Ron Pietroniro photo
Whitchurch-Stouffville resident Karen Cockburn, seen here competing in the preliminary event, won the silver medal in today's Olympic trampoline final.
Olympics
August 18, 2008 09:33 AM
Whitchurch-Stouffville's Karen Cockburn has added another Olympic medal to her collection.
The veteran athlete won the silver medal in today's trampoline final. Her score of 37.00 was just a hair behind the 37.80 that won Chinese competitor He Wenna the gold.
Cockburn won bronze in Sydney in 2000 and silver four years ago in Athens.
Cockburn, Rosannagh MacLennan and Jason Burnett, all from the Skyrider Trampoline Place in Richmond Hill, advanced to the finals.
MacLennan, of King City, earned a score of 35.50 and finished seventh.
The men's final goes tomorrow.
In reaching the finals, MacLennan finished third out of 16 in the compulsory and freestyle routines, with the combined scores of the top-8 advancing. Cockburn was right behind, bouncing back from a low score in the compulsory where she was 10th, finishing fourth overall after the freestyle.
With a day of rest in between the qualification and the finals, it is more in tune with how World Cup trampoline events are usually mapped out. In the two previous Olympics, the finals were immediately after the preliminaries.
"It's kind of nice to have a day to train and refocus," said Cockburn, who at 27, may be competing in her last Olympics. "That's how all of our competitions are run, so this is normal for us," and better than the last two Olympics."
Coach Dave Ross was beaming yesterday after all three booked a spot in the finals, noting that on
the world stage, Cockburn is ranked second, MacLennan ninth and Burnett 12th.
"We are tremendously happy to put anyone in the final because it's not easy to get in the final at all," he points out.
— with files from Brad Kelly