Two local girls have advanced to the national gymnastics championships as a result of fine performance in the Ontario finals last week.
Lori Strong, 10, earned a berth on the provincial novice women’s team as she placed sixth in the Ontario finals.
Lori, a student at Florence M. Heard Public School, has been performing as a gymnast since she was four years old.
Both Lori and Christina McDonald work under the instruction of coaches Debbie Vidmar and Leonard Grabowski at the Oshawa Gymnastic Club. The girls spend four or five hours a day in the gym practicing.
Ms. Vidmar believes that it is essential for the girls to get training in a club, apart from the school gymnastic programs.
“We appreciate the teaching of gymnastics in school because it supplies a wide base for the sport but you can’t really learn gym in school,” she said. First on Lori’s and Christina’s minds [before the Pan Am Games and next year’s Olympics] is the Canadian Championships May 24 in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
