Samantha Thomas may be a provincial champion, but she was more than happy to compete at home at the Prince George Invitational on Sunday.
The 15-year-old from Prince George won gold on the uneven bars in Junior Olympic Level 6 (those born between 1997 to 2001) at the B.C. Artistic Gymnastic Championships last month in North Vancouver and earned the silver medal in the same category at her home meet on the weekend.
"It (provincials) was a really good meet," she said. "I wasn't nervous at all and confident going in. I knew it was going to be good and I felt great. Here (in Prince George) it's the last meet of the year and I wanted to have fun. I increased my degree of difficulty on the bars when I added another skill."
Her degree of difficulty was already a 10 and adding the extra skill, what Thomas' coach Jennifer Watts described as "a swing forward then back up to a front support," added more difficulty to her routine.
The gold medal at provincials was her best result all season.
In addition to landing the silver medal in Prince George, Thomas finished seventh all-around with a fourth place on the floor and a fifth place on the vault.
Besides Prince George, gymnasts from Kitimat, Williams Lake, Fort St. John, Quesnel and Smithers competed in the two-day meet.
The P.G. Invitational also doubled as the Zone 8 championships. Thomas won a silver medal on the bars (behind Quesnel's Alyssa Schneider), tied for a bronze medal on the vault, won another bronze on the floor to finish fourth all-around.
"Bars has always been my best," said Thomas, who began competing in gymnastics six years ago and trains three days per week. "I like how it changes from bar to bar and how confident you need to be to get what you want in the end."
Watts, who has coached Thomas for the last three years, said her pupil has improved in all of her events, but mainly on bars.
(At provincials) I knew she was capable of it getting gold, even though it wasn't her best bar routine," said Watts. "We expected top-three going in.
"That bars are a favourite is rare. It's one of the most difficult to master, but the odd one like Samantha is a natural at it."
Thomas, a Grade 10 student at College Heights secondary, moves on to Junior Olympic Level 7 next season and will be back at the club this summer improving her skills.
