11 year old Canton resident, Erica Wu, famous in Rhythmic Gymnastics, after winning 3 golds in this year's National Championships in June, was recently invited to Germany to compete in the 3rd Nuremberg International Championships. Erica Wu, with her teammate Melissa Wong, also a Canton resident, representing the United States, flew over the Atlantic Ocean last month. Erica took home two first places, one for the individual event and the other for the All Around.
This championship was attended by a few hundred athletes representing the highest level in the world from countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Italy, United States, Germany, Israel and Hungary. There were twenty-four judges.
Each athlete could attend only two events. Erica attended the Hoop and Ball exercise which both finished in a near perfect performance. Her scores were 4 points higher than that of the 2nd place receiver, a Russian. Her teammate received 8th place and Erica's coach, Varduhi Naheptyan, was awarded “The Best Trainer” by the competition committee.
Erica Wu was born in the year 2000. Her father, Dr. Robert Wu, an internist who practices in Boston, always encouraged his children to play sports. Erica enjoyed flipping around in the house when she was 2. One day, when she was 6, little Erica followed her elder sister to the Gym, and by chance, she was found to be “excellent material” for Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG) by her current coach Varduhi Naheptyan. That was how her RG winning trip started. She trained at New England Sports Academy (NESA), in Westwood. Only 6 months later, she won her first all around in a Boston International Competition, followed by numerous awards in the last 5 years, most of them being gold medals. Erica has won gold in single events and/or the all arounds in each year for the last five years in the annual National Competitions.
In 2009, Erica was invited by the Russian Federations to attend The Ruby International Competition in Moscow. She got third place, but also won the acclaimed special award “Miss Grace” by the event.
In June 2011, Erica won three golds and one silver at the National RG Competition held in Disney World's ESPN Worldwide Sports Complex. She is also a National Junior Elite Team member and was training in the USA Olympic Training Center in November this year.
Erica's mother, Amy Wu, said, “This is the best Christmas gift Erica could give to her family and her coach and it's the perfect ending for the year.”
