Mylah Vanden-Elsen (centre) took home a silver medal on vault and an all around sixth place in her Level 9 category at the Canadian championships for women's artistic gymnastics. (Louise Demers)

By Dan Marshall

National Stage

Nanaimo gymnast earns top results at Canadian Championships

Jun 15, 2022 | 1:13 PM

NANAIMO — Mylah Vanden-Elsen of the Nanaimo Gymnastics School has returned from her first Canadian Championships.

The 15-year-old competed as part of Team BC in Richmond between May 26-30 in the difficult Level 9 category and finished sixth all around in the finals of the two day event.

She had impressive individual results with a silver medal on vault, she was seventh on floor, ninth on beam and 25th on bars.

“It felt really great to be able to put everything out on the floor and not hold back,” Vanden-Elsen said. “Medaling on vault was definitely the highlight. I’m looking forward to Level 10 next year and being able to represent Team BC again.”

Team BC had an overall fourth place finish in Richmond missing the podium by a razor thin margin of .096 points.

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Coach Tracy Welbourn was extremely satisfied with the results for Vanden-Elsen.

“Mylah competed beautifully. She was calm and ready for this event and it showed in how she competed on both days. We’re really proud of her for coming out of the last two years and overcoming challenges to get to this point. The goal for her was to compete confidently and positively at her first nationals and she blew away through those expectations.”

Fellow coach Louise Demers said Vanden-Elsen is performing at a level rarely seen in Nanaimo.

“This is definitely the first time in over ten years an athlete has done this well at nationals in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. We hope we can continue to build on this and have representation at the national level again for our sport.”

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