Ontario gymnastics competition held in Windsor

by Marissa DeBortoli

The stands at the St. Denis Centre were filled April 6 as Rose City Gymnastics hosted the 2013 Ontario Artistic Gymnastics championships.

Over four days, 1,200 athletes between the ages of nine and 18 from 60 clubs across Ontario competed to qualify for the Canadian Championships.

Approximately 25 Windsor athletes will compete in the championships, 15 from Rose City and the rest split between Vista, Winstars and Alpha Academy. A top-eight finish in the national novice division will qualify an athlete for nationals. National level athletes have the possibility of competing as part of Canada’s Olympic team in Rio de Janeiro.

This is the third year Rose City has hosted the championship and the second year boys and girls have competed at the same venue. The 2012 championships in Ottawa marked the first time in almost 20 years both boys and girls shared the same venue for provincial supremacy.

“The idea (of combining the championships) is to celebrate and promote the sport of gymnastics,” said executive director of Gymnastics Ontario, David Sandford, in an interview with Gymnastics Ontario. “It gives the spectators and fans a chance to see both.”

Sabrina Slama is the recreation director for Rose City Gymnastics and helped organize the championship event.

“The event’s going really well and we got a lot of people showing up from all over the town and all over province, so it’s been a really good turn out so far,” said Slama.

The competition ran April 4-7.