Fil-Am gymnast claims berth in Youth Games

MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am Ava Verdeflor came out short in the medal round in the Junior Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan but managed to salvage points to qualify for the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in China.

The 15-year-old Verdeflor, a native of Tarlac City based in Dallas, Texas, finished ninth among 30 bets from 22 countries with 30.3 points in the overall individual standings as she broke the 30-point qualifying standard for this year’s Youth Games slated Aug. 17-27 in Nanjing.

“Ava scored 30.3 points in the overall execution. Ava is lone gymnast for the Philippines yet she performed better that the others. We are proud of her,” said Cynthia Carrion, president of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines.

Trained and earned her level 10 artistic status at the famous World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) co-owned by former five-time world champion Yevgeny Marchenko and Russian Acrobatics Valeri Liukin, Verdeflor showed grace and strength against rivals from powerhouse teams such as South Korea, Japan and China.  

“I’m happy and feeling blessed with my performance. As a sole representative of the Philippines in the Youth Olympics qualifying event, pressure came in but I managed to keep my composure,” said Verdeflor, currently the country’s No.1 junior gymnast and reigning Philippine National Games champion. 

With Verdeflor’s successful stint, the country now has six athletes vying in the quadrennial Games for athletes aged 16 years-and-under. The others are recurved archers Luis Gabriel Moreno and Bianca Gotuaco, golfers Princess Superal and Mia Legaspi and judokas Kiyomi Watanabe.

Carrion said Verdeflor is a work in progress as she needs more support from the Philippine Sports Commission for her training and additional exposure in the international competitions in time for the Youth Olympics.

“Ava trained very hard for this Asian Championship. Now that she qualified for the Youth Olympics she needs more support for her training and exposure in time for the event this coming August,” said Carrion.

Ava began competing level 10 in 2012. She won the beam and the all-around crowns at the Fiesta Bowl Invitational. She also finished third all-around at the Houston National Invitational. At the State Championships, she ruled the bars and placed 10th all-around at Regionals.

In 2013, she placed third on beam in the Texas Prime meet, topped the floor event at the WOGA Classic, and ruled the beam and floor titles at the Malibu Coast Challenge. Ava finished 11th all-around at the State Championships.