Canada’s Melanie Banville wins bronze medal at Olympic test event in gymnastics.

(Canadian Sport News) March 22, 2004

Melanie Banville brought home Canada's only medal at the gymnastics test event in Athens.

ATHENS- Melanie Banville of the Ottawa Gymnastics Centre won the bronze medal on women’s vault on Saturday at the Olympic test event in gymnastics while David Kikuchi of Halifax was fourth on rings.

In the women’s vault final, Natalia Ziganchina of Russia earned the gold while Courtney McCool of the U.S., was second and Banville, 16, captured the bronze, Canada’s first medal at the competition.

Banville was a member of both Canada’s world championship and Pan Am Games teams last year. At the worlds in Anaheim she helped Canada to 11th spot in the team event which qualified a full team for Canada for this summer’s Olympics. She also won three gold medals and was second all around at the national championships in 2003.

In men’s rings, Kikuchi, a three-time world championship team member, was fourth. ‘’I don’t think I’ve done a better rings in international competition,’’ said Kikuchi, also 10th earlier this week in the all around competition. ‘’I increased the difficulty of the routine, held all my strength moves and stuck my dismount.’’

• Back to the Articles page.