The Canadian squad for the Commonwealth Games is composed of their top all arounders from Nationals, except for Moors – Ellie Black, Isabela Onysko, Stefanie Merkle, Victoria Kayen-Woo – plus an event specialist, Maegan Chant.
At a first glance, with four all arounders and a specialist, this roster seems well balanced. But if we take it piece by piece and if we look at the results of the recent Canadian Nationals, they will be relying heavily on Ellie Black to bring in the big numbers. The success of the team will depend tremendously on how Black herself will manage to cope with this responsibility.
She has upgraded immensely over the past months on three events: bars, beam and floor. But at Nationals, in May, we saw that the work was far from being complete. At that stage, she was tackling consistency, opting to present mostly watered down routines (except for beam), out of 5.4-5.6, in order to attain a certain stability. Black’s beam routine, out of 6.3-6.5 difficulty, could prove to be a major medal contender if hit.
Isabela Onysko has only recently found a place for herself at the top but she will be the second most valuable member of the team, probably set to compete all around. She earned her spot at Nationals by placing 2nd all around (3rd in qualifications), 2nd on bars, 1st on beam and 4th on floor. On bars, she competed the most difficult routine of the competition, with a 6.1 D, managing a top score of 14.35 during the AA final.
Maegan Chant is Canada’s chance for a medal in the floor and vault finals. She placed 9th in the AA at Canadian Nationals with other 3 placements in apparatus finals: 2nd place on vault, 4th on Beam and 2nd on floor. Her leverage will be her vast international experience and the fact that she has qualified in major event finals before.
Stefanie Merkle placed 4th all around at this year’s Nationals (5th after qualifications) and went on to compete in event finals on bars (7th), beam (3rd), floor (2nd). If needed, she will be able to contribute on any of these apparatuses.
Before Nationals, where she placed 5th all around, Victoria-Kayen Woo also competed this year at Gymnix and Nadia Comaneci International with consistent results. Her best events are vault and bars where she has the potential to score in the high 13s low 14s.
The loss of Victoria Moors at the last minute – for which no reason was communicated yet- could hurt the Canadian team’s medal count. On floor she is currently one of the top 4-5 elites in the world at this point, so she was considered a favorite for the gold. But the team also lost her double twisting Yurchenko and her difficult beam routine. The former was going to be one of the highlights of the competition based on difficulty alone (6.2 – switch leap switch half, bhs – layout to two feet, switch ring leap, side aerial, front aerial to leap, Cossack turn 2 ½, full in double back dismount).
For vault, the team will rely heavily on the duo Black-Chant, who can bring scores in the 14s, with difficulty in the mid 5s. The third vault will probably be a full twisting Yurchenko that can be delivered successfully either by Onysko or Merkle.
The top two athletes on bars at Canadian Nationals must be part the line-up on this event. Ellie Black has increased her difficulty and improved execution and consistency on bars and can score in the 14s, while Onysko has the most difficult set of the Canadians, out of 6.1. Here, the team will need a third routine from Victoria Kayen Woo, recently added to replace Victoria Moors.
On beam, the same duo, Black – Onysko, will be expected to lead the team with routines in the ‘14s; Stefanie Merkle who has lower difficulty but relatively good history of consistency will probably be supporting them with a score in the mid 13s.
Floor might turn to be Canada’s strongest piece. The line-up will be interesting to follow, with Chant, Black, Onysko and Merkle all capable of routines in the mid 5s.
Canada are looking strong as a team, capable of posting two good routines per event and a third less difficult but quite consistent third one.
Tell us your opinion: what are Canada’s chances to stand up to England? How will losing Moors affect their gold medal chances as a team?
Artistic Gymnastics begins tomorrow at the Commonwealth Games with the first day of qualifications and team finals.
[Schedule]
Article by: Bea Gheorghisor
Photo source: Brandonsun.com