Canada finishes historic fourth in women’s team finals at 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships

Team Canada rewrote the history books on Tuesday at the 2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, placing just off the podium in fourth position in the women’s team final behind the USA, Russia, and China respectively.

“I’m so proud of the girls today,” said veteran team member Ellie Black of Halifax, NS. “They went out and did their jobs – we had a few mistakes, but there were so many positives, so many good parts of the day. We ended up making history coming fourth as a team in team finals – our best-ever result, and we couldn’t be more happy with that. I think we represented Canada just the way we like to – with a smile, and aggression, and never giving up.”

The team, composed of Black, Sophie Marois of Île Bizard, QC, Brooklyn Moors of Cambridge, ON, Shallon Olsen of Surrey, BC, and Ana Padurariu of Whitby, ON scored a total of 161.644 over the four apparatus – slightly lower than their qualifying score of 163.987, but enough to retain their position just off of the podium which bodes well for Olympic qualifying at next year’s World Championships in Stuttgart, GER. The top-3 teams in today’s competition directly qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, JPN.

“Today went really well. We had a couple of little mistakes, but a whole lot of great routines – but every country can say exactly the same thing,” said team coach David Kikuchi. “It’s so encouraging to be up near the podium twice in a row, and to prove that it wasn’t a fluke on day one, and that we are becoming a force to be reckoned with.”

The men’s individual all-around finals take place tomorrow, but will unfortunately not feature Rene Cournoyer of Repentigny, QC who has had to withdraw due to injury. The women’s individual all-around finals take place on Thursday and will feature Black and Moors. The competition will wrap up with the apparatus finals on Friday and Saturday which will see Black and Olsen compete on vault on Friday, and Padurariu and Black competing on beam on Saturday, as well as Moors competing on floor.

For the full schedule and results visit: https://live.gymnastics.sport/schedule.php?idevent=13335

Source: Gymnastics Canada