Glacier Gymnasts steal spotlight at BC Championships
By Contributor
The Glacier Gymnastics team turned some heads at the 2024 BC Championships in Vancouver this past weekend, taking home the first place level 7 team trophy and two medals in the 1st BC Championships event finals.
The seven gymnasts from Nelson’s Glacier Gymnastics Club also brought home 16 medals, including 4 All Around titles and 12 top-ten placement ribbons.
The Canadian Competitive Level 7 team competed against 33 other gymnastics clubs across BC to capture the first Place Team Award.
Most of the five-member team only moved into level 7 midway through this season.
“This was an unexpected and fantastic result from this young team,” said Head Coach, Sandra Long.
Leading the Level 7 team to victory was Molly Anderson, claiming the 2006-2007 age group all-around gold title. She also won gold on bars, beam and floor, and 8th on vault.
In the 2009-2010 category, Rebecka van Hellemond also won the all around gold title, with a bronze medal on bars, beam, and floor, and seventh on vault.
She was followed by teammate Anika Denkovski, who captured the bronze all-around, silver on beam, seventh on floor, ninth on bars, tenth on vault.
In the 2008-2009 age group, Jersey Skolka captured all-around silver, gold on bars, silver on floor, fifth on vault and tenth on beam. Also in this age group, Emerson Mandseth, coming off a recent injury, was fourth on vault, ninth on beam and tenth all around.
In the level 7 Beam event finals, which brought together the best of the 156 level 7 gymnasts for an ultimate final championship, Glacier’s Molly Anderson dazzled the judges with a near perfect routine and easily took the gold medal with a score of 9.8, teammate Anika Denkovski was close behind in fifth place, missing the podium by 0.025.
Glacier’s Level 7 Team wins 1st place team award at the 2024 BC Gymnastics Championships
Left-right: Anika Denkovski, Jersey Skolka, Emerson Mandseth, Rebecka van Hellemond, Molly Anderson. — Submitted photos
The two Canadian Competitive Level 6 gymnasts had some tough competition in the lower mainland. In the 2009 age group Elsa Troutet had a near flawless routine to capture the bronze medal on beam and was 12th all around. In the 2010-2011 age group, Lillianna Mucha was ninth on bars and beam and 11th all around.
Mucha was very close to a podium finish on beam and in the all around, an uncharacteristic fall took her out of podium contention.
“With more big competition experience next season, the level 6 gymnasts will gain better nerve control, said Long.
“We will likely see these gymnasts on top of the podium next season at BC Championships.
Long said the coaches and members of Glacier are very proud and overwhelmed by the success of its gymnasts this season.
“There is a lot of unseen hard-work and dedication behind these results. It was amazing to watch the team overcome so many challenges and to see how prepared and confident everyone was, especially in an environment that can appear to be intimidating.”
The Glacier Team will now focus on preparing for the Kootenay Zone Championships, which the club is hosting April 26-28.
Molly Anderson (left) placed first and Anika Denkovski, fifth out of 156 Level 7 gymnasts in at the BC Championships Beam Event Final.
