Bronwyn Ellington was a winner before she took to the floor at the 2013 B.C. Artistic Gymnastics Championship.
Ellington, a member of the Prince George Gymnastics Club, finished 20th out of 20 gymnasts in the Provincial 3 (P3) Tyro (birth year 2001-02) category, Friday, at the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre.
"It was first to me because I was just happy to be here," said Ellington.
Six weeks earlier the 10-year-old suffered a serious injury when she was attempting a back tuck while practicing her floor routine.
"I was about four or five feet up in the air and then, I'm not sure if I was upside down or on my back, but I fell out of the air," said Ellington. "I landed on my neck and my feet kind of went over my head.
"That's when the pain hit and I started to scream and I got really scared," she added.
Ellington said her gymnastics coach told her it was probably just a couple of pulled muscles but she called an ambulance and they took her to the hospital where the X-ray indicated everything appeared fine.
"The next day we went to the local doctor and they told me I had a crack in [my T12 vertebrae] and it was compressed," said Ellington. "I was kind of scared because I had no one there to really talk to about it. It was kind of awkward and weird for me.
"I just got these thoughts going through my mind of what was going to happen," she added.
What if I become paralyzed? What if I make a wrong move and won't ever be able to do a flip again?
Lucky for Ellington the crack in her vertebrae healed after three weeks and she was able to return to practicing for the provincial championship.
"All of these girls have been training for two or three months for this competition and I came back and have just been training for three weeks," said Ellington. "I kind of got my back tuck back but I still didn't have it consistent so we just watered my routines down a little bit. I was just really happy to be competing this weekend."
Ellington had an all-around score of 43.133, including an 11.550 on uneven bars where she placed 15th and a 10.400 on floor exercise. Maya Crutch of Flip City gymnastics club won gold on balance beam (12.366), floor (13.200) and all around (50.666).
"I'm still a little bit scared," said Ellington. "But I have two or three months until my next competition."
Prince George's golden girls
Make it two for two for Alia Wilson of the Prince George Gymnastics Club.
The 10-year-old pre-novice aspire gymnast won her second straight all-around gold medal Saturday, topping her peers at the 2013 B.C. Artistic Gymnastics Championship at the Northern Sport Centre. Wilson won the all-around gold at the trials for the Western Canadian Championship last month.
"I'm excited about being first overall," said Wilson, who will compete at the Westerns in Winnipeg, May 3-5.
Wilson also won gold on floor exercise, bronze on vault and was sixth on uneven bars and balance beam.
She was Prince George's second all-around provincial champion. Wilson's teammate, Reid Powers earned four gold and a bronze during Friday's competition of the P2 Novice (birth year 1999) gymnasts. Powers won gold in the all around (50.350), floor (13.100), beam (12.600), bars (12.500) and took bronze on vault (12.150).
