We finished Second in the Ontario Championships! I am so happy.

He said

Well, we had wait until Tuesday this week for the results from the Ontario Championships to be known. We had managed to hear through the grapevine that after day one Emelia’s team (CheerStrike Royals Allegiance) were in 6th placed based on their bobbles in the performance so we knew that their work was cut out for them. Thankfully the day one scores would only count for 30% of their total score but still that was a lot of places they would have to move up. And the day two performance – bias aside – was their best one of the season! They had done what they needed to do to put themselves in the best possible position.

Emelia’s only hope was they at least medalled, but in her true pragmatic-like-her-mummy-self, you could tell she was preparing that they might not. Tuesday unfortunately I had to work. But the good news was as it was a Cheer practice night, the team gathered ahead of the practice to all watch it together as a team. Danielle dropped Emelia off and rushed home so she could catch the stream and relay results to me via text. When it came time to find out we were blown away with what announced. Not only had they put in their season best performance when it mattered most on Sunday, they placed first on that day and moved all the way up from Sixth Place on Saturday to a Second Place finish for the Silver Medal!

With that out of the way, they have about a month to fine tune and tweak before Nationals in Niagara Falls. They’ve already starting working on the new version of the routine to get ready for this big competition. The good news is they have lot more time in between Ontario’s to Nationals to hone their routine, unlike last weekend where they went back to back weekends with only a week and two practices in between. As soon as they had the results from last weekend it was down to work digesting the feedback from the judges and working on the tweaks to their routine. We’re excited to see what comes of their work.

The other news here this week is that I am officially entering my first bike race! Last year the goal was to complete the entire distance of the G2G Rail Trail and I did that. The next goal I set for myself this year was to add to the G2G run competing in at least one bike race. Low and behold there is a pretty big one nearby in the Paris to Ancaster race at the end of April. The schedule worked for me, so it looks like I will be able to cross that goal off and early in my cycling to boot! I am entering in the 45k distance and am excited to see how I do. There is still a couple others on my radar for this year that I am considering so all things being equal, it should be a pretty fun and exciting cycling season with lots of new accomplishments!

She said

To say we are proud is an understatement. Of course we are proud and happy for Emelia’s team placement but that is not why we are so proud. I dubbed them the comeback kids, they had some sizeable fumbles with some of their stunting and although Emelia was happy she had a clean routine they are part of a team which means they build each other up and come together. So Sunday they did just that! They didn’t let what happen on Saturday effect them, they went out as a united front and just nailed it. We knew they did well but to find out from their coaches that they placed first on the second day by far. They moved up 4 places and just blew everyone away.

The coaches are already taking the feedback from the routine and will be making some big changes to make sure they maximize their score and upping their difficulty.

The one area the kids were pretty disappointed with was the fact that they didn’t receive an invitation to the Canadian Finals. This is an invitational only event. The kids were surprised they didn’t get the invite considering where they have placed in their comps and their scores. I honestly do not know or understand how it works but we have told Emelia to focus on the next big competition, to keep focusing on their upgraded routine so they can have an amazing Nationals Comp in April.

Let the countdown begin!!