MacDonald advances to national gymnastics championship

Shelby MacDonald will leap into the Canadian Nationals Gymnastics Championships after a strong showing at the provincials on the weekend.

Needing a top 13 result to qualify for the nationals, MacDonald placed ninth overall in the High Performance National Novice Category at the Elite Ontario Championships on Saturday in Sarnia.

MacDonald will now prepare for the national event which takes place May 31 to June 6 at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga.

MacDonald, in her fifth year of competition, has blossomed with the addition of different skills to her routine. In Sarnia, MacDonald finished eighth for a Yurchenko Piked Vault and placed eighth again in the floor exercise.

"In preparing for the upcoming meet, Shelby will be adding new difficulty to her routines, and will be focusing extra attention on her vault and balance beam routines where she has the ability to be a contender in the event finals," said the Sault Gymnastics Club's Tannis Weeks.

"She has a real flare on the beam, and has quite an intricate and difficult exercise currently. To add to that will increase her start value, and if she can stay on the beam, she will have a great chance to make a top 10 finish for Canadian balance beam in the National Novice division."

MacDonald is looking forward to the experience at the national level and the chance to compete as a team with other top gymnasts from the province.

"As the Olympic games approach, there seems to be more and more interest in the sport of gymnastics, and it is an amazing feat that this young athlete will attend Nationals this season, and will have the chance to train and spend a week with fellow Canadian national athletes, some of which will be a part of the Canadian Women's and Men's Olympic Teams this summer in Athens," said Weeks.

PHOTO: Shelby MacDonald performs a switch ring leap on the floor during practice.