Dec 25, 2009 - 04:30 AM

By Brian McNair

OSHAWA -- One is in the midst of an impressive comeback and on her way back to the height of gymnastics, one is just getting her feet wet in the sport, and the other is somewhere in between.

But all three have limitless potential, according to Gemini Gymnastics head coach Elena Davydova, who was proud of another terrific effort turned in by her athletes at the recent Elite Canada meet.

Competing against the very best the country has to offer in Oakville, Kristina Vaculik, sidelined all of last year following elbow surgery, finished second all around at the Senior High Performance level, while Riley Cholod was crowned the all around champion in Junior High Performance. Carrina LoBello, in her first year at the Senior High Performance level, was 11th all around.

"They have the green light to go and try for the best they can: worlds, Olympics, whatever they can work for it," says Davydova, herself an all around gold medalist for the Soviet Union at the 1980 Olympics. "It's all about how much they want it, and their effort. They have all opportunity."

Vaculik nearly reached the pinnacle of competition at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but she was not among the two women chosen to represent Canada in a controversial decision.

The effort she put into the Olympic push contributed to a condition called osteochondritis, which required surgery last December and resulted in six months of rehabilitation.

She's back at it now, though, and has her eyes set firmly on the London Games in 2012, when she hopes Canada will qualify a full team of athletes this time, herself among them.

"It would mean everything to me," says Vaculik, a 17-year-old Whitby resident. "It's been what I've been dreaming about ever since I was a little girl."

Vaculik also recently firmed up a scholarship to Stanford University in California, where she hopes to pursue a career in medicine.

Cholod, 14, of Bowmanville, used a new move for the first time in competition to help propel her to the junior all around title.

After finishing 11th at the same competition a year ago, Cholod landed a variation of a back handspring layout on beam and also performed solid routines on floor and uneven bars to place first in a field of 27 competitors.

When asked how such an improvement was possible, Cholod was quick to answer: "Because of Elena and all the coaches," she said. "They've just helped me so much. I was ready for it more than last year."

LoBello, 16, of Oshawa, admitted to a case of nerves in her first foray into the Senior High Performance level, but she was proud of qualifying for event finals on the second day, when she finished sixth on beam and fourth in her floor routine.

"I was pretty pleased with my performance," she said. "I was a little bit nervous actually and intimidated just competing against people of that calibre, but I thought I did pretty well. I was happy with my results. I stuck almost every event and I was really pleased to make event finals second day."

In other event finals, which take place the day after the all around competition, Vaculik won gold in bars and floor, and Cholod won gold in bars and silver in beam and floor.