The routine works for the defending champ
Jacob Cranham knows the routine. As the defending Canadian Championships — Trampoline Gymnastics champion from Ontario heads into the senior men’s final today, that routine has served him well.
Cranham posted a score of 107.235 in the Men’s Senior trampoline preliminaries as the second day of nationals wrapped up at the Enmax Centre.
That total earned Cranham second place, bested only by snychro partner Jason Burnett’s tally of 108.035, as the Senior Men’s final goes tonight at 7:10 p.m.
“The first routine was awesome,” said Cranham. “It was one of the best I’ve done. The second routine started off a little bit hairy, but I was able to kind of pull it out and have something I was happy with.
“This is the same routine I’ve been using all year. I used it at the first national qualifier for the worlds team and it’s one I’m getting pretty comfortable with.”
It’s been a good season for Cranham heading into this weekend’s event and the first notable achievement came early.
“Last year I didn’t end up qualifying for the world championships team, but at the first week this year I did,” said Cranham. “So I’m feeling pretty good about it. This (weekend) is another good one, the score is accumulative based on routines in preliminaries and finals. So what I did today was pretty good for my total score so I’m happy with that.”
The brother tandem of Keegan and Kyle Soehn — from down the road in Red Deer — placed third and fourth, respectively, in Friday’s preliminaries with scores of 106.010 and 104.560.
As for tonight’s final, Cranham’s approach is simple.
“Just go for broke,” he said. “The scoring system is kind of cool because you have an opportunity to just give it a good shot in finals. It’s not calculated in preliminaries scores, which is the most important thing. I’m just going to jump high and do everything I can to get the best score.”
And the thought of defending his title will take a back seat.
“It's not something I think about it,” said Cranham. “I'll just go out there and do my best."
Burnett — an Olympic silver medalist in 2008 — topped Cranham in the Senior Men’s qualifier Friday night, but the duo teamed up to top the Senior Men’s Synchro field in preliminaries Thursday night with a total of 88.745.
The two will look to stay atop the standings when the men’s and women’s synchro finals take place at 11:15 a.m. Sunday.
“It’s pretty awesome. He’s a really good leader in the gym so I kind of look up to him. He jumps really well when I do synchro with him and it forces me to be on my A-game because I have to maintain my height the way he is maintaining his height. It’s awesome. We can be a little bit competitive, but we’re great friends at the same time. It’s lots of fun.”
Burnett has been dealing with an ACL injury.
He’s coming off an injury, so I’m doing a bit more difficulty,” said Cranham. “He’s known around the world for having the most sharp and beautiful technique. He’s definitely got that on the whole competition, but with this knee, he’s kind of reserved on the difficulty right now.”
In the Senior Women’s Trampoline preliminaries Friday, two-time Olympic gold medalist Rosie MacLennan placed first with a score of 103.445, just ahead of Sophiane Methot, who put up a total of 103.270.
The Senior Women’s finals are tonight 6:45 p.m.
Preliminaries took place all day Friday in trampoline and double mini trampoline.
In the Women’s L5 Novice 16U division, Gabrielle Briand-Briere place first with a total of 87.020, while in the Women’s Junior Trampoline Preliminaries Sara-Jade Berthiaume took top spot with a score of 92.870.
Jeremy Chartier topped the field in the Men’s Junior Trampoline preliminaries with a total of 109.165 and Sophia Moiseev took first in the Women’s L6 17U event.
In the Men’s L6 17U preliminaries, Cameron Attwell took first with a total of 93.930. Laura Ranieri was first in the Women’s L6 18+ preliminaries, taking first with a score of 91.115.
In double mini trampoline preliminaries Friday, Isaiah Klassen was first in Men’s L5 Novice 16U division with a total of 64.200 and Antonio Fernandes topped the Men’s L6 Espoir 17U field with a score of 133.600.
In the Senior Men’s preliminaries, Jon Schwaiger (145.000) took first place. In the Senior Women’s division, Jordyn Miller-Burko led the way, tallying a score of 137.600.
The Men’s L5 Novice 17+ preliminaries top score went to Josh Ingram and his total of 63.700, while Women’s L6 Espoir 17U winner was Abby McCaig (131.100).
The Junior Women’s trampoline finals go this afternoon at 4:55 p.m. with the Junior Men to follow at 6:20 p.m.
The Senior Women’s trampoline finals start at 6:45 p.m. The Senior Men go at 7:10 p.m.
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