Michael Chaves takes Bronze in Coinbra, Portugal

Oakville's Michael Chaves stepping onto the podium at the World Cup in Coinbra, Portugal to accept his Bronze Medal.  Michael's second international medal finish.

The Men's Medalists from the Coimbra World Cup: Kristof Wilterton (Great Britain silver). Rasmus Steffensen (Denmark gold), Michael Chaves (Canada Bronze).

Kristof Wilterton of UK former World Champion and Michael who now trains with Kristof.

Canadian tumbler Michael Chaves wins bronze medal in Portugal

COIMBRA, POR (July 9, 2016) – Michael Chaves of Oakville, Ontario captured the bronze medal in tumbling at the World Cup in Coimbra, Portugal on Saturday.

 The competition was not smooth sailing for all competitors, with many athletes missing passes, including Chaves, who suffered from a fall during his first pass and lost three points.  Fortunately, Chaves was able to recover and perform a solid pass to cement himself into third place.

“After not being able to tumble for eight months due to a severe foot injury, I came back more motivated than ever,” said Chaves, “I trained very hard for this competition and all of my hard work shows in my results at this World Cup.”  Chaves is first generation Portuguese living in Canada, so this podium finish was even more special; “all my family was born and raised in Portugal, it meant so much to me to come back here and do well. I was able to show what I have accomplished living in Canada while being Luso-Canadian (first generation).”

Tumbling teammate Erin Templeton of Calgary, Alberta finished eight overall in the Women Tumbling final after she was unable to complete her second pass.  This was Templeton’s first World Cup in over a year having just returned from an Achilles tendon rupture.

Stephan Duchesne, High Performance Director for trampoline gymnastics at Gymnastics Canada was very pleased with the tumbling performances this weekend, “it was the first time in four years that we have has a male tumbler win a medal.”

 Samantha Smith of Toronto, Ontario concluded the trampoline competition in seventh place while breaking the World Record for difficulty (value of 16.2) during the finals.  Smith sat in fourth place after preliminaries, with a score over 100 points for the first time. “I am really happy with how I did,” said Smith, “it was a great way to end off the season.  My goal was to break the world difficulty record and I am proud to have set a new record.”

Sarah Milette of Quadrotramp, Quebec finished 13th breaking her personal best with a score of 97.290.  “I am really happy as I completed two new routines,” said Milette, “it was a good World Cup for me, I’ve never done routines with such strong degrees or difficulty.”

Bronte Dundas of Kitchener, Ontario finished 21st with 89.345 points and Sophiane Methot also from Quadrotramp, Quebec finished with 62.300 points in 29th.

Méthot and Milette also competed in synchronized trampoline. They completed both routines but the synchronization was lacking in both routines and it cost them many points as they finished 11th and didn't move to finals.