Squad Stats (aka Nationals Hangover)

So here we are, then.
Post #101 and a big exhale after Nationals.

The arena's getting packed up, video footage is being uploaded and downloaded and sidewaysloaded, The Chosen Ones are resuming training and then eventually jetting up to Canberra for final selection, yours truly is back on earth after spending a weekend in Gym Nirvana.

I highly recommend you check out the videos online courtesy of Misty and Nade (among others), they're smashing. Misty's in particular, she had a great seat for the apparatus challenge. Nade has footage of a Stateline (ABC) piece about Nationals, focussing on the Waverley girls and P-Liddy's selection procedures. My own video footage is being edited as we speak but there's nothing too groundbreaking I can add to the mix as it's all already there for you to see*^_^* There aren't [m]any vault vids up so hopefully mine can be of use. Maybe. I did get some footage of the athletes on the sidelines in addition to routines but that's about it, really. I got a few men's routines but aside from Rizzo's high bar, they're not that great to watch. Unless you're into Funniest Home Videos-style entertainment.

There is also a photo gallery at The Age online (www.theage.com.au), scroll down to the Sports section and look for "Twist and Shout - The Agony and the Ecstacy of the Olympic Qualifiers". There are some great ones of Miss D saluting; there's a cute one of what looks either either Ash's or Emma's feet leaving a chalk footprint trail on the floor mat, and there's also a very unflattering one of Olivia on beam, which I didn't think was very nice to include. International Gymnast gave the girls a mention too.

So...
So.

The WAG squad, eh!

Given the Nats results (Dasha and Shona getting automatic qualification onto the team), and hoping everything goes well in camp, I'm predicting the Olympic team will be:

Dasha
Shona
Lauren
Georgia
Ashleigh
Emma
Olivia (res.)
Melanie (res.)

for the following reasons.

Dasha - Well derr, Fred.

Lauren - A high-scoring beam routine and equally impressive floor if she can just control the big tumbles. Her bars is showing promise, too. She just (again) needs some control but I'm sure she can work the kinks out in time.

Shona - Very neat and, as has been established, a "rock" on events like beam and floor. She just needs to keep her chest up to avoid falling forward most of the time. If she can get the Y-double, she's a lock for a vault spot and to be honest I'd rather see her on bars than Olivia in terms of potential B-scores.

Georgia - Beeeeyootiful beam work, not too much to whittle off a B-score there. She tumbles much the same as Georgia on floor but just as neatly. I think she was the 'other' girl with a Comaneci on bars but I hope I'm not confusing her with another Victorian...

Ashleigh - A striking performer who's getting more and more confident each time, particularly on beam where she hits a nice set but doesn't seem to have a "wow" skill just yet. Her floor is a delight and like her other state team-mates, goes for nailed landings with success more often than not. She's not looking to repeat her CWG floor final mistake again anytime soon!

Emma - Y-double on vault, elegant beam and floor work that the crowd will love, she really goes for the stuck landings (and succeeds most of the time). A real surprise package. Could do for the Beijing team what Shona did for the Stuttgart one.

Olivia - Gets my vote for a reserve position because she deserves to travel with the team. However, I wouldn't see a lot of use for her beyond bars, but even then there are other girls who could outshine her in terms of execution. She has great team spirit and if she neatens up at camp, we could see her perform in the preliminary round. Previous Worlds experience could work in her favour.

Mel J - a dark horse for a spot, but was shaky at Nationals. She's great on vault and shows such power on floor (gosh I love well-done double arabians!), but lacks the high scores and stuck landings of the other girls. She could sneak in there, it all comes down to consistency at camp.

Gosh, there's the c-word again (the good kind of c-word). I'm sounding like Bart Conor...

Over to you, Elfi.

The Big One (Hundred)

This is the 100th post on this blog, and is fittingly coupled with other celebratory news- the announcement of the Olympic training squad named from the National Apparatus Challenge today.

Dasha Joura
Lauren Mitchell
Olivia Vivian
Georgia Bonora
Shona Morgan
Emma Dennis
Amber Fulljames
Melanie Jones
Ashleigh Brennan

The event winners got giant novelty cheques which were a bit of a hoot to see; the athletes didn't seem to know what to do with them. Dasha J was the big winner, cashing in on victories on vault/bars/floor. Phil Rizzo had a welcome return to form with a win on high bar (sans Tak to def release). He did some excited fist-pumping and rock star air guitar after his dismount, further endearing him to the crowd. Lots of fumbles and BIG scary-looking splats from the men on floor (but a stuck double-layout from Josh J wowed the crowd). Once again, pommel proved to be their Achilles heel and we didn't have the usual Prashanth performance to lift everyone's spirits (but he was there to present pommel awards). Our designated Olympic MAG rep, Sam Simpson, showed some good releases on high bar but was still shaky in other places.

