Canadian junior national team members and high performance gymnasts from various clubs across the country gained some valuable international experience and collected medals and trophies at the annual Élite Gym Massilia competition in Marseille, France during the November 16-18 weekend.
Open Massilia
In the Open Massilia team competition, the team “G.D.R. Canada” comprised of senior high performance gymnasts Laurie-Lou Vézina of Gym-Fly (Chateauguay, QC), Jessica Dowling of Dynamo Gymnastics (Cambridge, ON), and Laurie Gagnon of Les Reflexes (Boucherville, QC) earned the bronze medal with a score of 147.717 points, behind teams France Open Senior and France Open Junior. Their Open result qualified the women to advance to the international Master Massilia finals.
Team coach Jacinthe Emard of Gym-Fly posted some photos:
Also in the Open competition, the club team from Equilibrix (St-Constant, QC) placed fifth and marked the return to high performance competition of 2015 World team member and Canada Games team champion Audrey Rousseau. Senior Eloise Monat placed first all around in the competition with 51.450 points and earned the top score on beam.
Audrey Rousseau, Equilibrix
A mixed club team of juniors consisting of Rachel Riley of Bluewater (Sarnia, ON), Nyla Morabito of Niagara (Niagara Falls, ON), and Jenna Sartoretto of Futures (Mississauga, ON) finished in sixth place.
Cigales
In the Cigalettes Avenir competition, up-and-coming gymnast Élodie Langevin of Gym-Fly won the 2009-born age group. Kayla Lawrence of Gym-Fly finished fourth in the 2008-born age group.
In the Mini-Cigales competition, Alberta novices Malayna Ramos and Marisa de Groot finished first and second all around in the 12-14 years age group.
The Cigales Espoir 2007-born age group was won by Coquitlam, BC Club Aviva’s novice gymnast Sophie Patterson.
Massilia 2018 Cigales Espoir 2007-born age group results
Master Massilia
In the Massilia Masters competition, the Canadian junior (pre-senior) team of Mia St-Pierre of Gym-Fly (QC), Quinn Skrupa of Brandon Eagles (MB), Imogen Paterson of Flicka Gymnastics (North Vancouver, BC), and Lucia Jakab of Okanagan Gymnastics (Kelowna, BC) placed fifth. Individually, Mia St-Pierre finished with a bronze medal all around and qualified for all four apparatus finals.
Left to right: Lilia Akhaimova, RUS (4th), Léa Marques, FRA (gold), Carolann Heduit, FRA (silver), Mia St-Pierre, CAN (bronze)
Top Massilia
In the international apparatus finals, Canadians earned some medals on vault and bars. On vault, Rachel Riley of Bluewater Gymnastics won the silver medal and Mia St-Pierre of Team Canada won the bronze medal behind Lilia Akhaimova of Russia. Jessica Dowling of Dynamo Gymnastics won the bronze medal on bars. St-Pierre also placed sixth on floor and eighth on beam. Nyla Morabito of Niagara finished eighth on floor, while Amanda Pedicelli of Equilibrix finished ninth.
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