A medal-winning performance at westerns by gymnast Graham Plomp bodes well for the upcoming national championships.
“I feel a lot more confident going into nationals knowing that I did this well in western Canada,” said the national youth competitor with the Dynamyx Gymnastics Club of St. Albert.
Plomp, 16, scored top marks on pommel and finished third on vault and parallel bars last weekend in Regina en route to becoming the first Dynamyx member in club history to bring home medals from westerns.
“It’s pretty crazy because the last time I went to westerns I didn’t really come home with anything. I kind of psyched myself out over that,” he said. “This time, coming home knowing I did really good at westerns means a lot to me.”
Plomp also placed fifth in floor.
“A couple of years ago he was just happy to be part of the Alberta team at westerns and he qualified for one final [floor]. This year he was second place on the [provincial] team and fifth all-around. He qualified for four finals and ended up with two bronze and gold,” said coach Kelly Baird. “It’s exciting for him because he sees what he can do.”
On day one at westerns, Plomp was marked first on pommel (11.50), third on vault (13.80) fifth on parallel bars (11.50) and sixth on floor (11.85) for berths in the final. His all-around score was 67.25 for fifth overall.
“I was not expecting to place overall. It was shocking,” said the Grade 10 Paul Kane High School student.
He also settled for 13th place on high bar (9.05) and was 16th best on rings (9.55).
“My dismount on high bars I messed up and I’m hoping I fix that up for nationals,” he said. “My rings were not that good but I’m hoping if I fix that up too, I might be able to place pretty well overall at nationals.”
In the finals on day two, Plomp was pure gold on pommel. His score was 11.65.
“Pommel isn’t usually my best event so that was a nice surprise,” he said. “I was very surprised when I did the whole routine without falling. That was definitely something new to me; not only to do it once but I did it twice.”
Plomp was even mistake-free in warm-ups.
“I usually fall on my first skill because it’s one of my more difficult skills but in the warm-up I aced it and I thought I would have a pretty good chance at doing good,” he said. “As I continued on, my routine had good form and all the skills were complete and I did them right. That got me into the event finals and I did the same thing there but better. I was very confident when I finished that I would win it.”
He was cast in bronze with scores of 13.40 on vault and 11.70 on parallel bars.
“I could’ve stuck my vault a bit better,” he said. “The p-bars was definitely a huge surprise. I wasn’t expecting to be that good. I don’t even know how I made event finals. I never thought my p-bar routine was anywhere near one of my best events but I had really good form in my first competition [on day one] and then my second one I had a few mistakes so I wasn’t expecting to be third at all.”
His floor routine produced a score of 12.00 for fifth place.
“That was kind of a disappointment. It was not my best.”
After his impressive showing at westerns, Plomp is pumped about the May 23 to 29 nationals in Kamloops. At provincials last month in St. Albert he qualified for nationals by placing third all-around at 67.75 with five podium finishes: first on vault (14.05), tied for first on rings (11.25), second on floor (12.25) and third on pommel (9.45) and parallel bars (11.05).
“My goal for nationals was to make event finals on the floor and vault, but now it’s definitely going to be floor, vault, pommel and possibly p-bars.”
Plomp made his national debut last year in Hamilton and the 2009 provincial floor champion made the finals in floor and finished 13th overall out of 60.
“I’m a lot more comfortable now so I can focus more on competing instead of the whole idea of just being at westerns and nationals.”
Joining Plomp at westerns was Dynamyx gymnast Adrian Johnson, the fifth-place finisher on vault in level 4.
“Everyone at the club was very excited for both of them and to come back with such great results is electric,” Baird said.
