Sometimes in sport, it is indeed well worth the wait.

Back in November, local gymnast Avery Roy was one of the very first of 80 or so competitors in her division (Level 7) to perform at the Ontario Tour Team Selection, a meet from which a squad would be selected to attend an international event in Phoenix (Arizona) in January.

While her score more than pleased her, the waiting out of the balance of athletes would not be easy – certainly not stress free – for the now 14 year old up and coming star with the Sudbury Laurels – GymZone brigade.

In the end, Roy’s patience would be rewarded as the grade 8 student at Valley View Public School cracked the provincial roster for the very first \ time.

This past weekend in Ottawa, competing at the Ontario Championships, it was somewhat deja-vu all over again as the Eastern Canadian lineup that will travel to St John’s (Newfoundland) in May was being finalized based on meet results.

Three separate groups of 32 young girls were taking their best shot at six positions up for grabs, with the luck of the draw again landing Roy in the first of the brackets to compete. “It’s scary; I was nervous,” admitted the local sensation who would place second in her group of 32.

“For my session and the second one, I was feeling confident enough,” she said. “But in the third session, the scores were getting higher and I didn’t know if I was going to make it or not – but I’m really happy that I did.”

Leveraging a phenomenal performance on the vault that netted her both a massive score of 9.867 and also the Vault Award for Height and Flight, Roy would book her next travel adventure tickets out east. And for as much as the vault was also front and centre when we last chatted a year ago, that hasn’t always been the case.

“I think last year vault became my best event,” suggested Roy. “I got a lot more powerful, so my takeoff going into the board and coming off the board are better. I think I was just getting stronger and more confident with it.”

Roy would seal the deal by placing fourth on the beam and sixth on bars, taking her skills to a whole new level in recent years. “I’ve become a lot more mature and care about my sport a lot more now,” she stated.

The change did not go unnoticed.

“Avery is a very determined and confident athlete who is a great all-around gymnast with four strong events,” noted her coach, Julie McEwen. “She is extremely focused and has a great mindset when it comes to competing. She loves to perform, is a fearless competitor with a huge passion for her sport and makes you believe she owns the beam, which is a hard event to conquer.”

Truth be told, Avery Roy was hardly the only Sudbury Laurels’ success story on the weekend as all six of the youngsters who made the trip to the nation’s capital had several reasons to be proud.

Showcasing a beautiful and engaging floor routine that produced a new personal best score of 9.617 as well as a great routine on the beam allowed Brooke Bernstein to reach new heights with her all-around numbers, an 11th place finish a tribute to her highest overall score of the season.

“I would say that I was most happy about my floor (routine),” said the 12 year old grade six student at Lasalle Elementary School. “Without a doubt, that was one of the best floor routines I’ve ever done. I felt that all of my skills were really high and I had lots of confidence in my routine – and I made the judges laugh at a part of my routine that’s really funny.”

“I’ve always had kind of a sassy routine,” added the talkative and energetic Level 6 gymnast, the younger of two children in the family.

For as much as she is clearly hooked on her sport of choice, the origins of this passion are perhaps a little trickier to put a finger on. “My mom said I just came home one day and said I wanted to do gymnastics,” said Bernstein. At the urging of a coach who saw her rope climbing while attending a friend’s birthday party at the GymZone, she would make the jump to the more competitive provincial stream roughly four years ago.

Kicking off the season with a strong performance at the first qualifier (36.90 – AA score), Bernstein struggled to hit that standard again in the next two meets. Thankfully, things came together at just the right time.

“I had a good week before provincials,” she said. “I didn’t have many mistakes and everything went pretty well. I’ve been making a lot of progress since the first qualifier; I just haven’t done as good at the meets – but I felt like I was going to do better at this one.”

From a local perspective, Camilla Burns (Level 6 – age 13) got things rolling early for the Laurels half-dozen, setting the tone on Thursday by also taking the Height and Flight award in her category (along with a bronze medal), adding a great bar routine and cracking the top half of the field by finishing 15th in a group of 32.

Friday would see Level 7 age 15/16 teammates Brooke Wylie and Naomi Lake tackle their four disciplines, with Lake continuing to show improvement on the bars (8th) and putting together a solid performance on the beam (9th). Throw in an across the board consistency with both the floor and the vault and Lake would land in 6th place in the all-around standings.

Despite competing on an injured foot that eliminated any training during the week leading into provincials, Brooke Wylie bravely persevered, spotlighting a challenging weekend with an 8th place showing on vault, 17th in the all-around.

Jennifer Iestwaard (Level 7 – age 17+) closed off Friday for the Laurels with a bronze medal on the bars, her nicely performed routine earning her a new personal best score of 9.617. Iestwaard would also shine on the floor (6th place), leading to a slot at number twelve in the all-around listing.

All of which set the stage for the Saturday – Sunday tandem of Bernstein and Roy and the culmination of yet another memorable trip to provincials for the Sudbury Laurels. The all-Ontario gathering for Levels three to five takes place on the weekend of May 3rd to the 5th, in the Muskokas, with the GymZone sending a nine person squad to the meet.