Rosie MacLennan takes gold at World Cup trampoline event
Canadian posts second best score of her career
It was a gold medal performance for Toronto's Rosie MacLennan at the Trampoline World Cup in Switzerland on Saturday.
MacLennan posted the second best score of her career with a 56.660 in the final, just behind her gold-medal performance at the London 2012 Olympics. The Canadian dominated the competition and won by more than a point over Zhu Xueying of China (55.240) and Susana Kochesok of Russia (53.095).
"I am very happy with how this competition went," said MacLennan. "After last week, my focus was to try to maintain height and stay tighter in the air.
"I'm very excited to get back home to train. This trip overall gave me a great combination of motivation and confidence leading into the final stretch before Rio."
MacLennan was a force to be reckoned with from the start of the tournament, scoring 104.050 in the preliminaries and sitting atop the standings before heading into the finals.
The Olympian's coach, Dave Ross, said he was pleased.
"I am really excited that Rosie was able to deliver brilliant performances under pressure," Ross said. "I am looking forward to the remaining training days and the thrill of the Olympics."
No world record broken
Sam Smith and Sam Sendel both attempted to set world records for difficulty by attempting triple somersaults, something that has never been executed in a competition before. Neither could land their attempts and they placed 24th and 25th respectively.
In the men's competition, Jason Burnett rebounded from his performance in Italy last weekend and finished 19th overall with a score of 101.695. While Burnett took a penalty that cost him three points overall, his optional routine was seventh best in the competition and displayed his best optional score in two years.
Kyle Soehn had to fight to complete both routines and finished 25th overall with a score of 95.570, while Keegan Soehn finished 42nd as he was not able to complete both his routines. Trevor Stirling had to withdraw from competition due to a knee injury during training.
The final Trampoline Gymnastics World Cup before the Rio Games will be held in Coimbra, Portugal, on July 8-9. The remaining Canadian senior women's team, as well as some tumblers, will compete.