Staff
Three Meaford gymnasts have tumbled, swung, vaulted, and balanced their way to the Gymnastics Ontario provincial championships.
Shae Acres has qualified to compete in Level 3 age 10, Kya Graham Level 3 age 13, and Tayah Davies Level 4 age 11.
These athletes train 11-15 hours a week out of Dancemakers in Owen Sound, under the direction of coaches Mijka Hooper, Jen Shevalier, Jes Morris, and Chloe Robinson. In addition to practising their routines on each apparatus, each training session generally includes approximately two hours of conditioning – these girls know the meaning of abs of steel.
In order to earn the opportunity to compete with Ontario’s best gymnasts, the girls competed in three provincial qualifiers on all apparatus – floor, bars, beam, and vault. Their two best all around scores, which is the total of the scores on each apparatus, were averaged and ranked against all gymnasts at their age and level.
Kya’s favourite event is beam as she says it comes most naturally for her. She is known around the gym as the ‘Beam Queen’. Shae prefers floor, as it allows her to be expressive, and vault, for all the power it requires. Her goals at Provincials include a perfect floor routine and an awesome vault. Tayah, whose coaches say she has the gymnastics style of former Russian Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin, performs best on floor and bars, where she can showcase both her strength and beautiful lines.
The three will compete the weekend of June 10-12 at the Quinte Bay Gymnastics Club in Belleville. We wish them the best of luck and as they say in the gymnastics world, “Just stick it!”
