By SEAN ROONEY on April 17, 2019.
srooney@medicinehatnews.com@MHNRooney
Sometimes things don’t quite go as planned at the biggest event of the season.
Though two of its athletes medalled at the Alberta Gymnastics Federation’s provincial championships this past weekend, Medicine Hat’s Salta Gymnastics Club is looking more at what they learned and what’s to come for their bright young stars.
“These guys have been on the top for the last four years, and at some point they’re going to have to learn what it’s like not to be on top as well, and how to deal with those emotions,” said coach Rebecca Schmal. “That in itself was a big learning curve for them. How they handled that? With a lot of grace, a lot of tact, and we’re proud of them for that.”
It’s not as though the trio of Olivia Chenard, Kristen Friesen and Ria Thacker had a poor showing in Edmonton. Chenard’s 9.700 on the floor exercise won a gold medal, and Friesen was second in the same Junior Olympic Level 7 event with a 9.616.
But falls and miscues left both off the podium in the all-around scoring, and Thacker slipped out of the top 10 in her Level 6 division thanks to a pair of falls on her final event, balance beam.
“You have to get back up even if you fall and stuff like that,” said Chenard, already showing maturity at the age of 10. “I fell on bars and beam. I cried.
“And then I got back up.”
In the bigger picture, all three are set to work on new skills this summer that will see them step up to new divisions in the fall. Thacker will aim for Level 7 and a potential spot at the Alberta Winter Games in 2020. Chenard and Friesen could reach Level 8, too high to try out for the Games but exciting for their future prospects in the sport.
One skill in particular was exciting for Thacker to nail at provincials.
“On bars I did my cast hand stand, which I’ve never done in competition before,” said the 12-year-old. “I wasn’t too scared because I knew I could do it.
“It felt really good.”
Her score of 9.300 on bars was good for eighth in the 24-girl division. She was ninth on vault and floor, netting personal bests in all three of those events, and was 15th in the all-around.
Friesen wasn’t available for interview Tuesday but her coaches were impressed with how she dealt with a fall.
“After her first fall she said ‘yeah,’ she shrugs her shoulders, ‘it is what it is. We still have beam. Let’s go,'” said Schmal.
“Beautiful how she reacted. She could have fallen apart. She didn’t. She stayed on beam and it was a good strong finish.”
Salta hosted the compulsory championships for Level 3, 4 and 5 athletes a weekend earlier, and their athletes still have a couple meets left on the schedule in May – one in Okotoks, the other in Canmore.
Chenard’s already looking forward to trying some Level 8-worthy flipping vaults, while Thacker’s goal for her next two events is not to fall on the balance beam.
Regardless of how they do in May, there’s still lots of time to practice this summer.
“Would we have loved to have seen better results? Of course,” said Schmal. “But at the end of the day they tried their best, and they really did what they were supposed to, it just didn’t come together at that right time and that’s OK.”