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Calgary’s Gafuik leads Canadian medal haul at gymnastics World Cup in Montreal
Posted Sunday, March 7, 2010
MONTREAL -- Calgary’s Nathan Gafuik got things going with a gold medal on vault and his teammates chipped in for three more medals on Sunday to bring the Canadian medal haul to seven over two days of competition at the season-opening gymnastics World Cup.
Gafuik scored 16.025 in the six-man vault final for his first World Cup gold medal, edging Shusuke Kikuchi of Japan at 15.900.
Nine-year national team veteran Ken Ikeda of Abbotsford, B.C., won his second silver medal of the meet, placing second on parallel bars behind Kyoichi Watanabe of Japan.
Kevin Lytwyn of Stoney Creek, Ont., won a bronze medal on parallel bars to add to the gold and bronze he won Saturday on rings and floor respectively, and Jackson Payne of Edmonton earned a bronze on high bar.
Gafuik, one of just three holdovers from Canada's Beijing Olympic team, was happy with both the execution and the scores on both of his vaults, particularly the second one with two and a half somersaults which he landed for the first time in a major competition.
“Generally at world championships you need to score over 16 points to make it to finals and I managed to average that over two vaults, so that’s a good sign on I’m on the right track,” said Gafuik.
Gafuik ran into problems in his other final on high bar and placed 7th.
Three finals were held on both Saturday and Sunday following qualifications on Friday.
In the Gymnix International Cup, held at the same time as the World Cup, Kristina Vaculik of Whitby, Ont., was the class of the field for the second straight day, winning finals on floor, uneven bars, and
beam to add to the all around title she won on Saturday.
“I didn’t come into the finals thinking I wanted to top what I’d done in the all around,” said Vaculik, who missed most of last year with an elbow injury.
“I just tried to do the best I could on each apparatus and I did.”
Anysia Unick of Calgary won gold in the vault competition.
In the Youth Cup, which included teams from Russia and Romania, Canadian gold medal winners were Brianna Tsang, of Burnaby, B.C., on vault, Madeline Gardiner of Cambridge, Ont., on beam and Riley Cholod of Bowmanville, Ont., on uneven bars.
No Canadians reached the podium on floor as Dianna Laura Bulimar of Romania took the gold and Russian gymnasts the silver and bronze.
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