World Bronze Medalist Sydney Turner Headlines Elite Canada Field This Weekend

Sydney Turner

Less than three months after helping her team to the bronze medal at world championships, Sydney Turner is set to lead the field at Elite Canada, held in Saskatoon this weekend.

Turner is the only member of the 2022 worlds team who will compete this weekend, but the senior field will still be an exciting one, especially with the long-awaited return of Clara Raposo, once a standout junior who has spent most of the past three years sidelined by injuries and Canada’s strict COVID-19 lockdown rules. This weekend’s competition marks Raposo’s first in-person meet since the 2020 edition of Elite Canada.

Also on the senior roster is 2020 Olympian and Turner’s 2022 Pan Am Championships bronze-medal winning teammate Ava Stewart; 2021 Junior Pan Am Games all-around medalist Aurélie Tran, who missed out on most of her senior debut season last year but returned in November to earn a silver medal on bars at the Gymnova Cup in Belgium; 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medalists Cassie Lee and Jenna Lalonde; veteran Jessica Dowling, who won the silver medal on bars at the Mersin Challenge Cup in October; and most interestingly, former U.S. junior standout Azaraya Ra-Akbar, who finished fifth all-around and third on floor in the junior field at last year’s Winter Cup, but who has since moved to Dynamo outside of Toronto with plans to compete for Canada going forward.

Leading the junior field is 2022 national champion Victoriane Charron, who will be difficult to upset if she competes all four events, but Cristella Brunetti-Burns has some beautiful work on beam and is definitely one to watch. We’ll also see last year’s novice champion Lia Monica Fontaine step up into the junior group here, and Aaliyah de Sousa is another name to keep an eye on at this level.

The men’s competition includes Zachary Clay, Félix Dolci, Chris Kaji, and Samuel Zakutney, all members of the 2022 world championships team that helped Canada to its third-best finish in history. Jayson Rampersad and Kenji Tamane, members of the silver medal-winning Commonwealth Games team and bronze medal-winning Pan Ams team alongside Dolci and Kaji, will also compete here, as will 2020 Olympian René Cournoyer, who was expected to be on a couple of international team rosters last year, but was then sidelined by a knee injury, and Léandre Sauvé, an up-and-comer who showed excellent promise on floor and vault throughout the world cup and challenge cup season.

A full list of competitors is available further down the page.

The Schedule

Here’s the complete schedule, along with a breakdown of who you can find in each subdivision. All times are local to Saskatoon, which is one hour behind ET.

How to Watch

Unfortunately, it looks like there will not be an official live stream for Elite Canada this year. There are a few accounts on YouTube advertising a stream of the event, but these are scams linking to websites that ask for money. Don’t do it! I’ll update everyone on Twitter if something real does pop up, but for now, it looks like we’ll only be able to follow live results via SportzSoft. Here’s the WAG link, and I’ll share MAG when it’s available.

The Competitors

-----------------------

By: Lauren
Title: World Bronze Medalist Sydney Turner Headlines Elite Canada Field This Weekend
Sourced From: thegymter.net/2023/01/19/world-bronze-medalist-sydney-turner-headlines-elite-canada-field-this-weekend/
Published Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2023 00:08:13 +0000