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Langley gymnastics clubs send athletes to Canada Winter Games

2023 edition gets underway Feb. 18 in PEI
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Langley Gymnastics Foundation athletes at the Winter Games: (left to right) Makenzie Grant, Blake Morfitt, Jordanna Phillis. (Special to Langley Advance Times)

Two Langley gymnastics clubs have sent people to the 2023 Canada Winter Games (CWG).

Langley Gymnastics Foundation athletes (LGF) Blake Morfitt, 17, Jordanna Phillis, 16, and Makenzie Grant, 15 were named to the team representing BC’s Artistic Gymnastics at the upcoming Games in Prince Edward Island.

Flip City Gymnastics Club’s Aaliyah De Sousa, 15, was also named to the B.C. contingent, along with two coaches from the club.

Morfitt, named to the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics team, has been with LGF since he was six.

This year, he became B.C. junior champion and then went on to place sixth all-around in the Junior 16-18 category at the Canadian Championships, adding a bronze medal on rings.

READ ALSO: VIDEO: Christy Fraser Memorial Invitational wraps up in Langley

Phillis and Grant were named to Team BC’s Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) team.

Phillis recently attended Elite Canada, a national ranking competition, as a second-year senior, where she placed first on vault.

Grant also attended Elite Canada and placed second on vault, making a dual medal podium finish for Team BC on vault at the upcoming CWG a very real possibility.

It is the first time any of the LGF athletes have attended the Canada Winter Games, and it is their first experience at a multi-sport event.

Flip City’s Aaliyah De Sousa will also be competing for the B.C. WAG team.

De Sousa recently became one of only eight junior athletes to be added to a national early talent ID list.

Flip City’s Alana Jensen was named team manager and assistant coach of the WAG team, with Lilla Gulyas named the Women in Sport Apprentice for the Trampoline Gymnastics team.

Gulyas is one of only two women accepted into the Women in Coaching Canada Games Apprenticeship Program for 2023, a national initiative that provides mentorship for female coaches.

Gulyas has been coaching gymnastics for a decade, making the switch after she retired from competing in trampoline and artistic gymnastics.

READ ALSO: Langley gymnastics coach named to national apprenticeship program

Artistic gymnastics has been in the Canada Winter Games program since the inaugural Games in 1967. Trampoline made its Canada Games debut in 2015.

From Feb. 18 to March 5, the Games will bring together 3,600 athletes, managers and coaches, across 20 different sports.

CWG is a multi-sport event which happens once every four years, and is considered by Sport Canada to be a steppingstone onto the national team and other larger multi-sport games for young aspiring athletes.


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Dan Ferguson

About the Author: Dan Ferguson

Best recognized for my resemblance to St. Nick, I’m the guy you’ll often see out at community events and happenings around town.
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