PUURS, Belgium, April 17, 2011 – The USA won a gold medal at the 2011 Flanders International Acro Cup in Puurs, Belgium. Jacob Kanavel of San Jose, Calif., and Eirian Smith of Livermore, Calif., won the junior mixed pair title.
Kanavel and Smith, who train at West Coast Training Center, won the junior mixed pair title with a 28.700, besting Belgium’s Nicolas Vleeshouwers and Laure De Pryck and Kazakhstan’s Vitaliy Kovalenko and Karina Shokubayeva, who finished second and third, respectively.
In the World Cup division, two U.S. groups, which train at Realis Gymnastics Academy, just missed the medals podium. The mixed pair of Ryan Ward of Corona, Calif., and Melissa Gong of Perris, Calif., finished fourth (27.553), and in women’s group, Aimee Bruns of Riverside, Calif., Leslie Munoz of Homeland, Calif., and Tayler Harris of Pleasanton, Calif., finished fifth. Russia’s Igor Nikulin and Agata Pichko took the mixed pair title, while Aygul Shaykhudinova, Ekaterina Stroynova and Ekaterina Loginova won women’s group.
The junior women’s pair of Mariah Cockshell and Kennedy Swanson, who train at Acro Explosion, took sixth. Belgium’s Nikki Snel and Eline de Smedt won the title. In the junior women’s group division, Ginger Burrows of Potomac, Md., Kerrie Prestpino of Rockville, Md., and Erica Prestpino of Rockville, who train at Xtreme Acro and Cheer,finished seventh. The event’s title went to Belgium’s Laure Maes, Ineke Van Schoor, and Julie Van Gelder.