Canada’s Olsen captures vault silver at world gymnastics championships

DOHA, Qatar – Canada’s Shallon Olsen captured a silver medal on vault in the individual apparatus finals Friday at the world gymnastics championships.

Olsen, of Surrey, B.C., entered the competition having qualified in second-position behind American star Simone Biles. Olsen laid down two more solid vaults to take silver with a total score of 14.516.

Biles captured her 13th world championship title with a total score of 15.366. Alexa Moreno of Mexico earned bronze with a total score of 14.508.

“This is absolutely insane. I did not think I was going to come second behind Simone Biles, because she’s literally amazing,” said Olsen who was the gold medallist on vault at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April. “I’m just really happy and ecstatic right now.”

Ellie Black of Halifax, who won a silver medal at last year’s world championships in the individual all-around competition, also laid down two solid vaults of a lesser difficulty value to finish the day in seventh position with a total score of 14.116.

The competition wraps up Saturday with Black and Ana Padurariu of Whitby, Ont., competing in the beam finals, and Brooklyn Moors of Cambridge, Ont., competing in the floor finals.