Gymnasts take six gold in Thunder Bay

The Fort Frances Visserettes & Boys Gymnastics Club had a great meet in Thunder Bay last weekend.
Travis Hahkala, Karly Cameron, Jill Howarth, Cara Yellowega, Lisa Edwards, Chelsea Green, and Samantha Loveday all came home with gold medals.
Claire Crichton took the silver in her category and Michelle McFayden won the bronze. Brittany Rognerud placed second in the Pre-Novice category while Samantha Mickelson was fourth in the same category.
The coaches were very pleased with the results. All of the gymnasts performed well and their hard work has paid off.
Some 60 competitors from Northwestern Ontario vied for the honours at the meet hosted by Thunder Bay Gymnastics in the Dorothy Dove building. It was a long, gruelling meet which lasted from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Fort Frances Visserettes took 15 athletes.
Chelsea Green again was the top athlete of the meet with a total score of 32.19.
She performed very consistently, with a near-perfect mark of 8.7 out of 9 on the vault.
In the Novice 5 category, Claire Crichton placed first on vault and first on bars for a second place all-around silver medal.
Michelle McFayden placed first on the floor and third all around for the bronze medal while Janelle Williamson placed second on vault and second on floor for fifth place all around.
In the Pre-novice 4 category, Samantha Loveday topped the category for the gold medal. Skylar Odahl placed fourth, Alexandra Crichton placed fifth, and Janelle Taggart placed sixth.
These girls did very well considering it is their first year of competition.
In the Mini 4 category, Sara Kellar placed second on vault, fifth on beam, fourth on bars, and first on floor. Courtney Olson, in the same category, placed second on vault, fourth on beam, third on bars, and first on floor.
The girls were awarded with ribbons and plastic trophies at this level. It is considered an introduction to gymnastics competition.
We do have some talented gymnasts coming up from this group.
Sunday morning, the boys also competed in Thunder Bay. John Ans injured himself and withdrew from the competition, Joshua Stromness placed second in his category, and Travis Hahkala took the gold in his age group.
The girls and boys will be adding some new moves and polishing up those routines for the annual Springfest Meet to be held at the Fort Frances Gymnastics Academy on March 31-April 2.
70 athletes already have registered.
The Fort Frances Gymnastics Academy is offering a March Madness gymnastics camp for children five and up March 20-24. Call the gym (274-2966) for more information.
The last regular gymnastics will be March 11 and classes will resume again March 19.