she did not hold back. Beam is currently Shaena's best event. She also hit her floor routine and scored well." related Michel Arsenault after the meet. In the Level 10 category, Jacquelyn Phillips got hurt on bars and did not finish the meet.

Edmonton, January 28, 2007

Amy Callaghan wins four gold medals at Jurassic Classic in Calgary

Amy Callaghan took top honors in the P.4 Novice category at the Jurassic Classic Invitational in Calgary this weekend with consistent performances on all four events and scored a total of 53.30, ahead by 1.85 points of the second placed gymnast. Amy also won Gold on Vault (Tsukahara pike-13.80); Bronze on Bars (12.75-Tied with Tess Rochemont); gold on Beam (13.15) and Gold on Floor (13.60). Amy vaulted a new Tsukahara pike with excellent form. On Bars she displayed very good technique with only two small steps back on her landing. She finished third on that event. On beam, she hit her routine cold, which included a Press-double stag Planche; backhandspring series; switch leg split leap into a straddle jump series; standing back tuck; Round-off layout dismount. On floor, Amy had to contend with a malfunction of the audio equipment and performed her routine to her teammate's floor music. Despite this, she won floor with three strong tumbling lines (1.5 twist; Front to layout; Full). Also competing in this category was Tess Rochemont, who has been Alberta Provincial Champion in her age category for the last two years. Tess won Silver on Vault (13.20); Bronze on Bars (12.75-tied with Amy Callaghan); Silver on Floor (13.50); Tess vaulted a clean Handspring-full. On Bars, she hit the best bars set of her competitive career so far, taking her free hip right to handstand and nailing her dismount. On beam, Tess had two falls, which made her drop in the beam standings. Finally, on floor, she rebounded (pun intended) with a wonderful routine (Double twist; front to layout; Full). "We are very proud of both girls for the way they handled themselves in these circumstances; this was their first meet since they both won Gold at Alberta Provincials last April and they each had a LOT of new skills on all events. Amy had to deal with added stress of not having her own floor music and she came through like a champ. Tess has a lot more difficult content than last year, so beam was a bit tougher this time around, but she is a heck of a competitor and we are confident that she'll do better next time on this event." said Michel Arsenault after the meet. Overall, Amy wins first and Tess is third. This is a good start for the year and a boost to their confidence. "Judging is an issue that I am concerned about. The judges have a complicated and unfamiliar New Code of Points to deal with plus an additional set of adjusted rules for provincial levels. Because of that, they're so busy looking at the book that they forget the gymnastics they just witnessed. Without knocking the other competitors (after all they don't give the scores, they just receive them), the scores on bars were ludicrous to say the least. Quality of execution is simply NOT being recognized and all body fault deductions are NOT being taken....funny enough that the Chief-Judge on Bars agreed with me when I approached him after bars! " said Michel Arsenault after the meet. In the National Novice category, itself judged under a different set of rules than the Provincial stream categories, Shaena Bunce won the All-Around Silver (48.35). On Vault, Shaena was edged out of the medals by a mere .10 and scored a 12.85 for her new Tsukahara pike; on Bars, she had a fall but still managed to win Bronze; on Beam, Shaena reigned supreme with a 13.20; on Floor, she won Bronze (12.25). On Vault, Shaena successfully competed her Tsukahara pike for the second meet in a row. On Bars, she wasn't able to bring her Endo right to handstand, therefore counting for a lesser value and then fell an albeit very good free-hip. She then performed an excellent 1.5 twist dismount. On Floor, her coaches had her tumble a double twist; front to full; 1.5 twist. "Shaena is new in the National Novice and she is getting more comfortable with it each and every meet. This is her second appearance at the National Stream level and she is slowly learning to deal with all of her new skills. We have a new bar routine in the making and a new tumbling line. Hopefully, these will be ready in time for Trials and for Nationals in May." said Michel Arsenault. "Shaena is a dedicated hard worker. Her hard work is starting to pay off." added Michel. Brittany Ekstedt competed in the National Open category and didn't have a very good meet, finishing in 16th place, ranking 9th on Floor. This extremely uncharacteristic counter-performance for Brittany was a surprise to her and to her coaches. "Brittany has to be commended though. Throughout the entire meet, she was really trying her best, but it's one of those times when the wheels just come off the wagon....it was one of those surreal moments that all gymnasts eventually encounter. It happened to be Brittany's turn. However, there are positives; after the meet, the three of us sat and talked it over and we found the cause of the situation. You better believe that we will address this for the future...." said Michel. "Our job is not to make up excuses; our job is to find solutions, and we have found them. Now, it's back to drawing board....the good thing about all of this is that Brittany remained positive and that she knows that this meet had nothing to do with the quality of her preparation. She was well prepared. Her next meet is in California in two weeks. Valerie and I are totally behind Brittany, regardless of a good or a bad meet." added Michel. On Sunday, Lauren McKone competed in the P.3 Open category. This was Lauren's first meet as a new member of Champions Gymnastics and she finished in 5th position, winning Silver on Beam. Lauren was also 5th on Vault and Floor. An issue on her Start value on Bars kept her down in the standings on that event and thus affected her All-Around score. "Lauren is new in our program and her progress is amazing on a daily basis. She trains hard and has a great attitude in the gym. Before long, she will be a force to reckon with in this category......mark my words." said Michel Arsenault. Adding Lauren's Silver medal to the count, Champions Gymnastics racked up a total of 5 Gold, 4 Silver and 5 Bronze medals at the 2007 Jurassic Classic ! "Valerie and I are proud of all of our girls. This meet was a bit of an ice-breaker for some of the girls and a tune-up meet for others. Now, it's back in the gym and more preparation for the upcoming meets, i.e. All-Olympia in Los Angeles in two weeks and Mardi Gras in Edmonton in three weeks." concluded both coaches.

