Marcia Vidiaux of Cuba, the 2016 Olympian who is generally known as a standout vaulter, impressed on every event last week with five medal wins – including the team, all-around, and floor gold – at the Central American & Caribbean Games held in Barranquilla, Colombia.

On the first day of competition, Vidiaux led her team to the gold with a solid performance, including a 13.900 on floor thanks to a great whip to triple full and beautiful front tuck through to stuck 2½, qualifying first into the all-around final as well as landing spots in all four apparatus finals.

In the all-around final, Vidiaux opened with a clean tsuk double full for a huge 14.700, and then went on to hit her bars set, including a stalder full to Tkachev, clear hip to stalder half to Endo half to bail to Ray, and a nearly stuck full-in for a 12.250 to hold her lead. Though she had a few wobbles throughout her beam routine and then put her hands down on her punch front, she was still far enough ahead to get the win, just taking a couple of steps on floor but still putting up a 13.300 to finish with a total of 51.750, nearly two points ahead of the rest of the field.

Vidiaux picked up the silver medal on vault, averaging a 14.112 with two clean attempts, and then grabbed the bars silver with a 12.500 for a clean set, before again hitting a fantastic floor set to win her third gold medal with a 13.525. Unfortunately, she did have a fall on beam in that final, holding her back to seventh place, but overall this was an incredible performance for her.

Puerto Rico’s Andrea Maldonado was also a bit of a star here, winning the silver medal in the all-around with a 50.050 in addition to taking the bronze on floor, where she crushed each and every performance. In the all-around competition, Maldonado opened with a solid FTY, and though she fell on her Gienger on bars, she went on to look mostly solid on beam, especially on her punch front, before finishing with a fantastic Randi, front double full, stuck double tuck, and clean 2½ to earn a 13.000 on floor.

The Colombian gymnasts were good enough to take the silver medal here at home as a team, and they also saw a number of individual victories, including the all-around and beam bronze for Dayana Ardila, as well as the bronze on bars for Valentina Pardo, who also placed fourth all-around.

Ardila put up a strong Yurchenko 1½ to open her all-around performance with a 13.850, and she continued to hit bars with a solid toe-on to Gienger and double layout dismount, beam with a strong back handspring to back tuck and double pike dismount for a 12.300, the highest of the day, and then floor, where she was a little low on her opening piked and tucked full-ins, but she managed a 49.700 total to easily secure a spot on the podium.

Coming back from injury recently, Pardo stuck her tsuk full to kick off her all-around performance, and then hit a mostly clean bars set that included a clear hip to huge Gienger, straddle Jaeger, and full-in, which was a little low and had a hop, though the rest of the routine was good enough to make up for the mistake. Pardo then hit beam, and went on to hit a tucked full-in, front tuck through to 2½, and double tuck, all a bit short, but still solid enough to end up in fourth with a 48.750.

Ana Palacios of Guatemala had a relatively fantastic day, just showing some form errors here and there, but hitting four-for-four to finish fifth with a 48.250. She opened with a decent FTY on vault, and then hit her Shaposh to bail, straddle Jaeger, and full-in on bars to keep in pace with the rest of the top contenders going into the third rotation. On beam, she had a few wobbles, but overall showed some really nice work, including on her switch leap to side aerial, to earn an 11.750, and she finished on floor with a great arabian double front, a stuck tucked full-in, and a good double tuck to finish her routine.

In addition to her all-around success, Palacios qualified to three apparatus finals, placing eighth on bars with a fall, hitting beam to finish fourth with an 11.875, and then hitting floor to tie for fifth with a 12.175.

Rounding out the top eight in the all-around were Mary Adny Morffi of Cuba in sixth with a 47.750, Nicolle Castro of Mexico in seventh with a 47.750, and Karelys Diaz of Puerto Rico in eighth with a 47.400.

Behind Cuba and Colombia in the team final was Mexico in a close third, taking the bronze thanks especially to the efforts of veterans Castro and Ahtziri Sandoval. Competing two events in qualifications, Sandoval made finals for both she attempted, and went on to win the bronze on vault with two excellent sets, before then winning the gold on bars with a 12.725 for her clean and difficult routine.

Also medaling in event finals were Bianca Leon of Puerto Rico with the gold on beam and Jimena Moreno of Mexico with the silver on that event, while Diaz won the silver on floor.

Article by Lauren Hopkins