Source: Gymnastics Canada
BAKU, AZE (September 22, 2019) – The 2019 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships wrapped up in Baku, AZE on Sunday with the apparatus finals in the group competition, and Russia capturing their eighth gold medal of these Championships with a win for their 3 hoops + 2 sets of clubs routine. Japan broke Russia’s strangle hold on the top of the podium, taking gold in the 5 balls competition.
The Canadian group recorded scores of 22.400 for their 5 balls routine, and a new personal best score of 23.050 for their 3 hoops + 2 sets of clubs routine for a total score of 45.450. Russia took gold in the all-around group competition with a total score of 58.700. Japan captured silver with a total score of 58.200, while Bulgaria took the bronze with a total score of 58.000.
The Canadian group featuring Carmel Kallemaa, Diana Noskova, Vanessa Panov, Carmen Whelan, and Alexandra Zilyuk, all of Toronto, finished their competition on Friday after finishing 20th overall in the qualifying rounds of the all-around – a move up of three in the overall country rankings from last year’s World Championships.
“We’re super pleased with our performances at these World Championships,” said Panov on behalf of the group. “We prepared very hard for this moment and the feeling was incredible seeing that all of our hard work paid off. We were definitely excited to showcase our hoops & clubs routine as we made a lot of changes to the choreography as well as to the music (following the Pan Am Games). We were pleased to hear that the crowd loved it and the judges scored us with 3 points higher than at Pan Am Games.”
The next opportunity for our rhythmic gymnastics group and individual athletes to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo will be the Continental Championships, set to take place in the USA next May.
“We have come a long way for the short time we have been competing together as a new team,” added Panov, “From here on until the qualifiers in May, we will be adding a lot more training hours in our new facility at the Markham Pan Am Centre, and of course pushing ourselves even harder during these next important months of prep.”