LONGUEUIL, Que. -- Oshawa Airport's Gemini Gymnastics is flying high with victory. At the Eastern Canadian Championships held last weekend in Longueuil, Quebec, all nine Gemini athletes ranked in the top five overall with their Ontario Teams at the top of the podium.
Ontario champs, Daijha Heron and Natalie Vaculik, both from Whitby, and Riley Cholod from Bowmanville sweetened their victories by adding the title of Eastern Canadian champion to their growing list of accolades. The Eastern Canadian meet drew hundreds of top provincial and national level athletes from the six eastern provinces, including Ontario.
For Heron, it was a gold medal sweep in the Provincial Tyro 4 category. The 12-year-old excelled on all four events bringing home five gold medals.
In the P-Tyro 5 division, the highest provincial level, Natalie Vaculik, also 12, proved to be the best in her category. Vaculik took gold for vault, silver for floor and bronze for beam and bars to claim her title.
In P-Novice 5, Riley Cholod, 13, was solid on all four events winning gold on vault and bars and silver on beam and floor to rank first overall.
Brooklin's Hannah Smith was the overall silver medallist next to Heron. She earned bronze medals on bars, beam and floor and placed sixth on vault.
Oshawa's Brianna Sitwell also performed well in this category taking fourth for beam and floor, seventh on vault and 10th on bars to rank fifth overall in Eastern Canada.
Oshawa's Sasha Vedenin won overall silver in the P-5 Novice category taking home gold for beam and floor, bronze on vault and fourth on bars. Teammate Jordyn Kent from Peterborough was the bronze overall medallist with silver for bars, bronze for floor, sixth on beam and seventh on vault.
Oshawa's Rachael Snider and Blackstock's Katherine Partington also won bronze overall in their respective categories. In P-3 Novice, Snider took silver on beam, bronze on bars and floor and fourth on floor while Partington won bronze for vault and beam, fourth for bars and seventh for floor in the P-4 Senior division.