Edmonton, January 15, 2007 (Updated 30.1.07)

Jacquelyn Phillips qualifies on the Alberta Team to Canada Winter Games !

A little bit of history was made yesterday when CHAMPIONS' own Jacquelyn Phillips qualified for a berth on the team that will represent Alberta at the upcoming Canada Winter Games, to be held in Whitehorse (Yukon) at the beginning of March 2007. In fact, this will be Jacquelyn's SECOND participation at these Games. She was also a member of the 2003 Alberta Team. The Trials (selection event) were hosted by the Calgary Gymnastics Centre on Sunday January 14. Jacquelyn finished in FIFTH position with a total of 50.602. (On January 30th, the A.G.F. announced that a recount of the Trials scores showed a mathematical mistake made by a Judge and that it had now been corrected; luckily this does not affect team composition, although it does affect standings and some awards; this proves once again that judges are human and make mistakes too...) Asked about her performances, Jacquelyn said: "I am happy I qualified for this team, but I am not very happy with the position I finished in at the these Trials; I know that in order to improve my rankings, I have to increase my difficulty on vault and bars. I also need to compete better on beam." Jacquelyn only had one fall on beam, but added to some minor but costly mistakes, she only scored an 11.90. Vault: 13.334 (5th); Bars: 12.634 (2nd); Beam: 11.90 (15); Floor: 12.734 (4). Michel Arsenault, Jacquelyn's long-time coach had this to say: "We're happy she's on the team, but we're not happy with fifth place. Jacquelyn has to increase her Start Values (A-score) on Bars, Beam and Vault. That'll be the mission for the next little while. This Code of Points is also pretty tough on execution." Also competing at this Trials are newcomers on the National scene Brittany Ekstedt and Shaena Bunce. Both Brittany and Shaena are coming into the 2006-2007 with a lot of new skills on all events. Brittany and Shaena are both 05-06 Alberta Provincial Champions and coming off a strong season. Brittany finished 12th All-Around (47.933) and Shaena placed 13th All-Around (46.973). Brittany was 6th on Vault and 7th on floor. Shaena was 7th on beam. "This meet was a introduction for both Brittany and Shaena. They did well considering all the "firsts" they had to contend with. Brittany competed MANY skills for the first time at this meet. Amongst many others; first piked Tsukahara on vault and first two and a half twist on floor. She competed most of her new stuff successfully and she must now concentrate at stabilizing her technical content, with some other new additions in the next few months. Shaena also had a ton of new skills at this meet; first Tsukaraha pike on vault, backhandspring-back tuck connection on beam, an Endo and a one and a half dismount off bars, only to name a few. "We are very proud of both girls for their hard work leading to this meet and for their attitude at the meet. Brittany had a pretty large tear of skin between her toes on beam and she was bleeding quite a lot. We taped her up and the way she went....she showed a lot of character. Shaena competed as the youngest gymnast of the entire field of 18 girls. Shaena was born Dec. 31rst at 1:18 PM, which made her eligible for this 12 year old + event by a mere 12 hours or so !" commented Michel Arsenault. "This was all about getting experience and competing the new skills." added Valerie Oudin. So, now it's on to Canada Games in the Yukon, where Alberta hopes to compete for top honors. Congratulations to all three CHAMPIONS' girls.

L'Ange-Gardien, Quebec, May 21, 2006

Miranda Meyer is the 2006 Canadian National Novice Champion on Floor Exercise !

Miranda Meyer won the GOLD medal on floor exercise at the recent Canadian National Championships, which were held in Quebec city from May 14-21. Miranda held on to an early lead with a winning score of 13.80, ahead of the All-Around National Champion Peng-Peng Lee from Ontario (13.75). Miranda competed very well during the All-Around & Event Finals competition on Thursday and hit the best floor routine of her 05-06 competitive season. " Although she knew she had done well, Miranda had no idea that she had won first place on floor; that's what we have been telling our athletes all year....just hit your routines and see what happens ! " What the story does not tell is that Miranda had been nursing a nagging triceps injury to her left arm for the last few weeks; she did not let it get to her. She competed with a lot of determination. On the first day of competition (Tuesday), Miranda had a lot to redeem herself from; she had not had a very good first day during the team portion of the meet. She came out on the second day with calm and focus. " Had her elbow not been an obstacle, she would have done much better in the All-Around standing...I am expecting her to progress well from here once her elbow injury will have healed " said Michel Arsenault. Miranda also placed 4th on beam (14.90), closely edged out of the bronze by only .1. She ended up 9th in the All-around standings and 7th All-around in the Physical Ability portion of the event (National level testing). " The top gymnasts in this category represent most of Canada's hopefuls for the 2012 cycle. It will be interesting to see how this all evolves, but right off the bat, Canada has a very talented pool of kids for the next cycle, possibly the best ever. " related Michel. In the National Open category, Jacquelyn Phillips also started out with a sub-par competition on the first day and still qualified for the All-Around and Events Finals competition, and pulled off her best performance of the year in the All-Around portion of the meet with an All-Around 5th position and a BRONZE medal on Uneven Bars ! Jacquelyn has hit her difficult bar routine all year; she has not fallen once all year on that event, a feat in itself ! On the second day, Jacquelyn had something to prove to herself because of the sub-par performance of the first day and she sure did it ! " We could not have asked for anything better from Jacquelyn. She collected bonus for stuck landings on two events and had no falls anywhere. We are so proud of her", said Michel Arsenault, her long-time coach. " Jacquelyn is an honest athlete who has a lot of style and a lot of experience; she reaped was she had sown...what a great meet for her!" said Valerie Arsenault.

