Port Coquitlam’s Hayley de Jong has been named to the Canadian team that will compete at the 2018 Senior Pan American gymnastics championships in Lima, Peru, in September. The event is a qualifier for the 2019 Pan American Games that will be held next summer in the same city.
De Jong, who trains out of Flicka Gymnastics in North Vancouver, earned her way onto the team with several notable results this season, including a first in the bars, third on the floor and third all-around at the Pacific Rim competition in Medellin, Col., third in the vault and seventh all-around at the Canadian championships in Waterloo, Ont., and second in the bar, third in vault and fourth all-around at the Elite Canada meet in Quebec City.
De Jong, who attends Riverside secondary school in Port Coquitlam, missed much of her last season as a junior competitor with a broken foot she suffered while training. The injury kept her out of the gym for four months.
She swept top place in all four events in her first meet as a senior, the Salamunov Memorial in Maribor, Slovenia, last November.
All around and apparatus finals, as well as team qualification, at the Pan Am championships will be contested Sept. 15. The top eight teams will then compete in the team finals the next day.
