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Four Surrey gymnasts qualify for Team BC

Surrey Gymnastic Society members are off to Western Championships in Brandon, Man.
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Emanuel Gutierrez Sandoval was one of four members of the Surrey Gymnastic Society to qualify for the Western Canadian Championships in Brandon.

Four members of the Surrey Gymnastic Society (SGS) qualified for the Western Canadian Championships in Brandon, Manitoba next month.

Emanuel Gutierrez Sandoval, Muzzammil Taziz, Carter Baker and Luke Van Harmelen qualified at the Kamloops Invitational March 17-19, a meet which doubled as Team BC Trials for male gymnasts.

Baker and Van Harmelen qualified for Team BC in the Provincial 4 category, finishing one-two in the all-around standings. Baker, 11, won the all-around gold medal after posting the top score on pommel horse and placing third on floor and high bar, fourth on parallel bars and sixth on rings.

Van Harmelen, 12, was second in the all-around standings after he won a gold medal with the top score on high bar. He added a second-place score on pommel horse, and was fourth on rings, fifth on parallel bars and sixth on floor.

Taziz earned an all-around silver medal in the Provincial 5 group to make Team BC. The 14-year-old was first on rings, second on floor and high bar, third on pommel horse, fourth on parallel bars and fifth on vault.

Gutierrez Sandoval, 13, was fourth all-around in the Elite 4 category, after achieving scores which placed his second on pommel horse, third on vault, fourth on rings and fifth on parallel bars and high bar.

Competing in the National Open category, 15-year-old Treyson Cerrato placed seventh all-around after he was second on parallel bars, third on rings, fourth on high bar, fifth on floor and sixth on vault.

The SGS girls were at the Twisters Invitational in Abbotsford the same weekend, where Viktoria Duchene qualified for the Western Canadian competition as a member of Team BC in the Aspire 1 category. Duchess, 9, was third all-around in the group of gymnasts born in 2008. She was third on vault, bars and floor and placed fifth on beam.

Several other SGS gymnasts also fared well in Abbotsford, including three competitors in the Junior Olympic (JO) 8 group.

Maya Wilson, 11, was third on beam and floor to place 10th all-around in the 2005-07 group. In the JO8 group for athletes born in 2002, 14-year-old Alexa Cannon was fifth all-around after earning a gold medal on vault, and placing fourth on beam and sixth on floor. Teammate Eva Woodward, also 14, was fourth on bars and fifth on beam.

Alice Bashko, 12, was fifth on beam and placed sixth all-around in the JO7 2004-05 division. In the JO7 2003-04 group, 13-year-old Uliana Grichkovskaia was sixth on both vault and bars.

Monaeya Silviera, 13, was fifth all-around with a silver medal on vault and fifth-place scores on bars and floor in the JO6 2003-04 category. Elizabeth Colgan, 11, was third on bars, fifth on beam and sixth on floor in the JO6 2005-06 category.

Last weekend, SGS members again found themselves on the podium at the Twisters Gymnastics Invitational in Abbbotsford.

Gutierrez Sandoval placed fourth all-around in his division, winning silver medals on floor, vault and parallel bars, while also capturing bronze on pommel horse.

Cerrato, in the national open division, was third all-around after winning gold on high bar, silver on pommel horse and bronze on parallel bars.

Taziz was third all-around in his age category, too, with an individual silver on floor and bronze on pommel horse.

In the under-13 competition, Van Harmelen emerged as the overall champ, scoring silver medals on rings and parallel bars, while Baker was third overall, winning gold on high bar, silver on floor and bronze on parallel bars.

Next up for SGS athletes is BC Championships, slated for Port Coquitlam April 7-9.

– with files from Nick Greenizan