Caledonia (Ontario), April 23, 2006

Miranda Meyer wins the All-Around Silver at the 2006 Elite Ontario competition in Caledonia, Ontario

Alberta Novice Provincial Champion, Miranda Meyer (12- Champions Gymnastics) hit all four events at the recent Elite Ontario competition and finished in second place in the All-Around standings with a total of 52.00. Miranda also won the SILVER medal on uneven bars with a solid routine which culminated with a half-in half-out dismount. “Miranda showed consistency throughout the meet, which is nice to see at this stage of the competitive season. National Championships are just a few weeks away and this kind of controlled performance is just what she needs going into Nationals. She's almost at her best....there is still space for improvement.”, said Michel Arsenault, Miranda’s coach. “I was just focusing on hitting my routines. I did good, but I know I can do even better.” said Miranda after the meet. In the National Open category, Alberta Provincial Champion, Jacquelyn Phillips (17- Champions Gymnastics) took the All-Around BRONZE medal with a total of 52.90. Jacquelyn won GOLD on uneven bars, well ahead of the second place gymnast.  Despite a fall off beam, Jacquelyn competed well on all events. “Jacquelyn is truly coming into her own…she is showing control and maturity in her gymnastics; she is not frazzled by things when they are less than perfect and she is focused on performing her gymnastics with technical control. She is displaying maturity and confidence.” related Michel after the meet.   Jacquelyn has been doing well at every meet she has attended this year. So far this year, she has won the All-Around GOLD at Jurassic Classic (Calgary); she has won the All-Around GOLD Gymnix (Montreal); she has won the All-Around GOLD at the Alberta Provincial Championships & the Trials to Nationals (Edmonton) !   Michel Arsenault explains: “I decided to bring Miranda and Jacquelyn to Ontario because this is arguably the strongest gymnastics province in Canada. We all know that you’re only as good as your competitors. The goal was to use this event as a preparation for Nationals. I think we achieved what we set out to achieve.”   Champions Gymnastics attended the Ontario Provincial Championships (also called Elite Ontario) as guests of Gymnastics Ontario. "It is common for provincial federations to accept out-of-province guests at their provincial championships. The medal standings are not affected because the organizers end up rewarding their own athletes regardless of the visitors' results. They simply slot in the guest's results without bumping their own gymnasts. It ends up being great for everybody. I want to personaly thank Gymnastics Ontario for their hospitality; we had a great time." said Michel Arsenault, owner of Champions Gymnastics. This performance in Ontario is a very good stepping stone for the upcoming National Championships, which will be held in Quebec City from May 14-21. GOOD LUCK GIRLS !

Edmonton, March 26, 2006

Champions Gymnastics wins SEVEN All-Around titles at the Alberta Provincial Championships !

An absolutely amazing story unfolded at the 2006 Alberta Provincial Championships, which were held from Friday March 24 to Sunday March 26 at the Northlands Agricom.Champions Gymnastics won an incredible SEVEN All-Around titles in SEVEN different categories; racking up FIFTEEN Event titles; totaling 22 GOLD medals, 8 SILVER & 1 BRONZE !

** SHAENA BUNCE: P.4 Tyro Bars & Beam & All-Around PROVINCIAL CHAMPION ** BRITTANY EKSTEDT: P.4 Novice Bars & All-Around PROVINCIAL CHAMPION ** STEPHANIE McMULLAN: P.2 Tyro Vault & Bars & Floor & All-Around PROVINCIAL CHAMPION ** TESS ROCHEMONT: P.2 Novice Bars & Beam & All-Around PROVINCIAL CHAMPION ** AMY CALLAGHAN: P.3 Tyro Bars & Beam & All-Around PROVINCIAL CHAMPION ** MIRANDA MEYER: National Novice Bars & Beam & All-Around PROVINCIAL CHAMPION ** JACQUELYN PHILLIPS: National Open Bars & Beam & Floor & All-Around PROVINCIAL CHAMPION

Furthermore, our gymnasts dominated the Uneven Bars at Provincials, ALL winning GOLD on that event and making it a clean sweep !

Coach Michel Arsenault had made a deal with his team; if Champions Gymnastics wins the All-Around GOLD in at least four (4) different age categories, each winner will have a swipe at his head until he is bald !

