Gymnasts fly high at provincials, nationals

Gymnasts from the local club were not only preparing to represent the city in provincial competition over the weekend, but were also gearing up for nationals this June in Calgary.

Coach Jocelyne Legault, who’s been with Les Sittelles since her mother founded it, says the club is sending eight qualifiers to provincials in Toronto, the same number as last year. “Generally we’ve been doing well,” she says. “We have good hopes for this year.”

Competitor Stephanie Bosse is just 14 years old but began training as a gymnast at age six. The young athlete, who made her second trip to provincials this year, says she’s not feeling nervous. “It’s just fun,” she explains when asked what drew her to the sport, adding that she feels most confident on the bar, one of four events making up the sport. The others are floor, beam and vault.

Melissa Butler is equally cool going into provincials. She’s been training for 10 of her 15 years and the 2008 provincials will be her sixth as a competitor. “My mom just said, ‘do you want to do gymnastics’ and I said, ‘sure,’” Butler recounts, with a laugh.

She says Les Sittelles has been a good place to train and, like Bosse, feels strongest in the bar event.

Butler has no ambitions to compete nationally and plans to ‘retire’ in time to attend university.

Les Sittelles coach Maryse Veilleux shepherds the club’s trampoline competitors.

As with gymnastics, trampoline consists of four events: individual, double mini — in which the athlete springs off a smaller trampoline and must perform two moves — tumbling and synchro. In the latter event, two athletes perform in concert.

The pool of competitive trampoline athletes at Les Sittelles range in age from seven to 20, Veilleux explains. The trampoline is far more forgiving to the body than other gymnastics events, she adds, meaning competitors are able to continue past an age when other gymnasts have to call it a day. “(Trampoline) has come up in the last five years quite a bit,” says Veilleux of the sport’s emerging profile. “Before then you would hear of it but there weren’t many programs available in Canada.”

Veilleux’s daughter, Elishia, is getting set for nationals, where she’ll compete in the double mini event.

The 20-year-old is an illustration of the greater longevity the sport allows and has an eye clearly focused on Olympic competition. She is currently competing at the novice level, just two away from the Olympic-level elite group. “It was one of my big dreams this year to go to nationals and represent the province,” she says. -- By Steve Fouchard Results from the provincial competition were not available at press time. More information is available at www.sittelle.ca