Treyson Cerrato has earned a trip to Montreal.
The Surrey Gymnastic Society (SGS) member won the provincial championship in the National Open category last weekend in Port Coquitlam, earning top-three scores in three events to qualify for the national championships, May 23-28 at Montreal’s Claude Robillard Sports Complex.
“I don’t really want to say I was surprised, but I was real happy because I hadn’t won a meet this year and I wasn’t expected to win,” said Cerrato Tuesday at the SGS training facility. “A lot of people who heard my name called were kind of surprised.”
John Carroll, the competitive program director at SGS, noted Cerrato picked a good time to have his best meet of the season.
“Treyson started the year with a couple of injuries, and we didn’t know if he would really be ready,” said Carroll. “But in every competition from the beginning of March until now, he’s improved. The one last weekend was a real good meet for him.”
Cerrato, 15, won the gold medal on high bar, was the silver medalist on floor and parallel bars, and took the bronze medal on rings. He also placed sixth on vault. His lowest placing was on pommel horse, a seventh-place score, but Carroll said it was one of his better efforts of the weekend.
“Pommel horse has been a bit of an issue for him this year, but he put a pommel horse routine together that helped a lot,” said Carroll. “One of his strong events is high bar, he’s kind of unstoppable on high bar.”
Cerrato is looking forward to the national championship, adding it “would be nice to come away with a couple of medals.”
“The key is always just to focus on myself, and do in competition exactly what I do in training,” he said. “I won’t treat nationals any different than I would a local meet at the beginning of the year.”
“This is his first ever nationals, and he’s the youngest on the team,” added Carroll. “Mostly, we’re hoping he gets come good experience. But on high bar and parallel bars, if he hits those routines he might have a chance to make a final.”
SGS had several other gymnasts perform well at the provincial championship meet.
Luke Van Harmelen, 12, also won an all around gold medal. Competing in the Provincial 4 (under 13) category, Van Harmelen earned gold medals on parallel bars and high bar, won silver medals on pommel horse and rings, and was sixth on floor and vault.
Teammate Carter Baker, 11, was second all around in the Provincial 4 group, placing in the top six in five of six events. Baker was the gold medalist on floor, won silver on parallel bars and took bronze on pommel horse. He was also fifth on vault and sixth on high bar. Also winning an all around silver medal was Emanuel Gutierrez Sandoval in the Elite 4 category. Gutierrez Sandoval had the high score on high bar, and also won silver on floor and bronze on pommel horse and rings. The 13 year-old was fourth on vault and fifth on parallel bars.
Muzzammil Taziz placed third all around in the Provincial 4 group, winning two medals. The 14 year-old won gold on parallel bars and silver on floor. He was fourth on pommel horse, fifth on rings and high bar and sixth on vault.
Five SGS female gymnasts also performed well in Port Coquitlam, where nine-year-old Viktoria Duchesne won the all around bronze medal in the Aspire 1 group. Duchesne won the gold medal on bars, and placed fourth on vault and fifth on floor.
In JO8 (Junior Olympic) category, Alexa Cannon won the gold medal on vault and placed fourth all around. The 14 year-old was also sixth on floor, while teammate Eva Woodward was fifth on bars.
In the JO6 group, 13-year-old Monaeva Silveira won a bronze medal on bars and placed sixth on vault, 10-year-old Maren Paterson placed fifth on bars and sixth on beam, and nine-year-old Hannah Mahon won a silver medal on bars.
Five SGS gymnasts will compete at the Western Canadian Championships April 26-30. Duchesne, Gutierrez Sandoval, Van Harmelen, Baker and Taziz will all make the trip to Brandon, Manitoba.
rick.kupchuk@thenownewspaper.com