Here is how the story unfolded: FRIDAY MARCH 24:It all started on Friday March 24th, when Miranda Meyer (12) won the All-Around Gold in the National Novice category.Miranda Meyer won the competition with a total of 50.95, .9 ahead of second place and thus assured herself the title of PROVINCIAL CHAMPION (the FIRST for Champions Gymnastics) and the top berth on the Team that will represent Alberta at the upcoming Canadian National Championships to be held in Quebec City in May.Miranda also finished with GOLD on uneven bars, SILVER on beam and BRONZE on vault and floor ! Her best moment came on bars where she competed a new routine with a new dismount, a half-in half-out. She had the highest score on bars by 1.65 !!!" I am so happy with the results because I have worked very hard, but I know there are still things to improve in my routines. All that my coaches and I care about is hitting the routines that we work on in practice." said a reflective Miranda. "Miranda had her game-face on today; she competed a new vault for the first time called a Tsukahara-1/2 turn in an open-tuck position and she had a new bar routine with a new dismount, which she competed with confidence. She had a mishap in warm-up on vault and came back with character; her bars were good but we know she can do much better; her beam was rock solid until a fall on one of her leaps (...); her floor was good (double pike; two and a half twist; front somi to full)...the crowd enjoyed her routine." said Valerie Oudin-Arsenault. Michel Arsenault had this to say: "Miranda has been going about her business quietly in the gym all year. All of her teammates have had huge success this year and Miranda's turn hadn't come yet. This meet was good for her. Because she hasn't competed much this year, her next meet will be on Sunday. Despite the fact that the Novice category is officially done for this meet, she needs to compete a second day to simulate National Championships. We're proud of her but there is still a lot more in her than what she did today !". As a result of Miranda's first place, Michel Arsenault was also named as one of the Official Team coaches for the Alberta Novice Team at Nationals. Coincidentaly, these upcoming Nationals will be Michel and Valerie's 20th National Championships and they will be held in the same gym as the 1992 Olympic Games Trials, where Natasha Hallett (Michel & Valerie's gymnast) qualified to the Canadian Olympic Team for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Also on Friday night, in the National Open category, Jacquelyn Phillips hit "four-for-four" events and didn't give much away to the judges. The National Open category requires that the girls compete two days in order to make the Alberta team to National Championships.On the first day, Jacquelyn competed a beautiful Yurchenko pike, which was awarded the Most Dynamic Vault distinction; on bars she hit her routine (Stalder to Ray; Giant-full, giant-half-Endo-Endo half turn to double twist dismount); her most impressive event however was beam where she was a rock and where she scored 13.50 (front aerial-tic-toc-backhandspring; switch leg split leap-Miller; side aerial); she also hit a beautifully danced floor routine. Jacquelyn finished the day with a 4th on vault, first on bars, first on beam, first on floor and first All-Around !

" Our athletes know that it is not over until the "fat lady" signs....they also know that tomorrow is another day and that a gymnast is only as good as her next meet! Jacquelyn's confidence is high but she has to push through until the end." said Michel after the meet.Valerie also related "The New Code is very harsh; but our gymnasts have the reputation of being extremely clean. This New Code is right up our alley! However, there were some unbelievably costly deductions for our gymnasts on things that have always been thought to be somewhat minor. On the flip side, we have to adjust like everybody." After Day #1, Jacquelyn sat in first place with a 52.50, .633 ahead of the second place gymnast, but 3.85 ahead of 4th place ! More on the outcome later in this report. As she was first to stand on the podium Friday night with a brand new title of PROVINCIAL CHAMPION, Miranda Meyer sought her coach out in the crowd and signaled to him the number 3 with her hand, making it clear to him that it was "ONE DOWN and THREE TO GO ....! Could this be the beginning of something special ? SATURDAY MARCH 25:

Jacquelyn Phillips (National Open) PROVINCIAL CHAMPION

Montreal, March 20, 2006

Jacquelyn Phillips & Brittany Ekstedt win GOLD at the Classique GYMNIX in Montreal

Jacquelyn Phillips (Champions Gymnastics) won the all-around Gold medal at the prestigious Classique Gymnix held in Montreal on March 17-19. Jacquelyn tied with Alayna Bradd from Bluewater (Sarnia) with a total of 49.45, despite mistakes on vault and beam. Jacquelyn also took the Uneven Bars GOLD with a score of 12.80, 1.5 ahead of the second place gymnast ! This performance continues a great season for Jacquelyn, who had already won GOLD at the Jurassic Classic in Calgary (February). "Despite some mistakes, Jacquelyn won the All-Around title. The results were a little bittersweet. We weren't expecting her to win because we were unhappy with the mistakes she did. Imagine what the results would be like if she hit all her routines!" said Michel Arsenault, Jacquelyn's long-time coach. Michel also commented, "The girls competed on equipment they had never encountered before and they adjusted well on the whole." In the P.4 Novice category, Champions' Brittany Ekstedt won the All-Around BRONZE with a total of 35.775, also taking GOLD on bars and SILVER on vault ! Brittany's bars' score (9.60) was the highest score of the entire P. 4 competition! "Brittany competed well and only had a mistake on beam where she fell on her side aerial. I am particularly proud of this performance because Brittany was initially registered in the P. 3 category; her progress this year has been such that we felt she needed to compete in a more difficult category, so we upgraded her to the P. 4 category without too many expectations." related Brittany's coach Valerie Oudin-Arsenault. In the National Novice category, Miranda Meyer finished in 8th place (All-Around) and won BRONZE on beam and finished 4th on vault. There was a three-way tie for 5th ahead of Miranda by only .05 ! "Miranda over-rotated her double pike on floor and fell once off beam. She posted the second best Alberta performance at this meet and this was only her second competition of the year; she looked ready and focused" said Michel Arsenault. In the P. 4 Tyro category, Shaena Bunce had a disappointing meet and finished 9th All-Around. "This was Shaena's worst meet in two years and given her determination, I don't think she will allow this to happen again. Every athlete goes through this and unfortunately, it was Shaena's turn at Gymnix. In fact, Shaena has never been off the podium in two years...she'll bounce back!" commented Valerie Oudin-Arsenault. Jacquelyn, Miranda, Brittany and Shaena are now heading to Edmonton for the Alberta Provincial Championships, to be held next weekend at Northlands. GOOD LUCK GIRLS !

Edmonton & Vancouver, March 5,  2006

Amy Callaghan & Shaena Bunce win GOLD in Edmonton & Jacquelyn Phillips places 5th in Vancouver!

Amy Callaghan (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) continued her domination of the P.2 Tyro category by taking the All-Around title at the Capital City Inv., held on Saturday March 4, 2006 in Edmonton with a record All-Around score of 37.55! Amy also won all four (4) GOLD medals on all four events ! This marked yet another impressive medal sweep for Amy.

