JASTER’S JABBERINGS — Injured Onyshko ready for worlds at Montreal

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This article was published 03/10/2017 (2937 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One year after competing in the Olympics, Isabela Onyshko has been plagued by bad luck.

A calf injury kept her from training too hard this spring and the reigning national champion entered the Canadian artistic gymnastics championships in May just looking to get back into the swing of things. In her first major competition since Rio, Onyshko placed fifth all-around. She had the best score on the beam, but was seventh on the uneven bars, 10th on the floor and 12th on the vault.

The 19-year-old Brandonite hadn’t competed since nationals and was looking forward to the world championships when an injury hit her again, this time in the other calf. It will limit her to participating in just the uneven bars and the beam when the women’s qualification round begins today in Montreal.

Onyshko has practised enough through the Canadian team’s training camp in Sarnia, Ont., and Montreal to feel comfortable enough to do her two routines, but she isn’t setting high goals for herself.

“The focus that our national team director has is not worrying about outcomes or what’s going to happen, but focus on the process and putting what we do in the gym, you’ll focus on certain things in your routine, so focusing on those things and getting into your zone where you can really perform before you do your routine,” Onyshko said from Monreal. “That’s what we’re focusing on going into bars and beam. Because I have new combinations on bars and beam, we’re going to really go for the new skills and the routine.”

The biggest change to Onsyhko’s bar routine will be a transition from the high bar to the low bar. She has done a backwards element to a full turn on the bar, but she’s going with a forward one this time, known as an endo full, right before her dismount.

Onyshko will have a lot of support in Montreal with fellow Olympians Ellie Black of Halifax and Shallon Olsen of Surrey, B.C., on the Canadian team along with Brooklyn Moors of Cambridge, Ont., who will make her world championship debut. If Onyshko qualifies for the apparatus finals, she will compete in the uneven bars on Saturday and beam on Sunday.

This event may be a bit of a different experience for Onyshko. She’s competed in past world championships, but never one in Canada. She did participate in the Pan American Games in Toronto a few years ago, and hopes the atmosphere will be similar.

“I did have the experience of Pan Ams, so I’m definitely sure that will help with the crowd because I’m sure the crowd is going to be crazy when we get out there (this afternoon),” Onyshko said. “It’s definitely different because I’ve been to the training camps and stuff. You’re at home and feel a lot more comfortable and don’t have jet lag, which is huge.

“Now it definitely feels like the worlds. In Sarnia and the first couple of days here it was like ‘It’s just another competition.’ Now we’re feeling it.”

It may have been a strange year with so few competitions for Onyshko, but she’s OK with that. She feels like she’s gotten her fire for competition back and is slowly gearing up for a run to compete at the 2020 Olympics.

Onsyhko, who is taking one class at Brandon University, will be a bit busier next month as well with international events in Switzerland and France. The Elite Canada event in Quebec City from Jan. 31 to Feb. 4 will serve as the trials for the national team that will compete at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April.

For now, Onyshko is just focussed on performing as well as she can at the worlds.

“I think it’s going to be lots of fun out there,” she said. “Brooklyn is new to the whole experience. Having her out there is going to be fun. I’ve never been an individual at worlds, so it’s a bit different training wise but I think it will be a good experience.”