By Charlie Pinkerton
Cross-city competitors finished within 0.025 points of each other for 1st place all around in the top division that Ottawa competitors squared off at the Ottawa Gymnastics Centre’s women’s artistic gymnastics qualifier.
The meet, held Mar. 2-4, hosted hundreds of competitors, but it was in the Level 8, Age 15 category that Ottawa athletes competed in the closest margin.
The Kanata GymnoSphere’s Madison Capretta edged the Ottawa Gymnastics Centre’s Izzy McKee 36.875-36.850 to win all around gold.
“I was really happy with my performance because I felt I had my best beam routine and vault of this year, so I was really happy with that,” McKee said. She came first in the beam and vault. McKee was last year’s Level 7 Ontario champion in her category. This is her first season competing in the Level 8 classification. McKee said she was pleased with how she fared on the floor and bars, both of which she finished second in, only behind Capretta at the meet.
Capretta said she was especially satisfied with her bars routine, which was the discipline that she scored the greatest differential over McKee.
“I think this has been my best season,” Capretta said, who like McKee, first got involved with gymnastics at three years old.
“I’ve really trained all my skills… and I really cleaned up my form,” she said about the improvement she’s made this year.
Based on finishes by the girls so far this season, both are expected to compete at the 2018 Ontario Provincial Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Windsor next month.
“I’m not as worried about my placement (at provincials) as I am with just having clean routines,” McKee said.