"Amy won again by a huge margin and her gymnastics was impeccable; she competed extremely well yet again...she is definitely ready to kick her gymnastics up a notch !", said Valerie Oudin-Arsenault. Stephanie McMullan (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) was fifth All-Around in that competition with a total of 35.15 and a BRONZE medal on beam. "As for Stephanie, we added skills on floor and she competed well overall...I just don't understand some of the scores, especially on floor!" related Valerie. Jacqueline Lamoureux (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) again posted a good performance on vault with a BRONZE medal and a 9th All-Around place (33.85). Champions Gymnastics' coach, Valerie Oudin-Arsenault disagreed so much with the judging on Stephanie McMullan, that she had her compete the next day as a P.3 gymnast (one category up), where she finished with the BRONZE medal in the All-Around (32.801)!

On the same day, In Vancouver, Jacquelyn Phillips (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) has a strong showing at the Carol Lenz Memorial Inv. with a fifth place All-Around (51.50) and a SILVER medal on bars (13.50), narrowly edged out from the All-Around gold by Leah Wilson (Phoenix/Vancouver) by only .05. Jacquelyn also won the BRONZE on floor (13.35).

"Jacquelyn competed well on all events but she made costly mistakes on beam; this definitely hurt her All-Around score. "She was complimented on the quality of her gymnastics, particularly on uneven bars; I am proud of the fact that she competed with the calm of a veteran. It is nice to see an experienced athlete in action." said her coach, Michel Arsenault.

Back in Edmonton, on Sunday, Shaena Bunce (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) won the first place GOLD at the Capital City Inv. by another convincing margin (35.335). Brittany Ekstedt (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) ended up with BRONZE in the All-Around (34.119). "We wanted to use this competition to put in new skills and take some risks. Both Shaena and Brittany included their double twist dismounts off beam successfully. Shaena's beam routine was the day's highlight for me." said coach Valerie Oudin-Arsenault. "She scored 9.317 out of a possible 9.6!". Shaena won the BRONZE on bars and GOLD on beam and floor. Brittany won GOLD on bars and BRONZE on beam and floor.

Hinton, February 25, 2006

Brittany Ekstedt & Stephanie McMullan win the All-Around GOLDS at the Alberta Winter Games !

Champions Gymnastics' own Stephanie McMullan & Brittany Ekstedt each won the All-Around GOLD medal in their respective categories at the 2006 Alberta Winter Games, held in Hinton on Friday & Saturday February 24-25 ! Out of the 8 athletes representing Zone 6 at these Games, Champions Gymnastics had qualified 5 athletes: Tess Rochemont, Jacqueline Lamoureux, Stephanie McMullan, Shaena Bunce and Brittany Ekstedt ! In the P. 2 category, the All-Around competition ended up being quite a tight one, with only .075 separating the GOLD from the BRONZE ! Stephanie McMullan was second on bars and on floor and cumulated an All-Around total of 35.40, edging out her teammate Tess Rochemont (35.375) by a slight .025 ! "This is Stephanie's biggest win so far this year. She qualified for this team back in January (at her first meet ever) and since then she has competed quite well. At the recent Jurassic Classic, she finished second All-Around to her teammate Amy Callaghan by a narrow margin. It was her time ! " said Valerie Oudin-Arsenault, the Zone 6 coach. " I am very proud of the fact that Zone 6 finished 1-2-3 in the All-Around standings, with the top two positions being won by Champions Gymnastics ! "Jacqueline Lamoureux had a strong showing on what is emerging as her best event (vault) with a third best place in the Team competition and a 13th All-Around rank (34.00). In the P. 3 category, Brittany Ekstedt showed that she learned a valuable lesson from the recent Trials to Western Canadian Championships, where she did not compete very well. " My coaches told me that a gymnast is only as good as her next competition..." said Brittany. Brittany hit a very solid competition and won GOLD by a convincing margin of 1.2 over teammate Shaena Bunce, who took the SILVER !" Brittany competed with a lot of determination...she really did not like what happened at Trials to Westerns last week and she was not going to let this happen again ! She rocked on all events, with first places on bars and floor, a second on beam and a fourth on vault (36.575). She had the day's highest score of all gymnasts on all events with a 9.50 on uneven bars ! " reported Valerie. Shaena Bunce placed first on beam and fourth on bars, to take home the All-Around SILVER medal, making it another 1-2 punch for Champions Gymnastics in the All-Around !" Champions Gymnastics dominated this meet; we won the Gold AND the Silver in BOTH categories...out of 6 possible medals, Champions Gymnastics won 4....we're really proud of the girls...and to top it all off, our Zone won the TEAM GOLD ! " related Megan Conway, Zone 6 coach.Event finals were held on Saturday and Champions Gymnastics racked up 7 more event medals ! P.2 Vault: Jacqueline Lamoureux - SILVER P.2 Beam: Tess Rochemont - SILVER P.3 Bars: Brittany Ekstedt - GOLD & Shaena Bunce - SILVER P.3 Beam: Shaena Bunce - GOLD & Brittany Ekstedt - BRONZE P.3 Floor: Brittany Ekstedt - BRONZE " The girls' confidence is very high right now and success is breeding success; those girls work very hard and the results are taking care of themselves. So far, this year has been extremely successful...and it is just the beginning... " commented Michel Arsenault.Next week, Jacquelyn Phillips is competing in British Columbia at the Carol Lenz Memorial and then it's off to Montreal with four gymnasts (Jacquelyn, Miranda, Brittany and Shaena) for the Classique Gymnix (March 17-19).CONGRATS GIRLS !

