It’s been a tremendous year of improvement on the floor for Kate Popescul. The 12-year-old gymnast qualified for Westerns at the Can-Am Personal Best Invitational and Trials to Westerns in Saskatoon last month. Popescul first picked up the sport after she decided she didn’t want to continue playing hockey. She says she enjoys the sport of gymnastics. “I’ve been a gymnast for seven years. I really like gymnastics because it’s fun, and I like going to competitions. I like the events.” Danielle Clark has been coaching Popescul for just under a year. Clark says Popescul exceeded all expectations at the event. “She is a really strong gymnast. Last year, she had done level seven and hadn’t done particularly well. This year, the goal was to clean up her level seven routines and then to see if we could trial Westerns at level eight. Instead of just trialing at Westerns, she actually made the team.” According to the Gymnastics BC website, the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) is the largest competitive discipline with 10 different levels. Gymnasts will compete in four disciplines including vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Clark explains the levels are based on the experience level of the gymnast. “There’s levels one to 10, and level 10 would be similar to what you see in college gymnastics, or right before the Olympics. Level one is the little babies who are still doing forward rolls. Level seven is kind of when you’re getting into more serious gymnastics and you’re doing flips. Level eight, you’d start flipping on different events than just floor. In level eight, you’re gonna see athletes doing giants on the bars and handstands on the bars and flipping on the vault as well.” At the trials, Popescul finished with a goal medal after completing a tsuk tuck on vault for the first time in her career. She received second on her floor routine, third on bars and third on beam. Clark says Popescul puts in plenty of work and it’s been an interesting challenge for her as a coach as well. “I haven’t worked with level eight for a while, so it is interesting coming back to that world and having to get back into the swing. She trains 17 hours a week, we’re doing some actual independent training as well, as well as she needs to do serious conditioning and flexibility.” sports@paherald.sk.ca