Skip to content

Gymnast topples her expectations

Great Expectations is a Dickens’ classic, what’s better is great results. A Mountain Shadows gymnast surpassed her expectations by coming home with a title from the Alberta Artistic Gymnastic championships in Fort McMurray on April 15.
Mountain Shadows gymnasts, from left, Riley Doyle, Callie Zacharias and Brooke Spurway finished in the top two in their divisions at the Alberta Artistic Gymnastic
Mountain Shadows gymnasts, from left, Riley Doyle, Callie Zacharias and Brooke Spurway finished in the top two in their divisions at the Alberta Artistic Gymnastic championships in Fort McMurray on April 15.

Great Expectations is a Dickens’ classic, what’s better is great results.

A Mountain Shadows gymnast surpassed her expectations by coming home with a title from the Alberta Artistic Gymnastic championships in Fort McMurray on April 15.

“I didn’t have my expectations too high because it was the whole province,” said Mountain Shadows’ Riley Doyle. “I went up there excited that I was competing on the Friday and then I could spend the rest of the weekend cheering on my friends.”

Mountain Shadows’ No. 1 supporter just happened to finish no. 1 in the province as Doyle, a Grade 6 student at Good Shepherd School, won the all around title at the JO 5 level at provincials.

You might as well make a nine-hour van trip worth your while.

Doyle made several trips to the podium as she won gold medals in the bars and the beam as well as a silver medal on the vault and the floor en route to capturing the overall title.

She got a confidence boost on the floor.

“I thought it was a personal best for me because floor isn’t the best for me,” she said. “I changed my lines (routine) in March. The floor routine was harder then, but I came out better than I was.”

Doyle got second on the vault, missing out on the top spot when teammate Kate Ayotte won the discipline.

She finished with a flourish, winning both the beam and the bars.

“Bars is my favourite and I was really confident going into bars,” Doyle said. “It’s like I can just go without thinking - all I think about is doing the best I can do.”

The judges’ definitely thought she was the best, giving her an impressive 8.975.

A strong performance in the beam would give her the all-around title, except she didn’t know it.

“Our coaches keep our scores from us so we can concentrate better on what we are doing,” she said. “Beam is not usually my strongest event. I’m usually a little bit wobbly. In warm-up, I fell, but then the coach told me to practice on the floor and it worked.”

Doyle still hadn’t figured out she won until her name was called.

“I didn’t think I would get first,” she said.

Her teammate and friend Ayotte was third overall.

The Doyles will have to find some extra space on their mantelpiece. Older sister Aidan won the provincial P3 in 2015.

“Aidan helps me because she has more experience,” Riley said.

Callie Zacharias just missed getting on top of the podium at provincials, as she was second in the all-around in JO 8 division.

Experience paid off for the young gymnast.

“All the other years I thought provincials was just so nerve-racking, but this year I just treated it like all the other meets,” the St. John Paul II Collegiate student said. “I wasn’t nervous at all.”

She shined in the vault and the floor taking the gold medal in both disciplines.

“It was my best floor of the year and I was really happy with it,” Zacharias said. “My vault was really good, I had a small step on my landing, but it went well.”

She completed a Tsuk-pike in winning the competition.

Zacharias had a fall in the beam, a slight error in a difficult routine.

However, because of the difficulty of her routine she still got a high score.

She also fell on the bars.

“I was pretty sad because I fell at a lot of meets this year so I was disappointed, but I’m just going to try harder for MMI (the Mountain Magic Invitational) next week and train for Westerns.”

Zacharias has qualified for the Western Canada Championships on May 5-7 in Richmond, B.C.

Brooke Spurway took the second medal in the all-around at the JO 6 level at Fort Mac.

“I thought I might get third or fourth, I didn’t think I would get second,” the Grade 5 Westmount School student said.

Her strongest performance was on top of the four-inch wide beam with a third-place finish this time around.

“The whole thing,” she said when asked what went well for her on the beam. “I didn’t wobble at all, but I stepped just a little on my dismount.”

She was the model of consistency finishing in the top 10 in the three other disciplines.

Spurway added that plenty of practice helped her after finishing 15th at provincials last year.

Mountain Shadows sent 24 athletes to provincials and came home with 23 medals.

They will host the Mountain Magic Invitational April 29-May 1 at the Pason Centennial Arena.

Following are the Mountain Shadows medal recipients at the Alberta Artistic Gymnastic championships in Fort McMurray April 15-17.

JO 5

Riley Doyle - Vault, 2nd; Bars, 1st; Beam, 1st; Floor, 3rd; All around, 1st. Kate Ayotte – Vault, 1st; Bars, 3rd; All around, 3rd

JO 6

Brooke Spurway - Beam, 3rd; All around, 2nd. Taylor Friesen – Bars, 3rd. Rebecca Lane – Beam, 2nd, Floor 3rd.

JO 7

Emilie Dionne - All around, 3rd; Aidan Doyle – Bars, 3rd.

JO 8

Callie Zacharias – Vault, 1st; Floor, 1st; All around, 2nd. Jennie Wojtula – Bars, 2nd; Beam, 1st. Lexie Zacharias – Beam, 3rd.

JO 9

Jordyn Bahr – Beam, 3rd.Victoria Paish – Vault, 2nd.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks