Quick hits: Podium training at the 2011 Canadian Championships

CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI, 4:51 p.m.: -- One second, there was nobody in the gym. The next minute, the best in Canada had filed in and the place is now literally buzzing with activity. Today's training session, for women only, is supposed to be light -- the gymnasts will have the chance to get used to the Gymnova equipment and do some minor tuning, but are unlikely to do many full sets.

Welcome to Examiner.com's quick hits from podium training of the Canadian Gymnastics Championships. I'll be here on PEI all week, doing quick hits from the competition and attempting to provide some videos. Please check back often for updates!

5:16 p.m.: Talia Chiarelli. One of the surprises here is the presence of Talia Chiarelli, who has competed at the Junior U.S. Championships for the past two years. Chiarelli was born in Canada (her mom, in fact, did gymnastics with gymnastics photographer Grace Chiu) but her family has been residing on the east coast of the U.S. due to her father's job for the past several years.

Talia competed at the provincial level as a child and then settled at Brestyan's after her family came to the U.S. On bars, she's a typical Brestyan's athlete (slightly straddled Geinger, not the best swing) but she gets through her routine. Floor and vault, where she has a DTY, will be her very best events.

5:30 p.m.: Natalie Vaculik, in a lime green leotard, has superb lines for bars, and lovely form. Brittany Rogers, who is in all black, also looks quite good for someone who has undergone rather recent ankle surgery. She just did her toe blind to Markelov on high bar, and it was lovely.

Dominique Pegg has some new elements in her bar routine as well: a Maloney transition and a double layout dismount, replacing the full twisting double tuck she did last year. The double layout is maybe a trifle piked, but she makes it look quite easy.

5:48 p.m.: New talents! Stefanie Merkle, who was off for about a year with injury, trained a bhs, full twist on beam, while over on floor, Maegan Chant opened with a nice double layout and followed up with a full in pike. Big talents, both.

Emily Blackner of Manitoba stands out for her excellent lines, and Barbara Gasser of Austria is very professional and efficient in her training.

Pegg did a nice beam set (front aerial, bhs, layout) and followed up with a double tuck dismount.

During the warmup, Rogers did some beamwork on the floor, including an Onodi, front aerial, bhs, layout series and a Kotchetkova (full twisting bhs).

6:10 p.m.: Tiny Maegan Chant, who is coached by Cristina Bontas, has obviously inherited Bontas's gift for tumbling. She starts with an airy double layout (a tad piked down at the end, but who cares? It looks easy) and then does a full in pike on floor. Great stuff! On vault, she worked a layout Tsuk full and a handspring front tuck half.

Chiarelli on vault only threw a FTY. She looks fairly capable of the double, but maybe the smarter thing right now is to stick with the full.

6:13 p.m.: In the parlance of today's youth, Rogers's floor choreo is killer. They're still saying that, right?

7:10 p.m.: Vaulting upgrades. The Oakville gymnasts have been busy making upgrades on vault. Most noticably, Jessica Savona did two very nice DTYs (especially the second one). This vault, maybe the only DTY in Canada this year, gives her a nice advantage as far as the all-around is concerned here. Big cheers from her teammates and applause from the gallery when she landed it.

Sabrina Gill looks and moves like a more mature gymnast this year. She worked a Yurchenko 1.5 on vault. Novice champion Jordyn Pedersen did handspring front tucks.

The long-limbed Shae Zamardi of British Columbia really reminds me of Shayla Worley on floor.

According to new national team coordinator Kyna Fletcher, Madeline Gardiner has been working through something of a knee problem, but boy did she look fierce on beam in training. Crisp double turn in wolf position to splits and I believe I saw a layout to two feet as well.

Nebraska coach Dan Kendig was in the stands filming certain gymnasts. Canada is such a hotbed for NCAA recruiting. Most of the gymnasts in the top 20 in the country look NCAA worthy, so I'm always surprised when only the top girls go.

Spotted: A handspring double front on floor from a gymnast from BC who is coached by Vladimir Lashin.

Gill also has a new Ricna on uneven bars. Nice!

7:28 p.m.: Madeline Gardiner, in great shape and so strong on beam, seemed a bit scared of her full in tuck on floor. She did one and bounded off the floor onto the concrete around the Gymnova mat (these championships are not being held on a podium.) The fall looked like it hurt, and Gardiner paced around a bit off the mat.

Her coach Elvira Saadi came over and gave her a hug and pat on the back, but afterward Gardiner seemed timid about doing the skill again -- she did a back tuck, then a double tuck, and then finally another full in with Saadi spotting. She also did a 1.5 to front layout full, though there were a few problems there as well.

Moors did two or three easy looking tucked double doubles. They're impressive on Youtube, but moreso in person. She gets such great height that she makes that really hard skill look like nothing.

On vault, Gardiner and Moors both did easy and well-performed Yurchenko fulls, then began working on 1.5s.

Kelly Manjak's crew on bars displayed more new difficulty -- Savona threw a toe Khorkina II transition that nobody's seen before, as well as the full-twisting double layout dismount she used last year.

Sabrina Tomassini was an impressive trickster on beam and floor. On beam, she did a standing Arabian, and on floor she had four world class passes, including a double Arabian and a full in pike.

Savona's Arabian double pike is this close to being credited as an Arabian double layout. In fact, Manjak says, if he thinks it's a double layout the judges give it a pike, and if he says it's a pike it gets credited as a layout. So goes life in gymnastics.

8:25 p.m.: Podium training consisted of a lot of interesting skills, but also a lot of falls.

Gardiner and Moors, both obviously tired from the day's exertions, had the most trouble on this event. Gardiner showed a toe stalder to Maloney transition, and Moors dismounted with a toe front half. Saadi never let up in demanding perfection, go again, again, that wasn't enough...every workout with her, I suspect, is something of a battle between gymnast and coach. But she gets results -- both her gymnasts look great and should do very well.

2010 World team member Coralie Leblond-Chartard was strong on beam, floor and vault (I didn't see her on bars). On vault, she worked a Yurchenko 1.5 and struggled until, finally, on her last jump of the night, she did a very nice one to her feet, with a small step forward. Everyone around her applauded.

It was a nice way to end the night. The last ones in the gym were Moors and Gardiner, working unendlessly, under the eyes of Saadi.

Gymnastics Examiner Blythe Lawrence will be at the Canadian Championships this week in Charlottetown, PEI. Stay tuned for notes, quick hits from the competition floor, videos and interviews more from the Canadian Championships all week, and/or follow The Gymnastics Examiner on Facebook or Twitter.