Capital City Gymnastics - Competition News

Men All Around title went to Jackson Payne of Alberta (Capital City), whose 13.60 on the pommel horse (considered the most difficult men’s event) was the highest score of the day on any event. His all-around score was 76.65.

The 15-year-old Payne won the competition after posting a total score of 76.650 from each of the six events including floor; pommel horse; rings; vault; parallel bars; and horizontal bars.

"I wanted to come here and win gold and I'm so happy I did," said an elated Payne. "I got off to a slow start, but things came together. It is really nice to win and have my result count for the medals under Alberta's flag."

Congratulations Jackson!!!

Men's Elite Canada gymnastics competition in Calgary on December 9 and 10, 2006 results

Men’s junior all around competition, Jayd Lukenchuk of Saskatoon was the winner at 162.600, Jackson Payne of Capital City Gymnastics Club Edmonton second at 159.150 and John Hall of Calgary third at 157.600. Francis Croft of Laval, Que., was fourth at 156.35, Alexander Hoy of Richmond, B.C., fifth at 156.250 and Danny Chambers of Surrey, B.C., sixth at 155.150.

October 30, 2006 Edmonton’s Brandon O’Neill wins silver on floor at DTB World Cup

Gymnastics Canada

News Release STUTTGART, Germany- Less than two weeks after helping Canada to a record performance in the men’s team competition at the world championships, Brandon O’Neill of Edmonton won the silver medal on floor Saturday at a World Cup gymnastics competition.

Fabian Hambuchen of Germany took the gold with a 15.600 score while O’Neill followed at 15.450 for his fifth medal this season on the World Cup circuit. Wajdi Bouallegue of Tunisia was third at 15.250.

"For the most part it was pretty good, except when I stepped out of bounds on one of my passes.," said O’Neill, first after Friday’s qualifying. "I did an easier routine than at worlds because it’s been a long trip and I hadn’t done too much training since then."

O’Neill, a member of Canada’s sixth place team at the worlds in Denmark earlier this month, goes for a second medal on Sunday in the vault final. He was fifth in qualifying.

"There a pretty good vault field here," said O’Neill. "My vaults are pretty consistent so I hope to put some pressure on the other competitors."

July, 19, 2006 Brandon O'Neill Wins Two Silver Medals at World Cup

SHANGHAI- World championship medalist Brandon O'Neill of Edmonton earned two silver medals this weekend placing second on floor and in men's vault at the World Cup gymnastics competition in China. This makes O'Neill's eighth career medal in World Cup gymnastics. O'Neill, who has chalked up an impressive string of international victories over the last two years, has one of the most difficult floor routines in the world and was among the medal favourites. O'Neill also competed on the parallel bars (7th) and high bar (8th) in the finals. Chinese gymnasts dominated this weekend's competition sweeping the gold in the four women's events and winning four of the six men's events.

July 19, 2006 Brandon O’Neill wins two silver medals at World Cup

SHANGHAI- World championship medalist Brandon O’Neill of Edmonton earned two silver medals this weekend placing second on floor and in men’s vault at the World Cup gymnastics competition in China. This makes O'Neill's eighth career medal in World Cup gymnastics. O’Neill, who has chalked up an impressive string of international victories over the last two years, has one of the most difficult floor routines in the world and was among the medal favourites. O’Neill also competed on the parallel bars (7th) and high bar (8th) in the finals. Chinese gymnasts dominated this weekend’s competition sweeping the gold in the four women’s events and winning four of the six men’s events.

Canada’s Brandon O’Neill wins gold at gymnastics World Cup

COTTBUS, Germany- Brandon O’Neill of Edmonton posted one of the most important international victories in his career on Sunday with a gold medal performance on vault at a World Cup gymnastics competition.

O’Neill averaged 16.362 points on his two vaults for his fourth career World Cup win but the first on vault. The other three victories were earned on floor. Fabian Hambuchen of Germany was second at 16.312 and Yernar Yerimbetov of Kazakhstan third at 16.137.

