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Hatter Laurel Clouston wins floor exercise
at nationals
SCOTT SCHMIDT
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When Laurel Clouston stuck the final
tumble in her floor exercise routine she knew she had done
something amazing.
She had come to the national gymnastics
championships in Calgary to win a medal. Her coach didn’t
even need to see her score of 14.35 to know Clouston was leaving
with gold.
“I had kind of been watching the
scores earlier and I knew it was my best routine ever,”
admitted Clouston. “I was just so happy, it was amazing.
“Doing my best and knowing I nailed
that routine would have been enough but the gold medal added to
it.”
Clouston was entered in three events at
the June 2 to 7 competition, including balance beam and vault,
advancing to the finals in all of them. The moments leading up to
her floor routine were the toughest.
“I was pretty excited and nervous at
the same time,” said Clouston. “But nationals is so
much fun so I was really looking forward to it.”
Clouston has been involved in gymnastics
since she was five and has had dreams of this kind of success. Like
so many athletes before her, she had to overcome obstacles to reach
her goals.
The last year has been a difficult one for
Clouston to say the least. What happened to her happens to all
15-year-olds, but can permanently handicap a gymnast.
“She grew alot in the past six
months,” said coach Eva Paniti-Meyer. “She struggled a
lot to maintain her skills and she suffered the most on the
(uneven) bars. We’ve had our ups and downs this year for
sure.”
Instead of allowing that to hinder her
hopes, Clouston shrugged it off and turned her attention to the
floor exercise.
“This year we’ve been training
really hard,” said Clouston. “I just focused on floor
because we knew it was definitely my strongest.”
That moment when a gymnast achieves
greatness is always special between them and their coach, who they
tend to grow very close with over time. Things are no different for
Clouston and Paniti-Meyer.
“I ran off the floor and she was
smiling and I was smiling,” said Clouston of her coach.
“I gave her a big hug and everything, we were both pretty
happy.”
Happiness understates the feeling
Paniti-Meyer had that day, especially because of the doubt
Clouston’s growth spurt had left.
“It was probably the proudest moment
in my life until now,” said Paniti-Meyer. |