Edmonton, February 19, 2006

Shaena Bunce on her way to Westerns Canadian Championships!

Shaena Bunce (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) won the Tyro 4 All-Around GOLD at the Trials to Western Canadian Championships yesterday in Red Deer, posting one of her most solid performances yet this season, with a total of 34.908 (1.4 ahead of the second best gymnast) !"Shaena had her game face on today; she was determined to compete agressively and she sure did ! said Valerie Oudin after the meet.Shaena racked up three other GOLD medals (out of a possible 4) on uneven bars, beam and floor ! She finished an outstading .7 points ahead of the second gymnast on both bars and beam alone ! "Shaena is very comfortable when she is in the lead...she has learned how to win, never having been worse than third All-Around in any meet she has ever entered in the last two years; she must now upgrade her routines to get to the next level" said Arsenault. Shaena will be heading the P.4 Tyro Alberta team to represent our province at the upcoming Canadian Western Championships, to be held in Saskatoon in April this year.Valerie Oudin from Champions Gymnastics was named the Official Team Coach for the P.4 Tyro team at Western Canadian Championships. Fresh off her Gold medal performance at last week's Jurassic Classic (where she won by a 1.7 margin!), Teammate Brittany Ekstedt competed in the P.4 Novice category but did not have a good day, finishing ninth All-Around."Brittany made some mental errors, which she is sure to learn from. She learned that an athlete is only as good as her next meet ! She will rebound stronger than ever....it's one of those learning things" said her coach. Both athletes will be leaving for Hinton on Thursday to compete for Zone 6 at the Alberta Winter Games, along with their teammates Jacqueline Lamoureux, Stephanie McMullan and Tess Rochemont. The coaches accompanying them are: Valerie Oudin and Megan Conway. GOOD LUCK GIRLS !

Edmonton, February 12, 2006

Champions Gymnastics completely dominates the 2006 Jurassic Classic !
Champions Gymnastics brought back an outstanding total of 26 medals (15 Gold/ 7 Silver and 4 Bronze) from the prestigious Jurassic Classic, which was held on February 9-12 at the U. of C. in Calgary ! This impressive, perhaps never-seen-before medal sweep at this event, was due to incredibly consistent performances by all of Champions Gymnastics' athletes.These performances spoke louder than words ever could !Head Coach Michel Arsenault explains:"Jacquelyn Phillips started it all on Friday! She hit "four-for-four"! One year ago (to the day), she broke her leg in California (her first ever injury in 12 years of gymnastics with us)....a lot of people had written her off from ever competing again; but not us ! There was a lot of emotion running on this event. She truly showed her amazing character and had her best-ever meet!"Jacquelyn won the All-Around (52.667), finishing ahead of the 2005 Open Canadian National Champion, Stephanie McGregor (Altadore/Calgary); she also won gold on Uneven Bars (13.867) and Floor (13.167)."Jacquelyn is an inspiration to all of the girls in the gym; she got injured a year ago...she was back in the gym three days after her operation....she worked her way back with silent dedication....she was determined....and she showed all the "nay-sayers" that honesty, perseverance, hard work, integrity, intelligence and commitment DO prevail."....said Arsenault. In the National Novice category, young Miranda Meyer (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) also completed a "four-for-four" competition, which earned her a Bronze medal victory (49.317), with silver medals on vault and beam !After the meet, her coaches said: "Miranda hasn't competed since National Championships in May 2005, so this was a bit of a "break-the-glass" meet for her. We've always known that Miranda was a good competitor, but with so many new skills in her routines, it was difficult to expect her to hit...but she did! There is so much more in her than what she did...she just needed to compete...the best is yet to come. We're very proud of her." In the Novice 4 category, Brittany Ekstedt (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) completely dominated her competitors and finished 1.7 points ahead of the second place gymnast !Arsenault commented: "Brittany is a very honest athlete; she works with her heart and is committed to her goals...that's why she did so well."Brittany won gold on Uneven Bars and on Beam, while collecting the Silver on Floor. This performance is a great warm-up for the upcoming Alberta Winter Games. In the Tyro 4 category, Shaena Bunce (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) also won the All-Around Gold medal (34.708), while collecting Bronze on Bars and Gold on Beam!Asked about Shaena's performance, Michel Arsenault said: "Shaena had been ill and we weren't even sure if she would compete! She worked through her illness and showed a lot of determination at the meet; she also hit "four-for-four". She is also a top contender for the Gold at the Alberta Winter Games. "On Sunday in the Provincial 2 Tyro category, Amy Callaghan (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton), fresh off her Gold All-Around at the 2006 Mardi Gras event in Sherwood Park, won the All-Around Gold medal (36.900), edging out teammate Stephanie McMullan (Silver with 36.850) ! Amy took home the Gold on Vault, Beam and Floor and Stephanie took the Gold on Uneven Bars, thus completing a Champions Gymnastics Gold Medal Sweep of all events and All-Around !The coaches had this to say: "Amy is truly coming into her own....she is showing great quality gymnastics, and the judges are recognizing that. Amy is a quality gymnast." She is a confident performer who is sure to be a top contender for future meets. SILVER medal winner, Stephanie McMullan showed great composure at the Jurassic Classic. "Stephanie had some difficulties in the last meet she attended, but she sure came through in this one!....She showed a lot of character!"...said Arsenault. In the Provincial 2 Novice category, Tess Rochemont (2005 P.1 Tyro Provincial Champion & 2006 Zone 6 A..W. Games Team member) finished third All-Around (36.25), just a few tenths away from Gold. Tess took the Gold on Vault and the Silver on Floor."Tess expects to win...that's just her! I am sure that finishing third (although so close to first) will light the fire..."Alberta Winter Games Zone 6 Teammate Jacqueline Lamoureux finished 13th All-Around with a fourth place finish on vault."Jacqueline's confidence is increasing by the day.....good things are ahead for her."Amy, Tess, Jacqueline and Stephanie's performances earned Champions Gymnastics the Provincial 2 category TEAM TROPHY ! After the meet, Michel and Valerie had this to say:"We are very proud of all of the girls. Our performances at this meet made a statement .....CHAMPIONS GYMNASTICS is the club to beat...and this is just the beginning! All of these performances are the result of hard work and dedication on the part of the athletes and of the coaches."