‘’This was totally unexpected,’’ said O’Neill, a silver medallist on floor Saturday. ‘’I’ve never even medalled on vault before at a World Cup. But I had two unbelievable ones today. I was last on the start list, there were a lot of good vaults so I wasn’t getting my hopes up. But I did my first one really well and stuck my second. I didn’t have the most difficult vaults but I gave the cleanest performances.’’

O’Neill established himself last year on floor with three World Cup wins and a silver medal at the world championships. One of his goals this year is show the world he’s a player on other apparatus.

‘’This is a big win for me,’’ he said. ‘’I’ve always been doing these other couple of events. Now I got a little success on vault, so I can focus more on that and I think I can actually do it better than what I did today.’’

Brandon O'Neill is very much a young man on a mission. When he talks about his breakout year on the World Cup Circuit and at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

And it plays out under the watchful eye of coach Liang Cheng.

For as long as he can remember, the gym has been Brandon’s life, and the Olympics his ultimate goal.

Although his star has been on the rise for many years, the 2004 Summer Games in Athens came a little too soon for Brandon to realize his dream of competing at the Olympics.

Just 19 at the time, he competed well at the Olympic selection trials that summer in Calgary, but it wasn’t quite enough to win a spot on a team led by veterans like Kyle Shewfelt, Grant Golding and David Kikuchi.

Since then, O’Neill’s career has taken off, reaching new heights last November at the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia where he won a silver medal on floor and cemented his growing international reputation.

His performance “Down Under” also earned Brandon a special place at home as one of just four Canadians with a World Artistic Gymnastics Championship medal to their credit.

Other members of this exclusive club are Curtis Hibbert, whose silver medal on high bar in 1989 was Canada’s first at the worlds, Alexander Jeltkov, who won silver in the same event in 1999, and Kyle Shewfelt, a double bronze winner on floor and vault in 2003.

Brandon went into the 2005 World Championships riding a remarkable winning streak going back to his first-ever World Cup victory in Ghent, Belgium in the spring of 2004. Since then he’s chalked up more wins in his floor specialty at the World University Games in Izmir, Turkey, Senior Pan Am championships in Rio de Janeiro, and at World Cup meets in Stuttgart, Germany and Glasgow, Scotland.

“This has been the best year of my life so far,” says O’Neill. “And winning the silver medal at worlds was just an unbelievable experience.

"With each win I think I prove I am one of the best in the world. The judges kind of know that this guy does deserve to win, so if I hit my routine they'll give me the score.”

When Brandon hits on his floor routine, superlatives flow.

“He’s immensely powerful,” says men’s program director Jeff Thomson, commenting on the jaw-dropping height Brandon reaches on some of his tumbling passes.

Brandon’s longtime coach Liang Cheng is clearly impressed with the skill and work ethic of his star pupil.

“We work together like partners,” says Cheng, a former member of the Chinese national gymnastics team, who had no doubt about Brandon’s great potential the first time he saw him in the Capital City Gym about eight years ago.

Next to floor, Brandon’s best event has been vault, but he’s also been working hard on parallel bars and high bar in his quest to earn a berth on the 2008 Olympic team.

All his routines have been revamped to take advantage of the new code of points, which came into effect internationally after the Melbourne world championships.

Brandon had hoped to perform the new routines at the Commonwealth Games in March but instead he’ll put them to their first test internationally at World Cup meets this spring in France and Germany.

An event specialist, Brandon found himself the odd-man out on the Commonwealth Games squad, which needed more all-around competitors because of the five-man format used at the Games.

“In many ways it’s a positive that he’s going to World Cup events instead of the Games,” says Thompson.

“The caliber of competition at the World Cups is higher and it’s our strategy to get as much international exposure as possible for Brandon against the very best in the world.”

Now that he’s had a large taste of success, Brandon is more keen than ever to spend those long hours in the gym perfecting the routines that will carry him to Beijing in 2008.

“I'm sure it's going to take right up to the Olympic trials to get the new routines fine tuned,” he says.

“If I can just start out with a good routine and master that, and then add a little bit here and there in the next couple of years, everything should be in great shape for the Olympics.”

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