ODENSE, Denmark — Daneille Gruber of Kelowna, B.C., led Canada’s women’s team to gold at the trampoline gymnastics world championships Saturday.
Gruber led the way with the highest score in the five-team double mini-trampoline final, to clinch Canada the top spot on the podium.
"I was having trouble landing my pass on my feet in the warm up, but it ended up working out," said Gruber, who will be gunning for another medal in Sunday’s individual double mini-trampoline. "I just have to stay focused and not be overconfident because anything can happen."
Arden Oh of Calgary, Tamara O’Brien of Coquitlam, B.C., and Karine Dufour of Laval, Que., were the other members of the Canadian team that scored 103.900 points to win. Great Britain won silver with 103.400 points and the United States took the bronze with 103.00.
Denis Vachon of Hamilton, Ont., who was competing for the last time on the international stage before retiring, was sixth in the men’s double mini-trampoline, while Douglas Armstrong of Surrey, B.C., was seventh.
"A lot of the reasons I’ve continued to train and compete is that I’ve never felt like I had the best world championship, but after today I feel satisfied," said Vachon, who intends to shift his focus now to coaching. "I love this sport more than anything else and I will miss it as an athlete but I’m definitely going to keep coaching. I think I was meant to be a coach and to bring athletes up to this level."
Austin White of the United States won the gold.
Jordan Sugrim of Mississauga, Ont., whom Vachon coaches, was seventh in the women’s tumbling final.
In the men’s tumbling team final, Canada’s team of Jonathan Schwaiger of Burlington, Ont., Nick Jackson of Cambridge, Ont., Michael Chaves of Mississauga, and David Findlay of Hamilton, was fifth.
Russia took the gold.