NEWS FROM SOFIA, BULGARIA:
HOST OF THE
23RD TRAMPOLINE AND TUMBLING
WORLD AGE GROUP
CHAMPIONSHIPS
Sofia Bulgaria is both the Capital and the largest city in
Bulgaria. It is a city rich in history,
dating back 2400 years and is one of Europe’s oldest cities!
With all of its rich history, Sofia will also have in its
books that it was host of the 29th World Championships and 23rd
World Age Group Championships for Trampoline and Tumbling!!
Upon arriving in Sofia, we immediately took the athletes to
the gym to watch and support our Canadians compete in team as well as some
individual finals......and to help ward off our jet leg!!
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Senior Men's Tumblers from Canada: far left is John Schwaiger and Vincent Lavoie, laso in the mix is David Findlay and Junior Charpentier-Leclerc. |
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World Champions in Senior Men's Tumbling Great Britain and two Russians. |
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World Champions in Senior Women's Tumbling. China's FengFeng Jia gold. |
We got to see silver medal finishes by our Men’s and Women’s
Double Mini Trampoline teams.
As well as, we were there to see Rosie MacLennon win her
first ever World Championship title (she is currently our Olympic
Champion)! What a great honor we had in
singing our National Anthem for the final event at World Championships! I knew this would be a huge motivation for
all of the members of the younger team for their upcoming week of competition!
Pic of: Cathedral Saint Alexander Nevsky
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OGC Tumblers with Niki on route to Sofia. (l-r: Niki, Ben, Savanna, Haven, Michael, Nate.) |
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Don't get lost and don't take pictures of me. |
Pic of: St. George
Rotunda
St George Rotunda is an Early
Christian red brick rotunda that is considered the oldest
building in Sofia. It was built by the Romans
in the 4th century. It is believed that it was built on the site of a pagan
temple, though the original purpose of the building was for public use.
All of our athletes got to take part and watch the Opening
Ceremonies of the Games and I was honored to be chosen to read the coaches’
oath.
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Inside the competition hall at the 2013 World Age Group Championships. |
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Niki delivering the Coach's Oath. |
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Nate was the tallest in the 13/14 Boys tumbling category. |
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Haven was the smallest in her 13/14 Girls category. |
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Haven during her march in for the finals. |
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Haven and Niki waiting to compete Haven's last tumbling line during the final round. |
Competition Day 1:
Nathaniel St. Romain and Haven Swarts debut as the youngest
of the Canadian Team. Both had amazing
performances in the 13-14 age category!
They both achieved their goals of successfully landing both of their
preliminary passes. In a tough catgory,
Nate showed 2 great passes and ended in 14th place.
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Nate mid flip at WAGs. |
Haven had the competition of her life and ended up in 4th
after her preliminary round! Considering
her goal was to come in the top 10, this was a fantastic achievement!
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Haven spotting the floor mid whipback. |
Later that day, Haven performed in her first finals
competition (top 8) of a World Championships.
She had a slight rhythm break, which caused her to land short in her end
skill (a full-in tuck). Due to the
structure of Worlds, being fresh-start (going back to 0 for finals), this
pushed her to 8th position, which is still an amazing result for
Team Canada! Canada has not had a female
in the 13-14 age group category make it to finals in over a decade!
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The 2013 Canadian Trampoline and Tumbling World Age Group Team. |
Day 2:
The second day of competition saw Savannah Wepf compete in
the 15-16 age category. She struggled
somewhat with the equipment in Sofia, resulting in her faltering in
preliminaries and having a disappointing finish on her second pass.
Day 3:
Michael Chaves and Ben Senior competed on day 3 of competition. It was a really strong 17-18 category for the
boys. Ben was one of the most consistent
athletes in training all week. He had a
small hand touch at the end of his first pass and then had a rhythm break in
the middle of his 2nd pass, causing him to have a fall at the end of
his pass.
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Michael Chaves mid triple back tuck. |
Michael had 2 strong preliminary passes that resulted in a 3rd
place finish after his second pass. That
evening, in finals, he unfortunately had a fall on his triple back tuck that
pushed him to 6th.
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All dressed up for the closing function at the World Age Group Championships. |
Over all, OGC athletes had a great experience and
represented their Country, their club, coaches and themselves very well!
Haven, Nate, Savannah, Mike and Ben, OGC is proud of you!!!