The 2019 Yukon Championships for gymnastics were held on Saturday at the Polarettes Gymnastics Club gym.

The gymnasts, ranging from Junior Olympic (JO) 1 to JO 9, competed in five events: vault, bars, beam, floor, and all around.

The Championships had 50 athletes compete, most from the competitive stream, but others not in the competitive side yet also competed.

“We have a team called performance team,” said Polarettes coach Kimberly Jones. “It is kind of a bridge program between recreational and competitive and some of those kids competed as well. They competed in JO 2 and did pretty well.”

Jones said the club usually does not bring the JO 1 and 2s Outside for competitions but that the Yukon Championships are a good way to give them a feel for competitive meets.

“We’ve got certified judges on all the events and we are doing the awards the exact same way,” said Jones. “They have the same warm-up times, and the judges all dress up so it seems very formal to what they usually do in the gym. We really teach them exactly what it will be like to compete in the south.”

Jones was a judge for the meet and said it gave her a different perspective on the young gymnasts.

“If I’m just coaching I just see the girls I always work with,” said Jones. “If I’m judging I get to see every single kid come in front of me. That’s why I love judging Yukon Championships.”

An admitted strict judge, Jones said a lot of the girls in the JO 3, 4, 5 categories had very good scores.

“I saw a lot of really great gymnastics,” said Jones. “I never know what to expect at Yukon Champs because I don’t see all of these girls every single day. We had some kids scoring 9.7 out of 10 which is very good quality.”

Jones said the gymnastics displayed by those JO categories was especially encouraging because some of those athletes will be heading to an Outside tournament in a few weeks.

The higher JO levels did more of a demonstration, according to Jones, because the club is still building and is expecting to see more high-level gymnasts in the future.

“Hailey (Sherman) and Maude (Molgat) did more of a demonstration,” said Jones. “They both upgraded their routine and tried out new stuff for next season and did really well with it. Our JO 6s had a really great meet as well.

“It’s fun for them because they get to be an inspiration for the younger athletes. It is by far the smallest meet they will do at this point of the season. When they get to see the look of the younger kids who say ‘I want to do that’ and you understand why you are going through that and doing your routines.”

For a lot of the athletes who travel down south for competitions, this is the first time their families get to watch them compete.

“The families get to come out and this is a big part of this meet,” said Jones. “A lot of the time, it gets so expensive to travel Outside all the time, so most of the girls travel with me without their families to Outside competitions.”

Jones said the Championships had a great atmosphere.

“We had a really crowded gym, which was great,” said Jones. “The whole upstairs was completely packed and the whole downstairs area completely packed. There was probably at least 100 people here watching; lots of grandpas, grandmas, siblings.

“I said to the kids at the beginning this was a celebration of our year and I want to hear the loudest cheer and who can support their team the most. It was cool, sometimes you couldn’t hear the floor routine music because kids were cheering so loud. That was from level 1 (to level 9).”

The JO 1 and 2s, which had 15 gymnasts, were all awarded medals. They were given either a gold, silver or bronze based on their scores.

Layla Hombert was the top all around finisher in the level 3 A category. Emma Duncan placed first in all four events on her way to being crowned the all around champion for level 3 B.

Olivia Vangel was the level 4 all around champion. She came first on bars and second in the other three events. Mackenzie Tonner was the top finisher of the level 6 category.

On June 11 the Polarettes are holding tryouts for the competitive team for kids aged three and up. Jones said those interested can contact the club for information.