A trio of young Surrey Gymnastic Society members combined to sweep all three podium spots at B.C. Gymnastics Championships last weekend at the Langley Events Centre.
In the Provincial 3 under-13 division, Luke Van Harmelen won the all-around gold medal, while teammates Brady Reeleder and Timofey Azhogin took silver and bronze all-around medals, respectively.
En route to his all-around gold, Van Harmelen took top spot in rings, parallel bars and high bar, tied for silver on pommel horse and was fourth in vault and fifth on floor.
Reeleder – who finished just 0.20 total points behind Van Harmelen – won gold on pommel horse, silver on parallel bars and bronze on floor. Azhogin’s individual highlights included silver-medal wins on floor and pommel horse (in which he tied Van Harmelen), and bronze on rings.
At the Provincial 5 level, 14-year-old South Surrey resident Treyson Cerrato was crowned all-around provincial champion for the fourth year in a row, winning gold on rings, parallel bars and high bar, and bronze on pommel horse, en route to an all-around gold medal.
Other SGS boys to finish with strong all-around scores included 13-year-old Muzzammil Taziz, who was third overall in Provincial 4 competition, highlighted by a pommel-horse gold and high-bar bronze; and Reggie Quintana, an 11-year-old South Surrey resident who was fifth in Provincial 2 competition – winning bronze on high bar – and Emanuel Gutierrez Sandoval, 12, who was fifth all-around in the Elite 4 division, winning a silver on vault along the way.
In the girls competition, SGS gymnast Maria Bashko, 12, won a bronze medal on the floor in the Junior OIympic 8 (J08) category, while Anna Polunocheva, 11, was fourth on bars in the JO6 division.
South Surrey’s Viktoria Duchesne, 8, won gold on bars and finished seventh all-around – out of a field of 30 – while Uliana Grichkovskaia finished second on bars to round out the medal haul.
The provincials came just a few weeks after a number of SGS’s female gymnasts fared well at Zone 3 Championships.
At zones, 10-year-old Talya Jalbert, competing in the J03 category, took home the AA gold medal after first-place finishes on bars and floor, while winning silver medals on the vault and beam.
In the same category, Chloe Dickson, 11, placed fifth overall after a gold-medal performance on the beam and a sixth-place finish on the floor.
Hannah Mahon, 8, brought home an all-around bronze medal in the J03 competition after placing third on the beam, fourth on bars and fifth in the vault.
As well, Maya Wilson, 10, took home a silver all-around medal after winning a gold medal on beam and floor, and bronze on bars. In the same category, Melissa Piliotis, 10, was seventh in the all-around rankings, winning bronze on floor.
In the J07 division, 14-year-old Eva Woodward was sixth on the vault, while Bashko, competing at the J08 level, was fourth on the floor.
Alexis Cannon, 14, rounded out the SGS performances with a fifth-place finish in the vault.
