Prince Albert gymnasts Lucia Tamayo (left) and Kate Popescul, along with their coach Danielle Clark, will head to the Yukon later this month to represent Saskatchewan at the 2026 Western Canadian Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Whitehorse. (Image Credit: Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

By Logan Lehmann

Gymnastics

P.A. gymnasts, coach selected to Team Sask for Western Artistic Championships

Apr 1, 2026 | 12:45 PM

A pair of Prince Albert gymnasts and their coach are set to represent Saskatchewan on the Western stage. 

Kate Popescul and Lucia Tamayo, along with their coach Danielle Clark, will make the over 2,500 km trek to the Yukon later this month as part of Saskatchewan’s CCP Level 8 team for the 2026 Western Canadian Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Whitehorse. 

This will be Popescul’s second time on the team as she also made it last year, only she was the lone P.A. athlete. The 13-year-old not only made the team again this year but placed first all-around at trials, and she won’t be alone at Western’s this time either. Tamayo, 12, made the team with a sixth-place all-around finish in her first year trialing, despite starting in gymnastics only four years ago.  

“I went to Westerns last year and it was really fun,” said Popescul. “You get to compete with all the girls and make new friends.” 

For Tamayo, she’s looking forward to taking in the sights and sounds of a Western competition for the first time. 

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“I’m really happy that I get to go and I just want to do my best.” 

Popescul and Tamayo were two athletes out of a group of 11 trialing for a spot on the team and will represent two of the seven members with Sask’s CCP 8 team. 

For coach Clark, she’s been a part of Aerials gymnastics for nearly two years since she moved back to the province from Alberta. She explained she’s always had a hand at teaching gymnastics but never thought she would be coaching at this skill level. 

“Coming to Saskatchewan and stepping into this role, I basically saw the need to because the athletes were so talented and because they wanted it so bad,” she said, adding that the culture around the sport in Saskatchewan compared to Alberta also inspired her to take on a new coaching experience.  

“The club needed a coach for their higher-level athletes who were at the provincial level, but they didn’t have any Western level athletes. So, then the first year that I came here, we had Kate trial for Westerns just as an opportunity, not because we expected her to make the team, and she did make the team. So, we’ve kind of expanded from that and had more athletes trial this year.” 

She expects more athletes to trial for the same opportunities in the coming years, with some even trialing for higher skilled competitions. 

Like the athletes, coaches also have to be selected to head to the Western Championships, something that Clark said came as a surprise. 

“It was actually very unexpected. Because Kate got first all around, that qualified me to be selected for the team as a team coach. I didn’t expect to go to Westerns at all this year.”  

Clark will be joined alongside five other coaches from around the province, with four coming from Saskatoon and one from Regina.  

The 2026 Western Canadian Artistic Gymnastics Championship is set for April 25-28 at the Yukon Gymnastics Centre in Whitehorse. 

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com