Edmonton, February 4, 2006

Amy Callaghan wins the All-Around GOLD at the 2006 Mardi Gras Invitational!

In the Tyro 2 category, entering her first ever competition at the 2006 Mardi Gras Invitational (Sherwood Park), Amy Callaghan (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) finished first on Uneven Bars (9.475), first on Beam (9.05), first on Floor (9.216) and third on Vault (8.75), to WIN THE ALL-AROUND GOLD MEDAL (36.491), almost a full point ahead of the second placed gymnast ! Zone 6 Alberta Winter Games team member, Jacqueline Lamoureux (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) also won GOLD on vault (9.175) and finished 4th All-around (34.741), while Stephanie McMullan (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) won BRONZE on floor and finished 5th All-Around (33.925). "Amy competed very well considering that this was her first meet ever. She displayed good focus and she definitely had some of the cleanest gymnastics out there", said M. Arsenault, Head Coach of the Champions Gymnastics Club. "One of the highlights of the day was Jacqueline's gold medal on vault, which coupled with Amy's three gold medals meant a clean sweep of all gold medals!. Jacqueline has come a long way." She is looking forward to representing her Zone at the upcoming Alberta Winter Games, which will be held in Hinton at the end of this month. "Stephanie had an up-and-down meet. She had a nasty fall off beam and came back with a lot of character, however, she made two unusual mistakes on bars. She is quite young and she will learn from her mistakes.", said M. Arsenault after the meet. Champions Gymnastics has had quite the start to its 2006 season with All-Around wins at all the meets it has entered so far this year. All team members are competing next week in Calgary at the 2006 Jurassic Classic.

Edmonton, January 7, 2006

Shaena Bunce & Tess Rochemont take GOLD at the 2006 Northern Trials for Alberta Winter Games !
(pictured here are P.3 gymnasts Shaena Bunce (GOLD) & Brittany Ekstedt (SILVER)

CHAMPIONS GYMNASTICS dominated the 2006 Northern Alberta Trials to Alberta Winter Games, which were held at the St-Albert Gymnastics Club on Friday January 6. In the P.2 category, last year's All-Around (AA) P.1 Tyro Alberta Provincial Champion, Tess Rochemont (Champions Gymnastics/Edmonton) took the AA GOLD medal with a total of 36.10 and a berth on the Zone 6 Team to the Alberta Winter Games, to be held in February in Hinton, Alberta. Her teammates, Stephanie McMullan (AA BRONZE medalist with 35.775) and Jacqueline Lamoureux (AA 13th with 34.225) also earned berths on this team of four! In fact, CHAMPIONS GYMNASTICS had 3 out of the 4 team members selected from that event ! In the P.3 category, Shaena Bunce also won GOLD in the All-Around with a 35.908, followed closely by teammate Brittany Ekstedt with a SILVER medal position of 35.609 ! CHAMPIONS GYMNASTICS had 5 athletes trying out for the team and ALL 5 made the team ! Out of the 8 possible spots on the Zone 6 team (Edmonton), CHAMPIONS GYMNASTICS has earned 5 spots! A sign of things to come.....Congratulations to the athletes on their amazing performances and also to the CHAMPIONS GYMNASTICS coaches !!!

Edmonton, May 2, 2005

Champions Gymnastics brings back medals from Alberta Provincial Championships!
The Alberta Provincial Championships were held the weekend of April 30-May 1 in beautiful Banff, Alberta, surely one of the best Alberta Provincial Championships of the last 12 years. Shaena Bunce won the All-Around Bronze medal in the P.3 Tyro category with a score of 34.501, also winning GOLD on floor and silver on balance beam. Carlee VanSoest finished in 12th place in the P.2 Tyro category, and won a Bronze medal on beam and a Bronze on floor. She was also edged out of the medals on vault with a 4th place finish. Miranda Meyer finished in 6th place in the National Novice category and won a Silver on balance beam. She also qualified to compete in the upcoming Canadian National Championships, which will be held in Vancouver, BC from May 23-28. CONGRATULATIONS GIRLS !

Edmonton, April 17, 2005

Shaena Bunce wins the All-Around GOLD at 2005 Stampede City Invitational!
Champions Gymnastics was represented by three gymnasts at the Stampede City Invitational, which was held this weekend in Calgary. First, Miranda Meyer competed for the first time in Alberta in the National Novice category and took fourth in the All-Around, with a GOLD medal on vault and a SILVER on beam. In the Provincial 3 Tyro category, Shaena Bunce completely dominated the field and won GOLD, well in front of the second placed gymnast. This was Shaena's first competition in the Provincial 3 category, as she had previously dominated in the Provincial 2 category. Shaena won GOLD on vault and beam, and won BRONZE on bars. In the Provincial Tyro 2 category, Carlee VanSoest finished in 4th position All-Around and captured SILVER medals on beam and floor and a BRONZE on vault. CONGRATULATIONS GIRLS !!!!

