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Canadian women's artistic gymnastics team qualifies four-person team for Tokyo

STUTTGART, Germany — The Canadian women's artistic gymnastics team has qualified a full four-person squad for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after finishing fifth in the qualifying round in the team event Saturday at the artistic gymnastics world championships.

Ellie Black of Halifax, Brooklyn Moors of Cambridge, Ont., Shallon Olsen of Surrey, B.C., Ana Padurariu of Whitby, Ont., and Victoria Woo of Brossard, Que., posted a total score of 162.922, qualifying them for Tuesday's team final and giving Canada a spot in  the event at the 2020 Games.

"I'm really proud of the work our team was able to do in the qualifications," Black said. "(Qualifying) was a main goal for this year, so to be able to achieve that, and to be sending a full team to Tokyo next year is just incredible.

"It really shows all of the work we've been doing here, and back home, and so it's a really special process to go through and we're just going to keep getting better, and improving as we work towards Tokyo next year."

The United States was the top team after the qualifying rounds with a total score of 174.205. China finished second with 169.161, and Russian rounded out the top-three with 168.080.

Black and Moors also qualified for Thursday's all-around final, while Black also qualified for the beam final and Moors qualified for the floor final. Those events take place Oct. 13.

Olsen qualified for next Saturday's vault final on while Padurariu advanced to the Oct. 13 beam final. Olsen and Padurariu took silver in those respective events at last year's world championships.

Canada's men's team will compete the men's qualifying rounds Monday. The top-nine teams — minus China, Russia, and Japan who booked their spots at the 2018 World Championships — will qualify a team for Tokyo.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2019.

The Canadian Press


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