The Nanaimo Gymnastics School sent 37 athletes to the Island Championships in Port Alberni. Local athletes took home several first and second place finishes  at the final competitive event of the season. (Nanaimo Gymnastics)

By Dan Marshall

Island Championships

Competitive season ends on a high for Nanaimo Gymnastics School

Jun 20, 2024 | 9:31 AM

NANAIMO — The season has now ended for the elite competitive athletes at the Nanaimo Gymnastics School, but there’s one session remaining for their recreational students.

The Vancouver Island Championships took place June 1-2 in Port Alberni and coach Tracy Welbourn was very happy with the results.

“Overall we had 37 athletes compete at this event which is pretty exciting for our last event of the season. Nanaimo Gymnastics athletes all worked really hard and had a super positive attitude towards training and competing all year. It made all of us coaches very proud.”

Some of the youngest local athletes had the biggest impact on Welbourn as a coach.

“I think the highlight of the entire event was probably Eva Froats who got a perfect ten on her balance beam routine. That was pretty impressive, I’ve only had a perfect ten one other time in my gymnastics coaching career. Eva’s in Xcel Bronze which is our entry level group.”

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Froats was first all around and first on bars, beam, floor and third on vault.

She and her Xcel Bronze teammates took first place in the team category.

“In that same category Tessa Dunham was second all around and Willow Gardiner was third all around. Willow broke her leg 12 weeks before and only had two weeks of training before the event.”

There were impressive results through the different age groups and skill levels including a second place team finish in Xcel Silver.

Audrey Morley was first all around and was first in all of her events except for vault. Eilidh Robertson was second all around.

The Xcel Gold team took first place and Isla Jacklin was first all around and Celia Wood was third all around.

Nanaimo’s Level 4 and Level 6 gymnasts also took second place all around.

On Father’s Day the school hosted their season ending event called The Fun Meet.

“It’s for our recreational athletes,” Welbourn said. “It’s a chance for them to get to showcase their routines for their parents and families. That’s the final event of the year for those athletes.”

During the course of the gymnastics season several individual athletes shone through.

Two members of the school qualified for Team BC at the BC Winter Games.

“That team won gold with Blake Fudge and Emmelyn Szopa. We had Emmelyn qualify for Western Canadian Championships in April. It was her first time going to an event like that and she did really well. This year we also had three grads who were Level 9 or Level 10. Two of those athletes have NCAA scholarship in the United States. Blake and Emmelyn could both be in that Level 9 category next year.”

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