Edmonton, March 21, 2005

Tess Rochemont & Shaena Bunce win GOLD at 2005 Jurassic Classic!
Tess Rochemont continued her domination of the P.1 Tyro category this year in Alberta by winning the All-Around GOLD at the 2005 Jurassic Classic held at the University of Calgary's Jack Simpson Gym on the weekend. Tess had also previously won the All-Around title at the St-Albert Invitational a few weeks before. Teammate Jacqueline Lamoureux improved from her previous results and ranked 8th All-Around at the Jurassic event. In the P2 Tyro category, Shaena Bunce also won the All-Around GOLD with a first place finish, almost one full point ahead of the next gymnast! Shaena won event GOLDS on vault and beam and event SILVERS on bars and floor. Shaena had previously won a Silver medal on vault at the 2005 US Airborne Invitational in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the Level 8 category. Teammate Carlee VanSoest placed 13th All-Around with a 7th place on vault and a 5th place on floor.

Edmonton, February 20, 2005

Champions competes in Alberta & California!
The competition season has just begun and Champions Gymnastics had athletes competing both at the 2005 Mardi Gras Invitational in Sherwood Park and at the 2005 All Olympians in Los Angeles. MARDI GRAS, Sherwood Park, Alberta: Tyro 2/ * Shaena Bunce (2nd Vault; 7th Bars; 1rst Beam; 5th Floor; 3rd All-Around) * Carlee VanSoest (5th Vault; 4th Beam; 8th All-Around) Tyro 1 (Born 94)/ * Jacqueline Lamoureux (5th Vault; 9th Beam; 9th All-Around) Tyro 1 (Born 93)/ * Tess Rochemont (1rst Vault; 1rst Beam; 2nd Floor; 2nd All-Around) ALL OLYMPIANS, Los Angeles, California: Level 8/ * Cori Szymanski (4th Vault; 10th Bars; 10th Floor; 10th All-Around) Level 9/ * Miranda Meyer (7th Vault; 11th All-Around) CONGRATS GIRLS !

Edmonton, May 3, 2004

Jacquelyn Phillips qualifies to the Alberta Team for National Championships!
Jacquelyn Phillips, 15 years old, had quite an impressive showing this weekend during the Trials to National Championships, where she finished in 4th position All-Around (Vault, Bars, Beam & Floor).      Jacquelyn had one of her best performances this year, at a time where it counted the most.      She scored 8.10 on vault and earned the distinction of "Most Dynamic Vault" with a tricky handspring-double twist; she earned a score of 8.917 with one of the most original bar routines of the meet (Straddle-back to handstand-stalder-Ray; Endo-1/2 turn to Double twist flyaway dismount); on Beam, she had the only blemish of the day with an unexpected fall in a simple front aerial skill and earned an 8.067; her last event, floor marked her highest score of the day with a 9.000 (Triple twist; front tuck to double twist; Two & 1/2 twist).      "Jacquelyn competed well; had she not fallen on beam, she would have finished second All-Around, which is what we were hoping for. Hopefully with some improvement, she will do even better at National Championships" said Michel Arsenault, Jacquelyn's long-time coach.      National Championships will be held in Mississauga from June 3-6, 2004.

Los Angeles, February 15, 2004

Jacquelyn Phillips wins GOLD in California !
CHAMPIONS GYMNASTICS' own Jacquelyn Phillips competed yesterday at the 13th Annual Gliders Invitational in Sonoma (suburbs of Los Angeles, California) and won the GOLD, placing first all-around (vault, bars, beam and floor) ! "" Jacquelyn competed well and made very few mistakes despite presenting many new skills on some events. She was agressive and her experience helped her deal with the pressure of her competitive season's first event. I am proud of her "" , said Valerie Oudin, Jacquelyn's long-term coach. Jacquelyn competed as a Level 9-Senior gymnast and shared her competitive rotations with some of the USA's best female gymnasts, such as Elyse Ishino and Tabitha Yim. Jacquelyn's scores were some of her best to date. She scored 8.9 on vault; 8.4 on bars; 8.475 on beam and 9.05 on floor for an all-around total of 34.825. Second was Jessica Childs from the Gliders club in Covina (California) with an 34.60 All-around score.

Edmonton, May 25, 2003

Amanda Gering places 7th AA in the HPSenior category at the 2003 National Championships, Saskatoon
Amanda competed last week at the 2003 Canadian National Championships in Saskatoon, where she finished a strong 7th All-Around; this places her at the top of the group of athletes trying to make the Canadian Team for the upcoming World Championships (Anaheim, California). Amanda qualified to two event finals last Sunday, which will be televised on CBC Sports June 7th @ 14:30-16:00 (ET)- Artistic Gymnastics Senior Event Finals. Hopefully the people who put the one-hour condensed version of the finals will have decided to show Amanda on bars and beam !... She has been training for over 10 years now and started out in recreational gymnastics, just like the majority of our members. Amanda has been coached by Michel Arsenault and Valerie Oudin for the last 8 years and is one of Canada's best female gymnasts, with her sights set on the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens ! Amanda trains on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7:00 to 9:00 am and from 2:30 to 5:30 PM; on Tuesday from 2:30 to 5:30 and on Saturdays from 12:00 to 5:00 PM. If you have a chance to see her train, you will certainly be able to appreciate her incredible dedication and work ethics. She is quite the model and hopefully an inspiration for younger gymnasts and for all Champions Gymnastics members; we are very proud of her.