By Dan Plouffe
Samuel Zakutney is a national champ again. But unlike last year, the standout National Capital Competitive Boys Gymnastics athlete’s victory was quite a bit more improbable this time.
Zakutney acknowledges that thoughts of a Canadian title were far from his mind earlier this season when he was forced to miss the Elite Canada meet due to a back injury. Add to that the fact that the Grade 8 Franco-Cité student had moved up from the Argo high-performance age class to Tyro and had lower start values for degree of difficulties than his older competitors and the odds for a gold medal grew longer.
“The reason I won was that I was so clean,” says Zakutney, who was solid in placing second on every apparatus outside of an 11th on high bar and first on parallel bars en route to all-around gold. “I was just really impressed. I was surprised. And I’m just really happy that all that hard work paid off.”
Eric Gauthier earned a piece of Tumblers Gymnastics Centre history by becoming the first athlete from his club to compete in a Canadian championship event final, where he placed sixth in the National Youth floor competition.
It was a big step forward for Tumblers, notes coach Nick Grimard, who also had Scott Macfarlane competing in the National Open class.
“The goal this year was to qualify at least one athlete for nationals,” highlights Grimard, who also enjoyed the learning experience of attending his first Canadians as a coach. “So having two of them was amazing. I’m now just looking forward to getting back to the gym to start preparing for next year.”
Ottawa Gymnastics Centre’s Bruno Webster earned National Youth silver in the rings event final, while teammate Taylor Jackle Spriggs was a National Open champion in the pommel horse event and won bronze on floor.
Spring Action trampolinist Jonathan Arsenault teamed up with Benjamin Tyo to earn novice men’s synchro bronze. Tyo also claimed double mini-trampoline gold, while his younger brother Vincent won trampoline silver and DMT bronze in the novice men’s 11-14 class.
Ottawa was also represented in the rhythmic gymnastics competition, as Lucinda Nowell participated in her first senior women’s national championships. The 15-year-old Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club athlete placed ninth in hoop, 12th in ball, sixth in clubs, and fifth in ribbon en route to a seventh-place finish all-around against the country’s top individuals.