MacLennan sparkles in return to competition

Written By JAKE COURTEPATTE

Though admittedly rusty from a stark schedule of international competition as of late, shades of the two-time Olympic gold medalist came through in Rosie MacLennan's entry at the 2018 Trampoline World Cup in Japan.

The King City native qualified for the finals in both the individual and synchronized portions of the competition over the weekend, but fell short in finishing eighth and fourth overall respectively.

“It was good to get back competing at the international level and seeing where the field is,” said MacLennan following competition. “This wasn't my strongest performance, but I accomplished my goal of reaching the finals.”

MacLennan qualified for the individual final in the tenth spot with a score of 103.325, before upping her game two spots with a final round score of 54.990.

She then teamed up with Rachel Tam of Toronto for the synchro event, saying she was “happy” with her final score of 46.250, good for fourth after entering the final in eighth.

“I was also really happy coming fourth in synchro with Rachel, especially since this is our second competition together as a team and our first international competition together,” said MacLennan.

It was the first international competition for the star since the 2017 World Cup in Spain, where she failed to reach the final after a thirteenth-place finish in the qualification round.

She won the event in 2016, the same year she won her second gold medal in individual trampoline at the Olympics, in Rio.

Her first international finals as a senior, Tam said teaming up with the veteran MacLennan was the “highlight of (her) competition.

“Now that we have international experience, I think that we will be working on some more difficult routines, but beyond that, just increasing our numbers in training.”

For MacLennan, she will be working on getting back into the swing of things against international competition, with China and Belarus toppling the Canadian in the individual and synchro categories respectively.

“This wasn't my strongest performance, but I accomplished my goal of reaching finals,” said MacLennan. “My goals coming here were to qualify for finals and to put out a relatively strong showing given that it's my first international competition in quite a while.”

MacLennan said that moving forward, her goal is to “increase the difficulty of my second routine and really just focus in travel and height.”