By Dan Plouffe
It was home sweet home for east-end gymnasts at the April 26-28 Tumblers Classic in Orleans. Athletes from Les Sittelles and Tumblers combined to sweep the all-around gold medals in each of the five categories during the third of seven sessions and had strong performances across the board throughout the weekend.
“It’s really fun because everyone can see what I can do,” explains Stephanie Lalonde, who was “surprised” to win the Level 5, Age 12 competition.
Three of Lalonde’s teammates from Les Sittelles were also called to the top step of the podium one after another, as Vanessa Laporte (L6 A11-12), Janique Boulet (L5, A9) and Julianne Rivet (L5, A10-11) each topped their all-around standings.
“I was super impressed with everybody,” says Laporte, adding the recipe to success wasn’t complicated. “It was just a lot of practice, I think.”
Juliette Chapman took the all-around title in the national Aspire category as she and five Tumblers teammates leapfrogged one another for positioning on different apparatuses.
“Gymnastics is a permanent competition with yourself, first of all, but when you have girls at the same level, they are pushing each other,” highlights Tumblers coach Alina Florea. “All of them are very competitive and they don’t like being behind, so they’ll work more and more to catch the others. It’s very good to have teammates like that.”
Also winning all-around titles were Emma Dobson-Takoff from Ottawa Gymnastics Centre (L4, A11), Tumblers Caroline Poirier (L8, A11+) and Melissa Mojsej (Masters), and Julina Benjamin (L4, A10+), Emilie Lalonde (L5, A13-14), Mia Haché (L6, A9-10) and Gabrielle Bonneville (L4, A9) – all from Les Sittelles, who also hosted an invitational meet the following weekend at their club.