Yes, Virginia, you can do an expressive floor routine with a code of points that forces many to do double fulls as side passes.
Cases in point: The dramatic Christa Tanella of World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in Plano, Texas, and Aisha Gerber, formerly of Cambridge Kips and Elvira Saadi in Ontario, now with Canadian great Kyle Shewfelt’s coach, Kelly Manjak, at Oakville Gymnastics.
Christa Tanella, 2007 U.S. Championships Prelims, Floor Exercise:
Aisha Gerber, 2007 Elite Canada Event Finals, Floor Exercise:
Gerber told International Gymnast Magazine in December that she would be trying for one of the two spots on Canada’s Olympic team, likely as a vault and floor specialist. She’s one of the few Canadians to ever throw a double-twisting Yurchenko in competition, and that expressive floor routine is likely to win fans over to her cause.
As far as the Olympics go, Gerber’s got strong competition from reigning Canadian champion Kristina Vaculik and 2006 World bronze medalist Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs. In her bid to make the Canadian team, Gerber is planning to upgrade to a double layout (or maybe double Arabian) on floor.
Tags: Aisha Gerber, Elvira Saadi, Kelly Manjak, Christa Tanella, Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, Kristina Vaculik