But the women were the real stars of the event. Dasha was again the classy performer, with Emma Dennis and Ash Brennan again proving they deserve their squad spots with some gorgeous floor work. Emma's choreographer is to be commended for what is an enchanting Eastern-themed routine that suits her well. It should also be noted that Em unveiled a Yurchenko double today! Shona Morgan had some fumbles which were a shame to see, as she'd done so well in the other days of competition. Lauren Mitchell stuck her piked double arabian ("at last!" I said into the video camera) but then stepped OOB on her tucked one. She can't seem to catch enough of a break. She won beam and improved on bars, getting a lot of vocal encouragement from her WA teammates in the process. G-Bo had a great beam set (the highlight is a dainty Onodi and a gutsy Rulfova) despite a stumble. Queensland's Amber Fulljames is a little pocket rocket and, let's face it, a cutie pie. She could, by all accounts, get away with murder. She's only 16 but looks about 12. The team flocked around her and hugged her and congratulated her, P-Liddy particularly taking time to consult her. She's a star of the future for sure.


The Graham Kennedy Award for Most Comedic Moment: An hour before the comp, as the girls were warming up, the dulcet tones of one Mr Ade Foster informed the early spectators: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the next fifty minutes of ad-free music will be brought to you by Olivia Vivian". It was perplexing but I assume Livvy had hooked her iPod or similar device up to the arena's speakers. Bon Jovi pumped out, followed by Queen, giving Dasha - who was warming up on beam at the time - a massive fit of the giggles and she couldn't continue. So cute.

The Fresh-Faced Home and Away Star Award for Best New Talent: Amber "playin' with the big girls" Fulljames who had some dynamic tumbling and neat execution for such a tiny thing. Keep one eye on her and another on Natalia Joura.

The Why is Richard Wilkins Still Here? Award for WTF!?ness: Our Beijing rhythmic gymnastics rep Naazmi Johnston performed for the crowd, which was nice. She has amazing flexibility in both her rope and ribbon routines. But one couldn't help but notice that for the opening 45-or-so seconds of what we assume is the ribbon routine she'll be doing at the Olympics, she didn't go anywhere near the ribbon. It lay on the floor some metres away while she danced an elegant dance, apparatus-less. Are they even allowed to DO that...?

The All Bert Newton's Kids Inherited his Shiny Face Award And it is Beyond Creepy Award for Genetics: Dasha Joura's mother. Spotted outside the arena alongside a woman whom this reporter believed to be VIS coach Mischa Barabach's wife, greeting Olympian Karen Nguyen. The resemblance between MummaJoura and her decorated eldest daughter is uncanny. Lovely Russian features all round.

The Hugh Jackman Not So Up Ourselves That We Reject Our Roots Award for Retirees: Allana Slater, Joanna Hughes, Brooke Walker, Steph Moorhouse, Netty Russo for presenting awards.

The Marlon Brando Sorry I Couldn't Be Here to Accept This Award for Absenteeism: Beijing-bound trampolinist Ben Wilden, who couldn't wave to the crowd at the end due to the unavoidable fact of him being at an overseas competition.


Hope you all enjoyed Nationals as much as I did (though hopefully you didn't have a schoolkid repeatedly kicking your chair).

On a personal note, thanks everyone for stickin' with me for nearly 6 months now.
I know I waffle on a bit so 100 isn't too much of an achievement I suppose :P

Here's to 100 more!

Not Nationals - Media

Nationals, so to speak, are now over. Pre-Olympic assessments of the squad will still be rolling round and round until the final team is named (but let's face it - it was pretty much the top 6 placegetters in the all-around) so for now, we have the National Apparatus Challenge which looks to be a bit of fun, tension-free gymnastics. Well it should, seeing as the scores don't count to anything :P

Anyway.

Many thanks to GGMB-based special agent K who brought to light some new articles on Chloe Sims from her local Toowoomba newspaper. They're quite poignant, and give more insight into the reasons behind her retirement. The articles are not accessible online, and are difficult to be scanned, so K went to the effort of typing them all up. To save on space I will highlight the most crucial parts here. Chloe was brave to come out and admit what she has in the way she has; I'd hate for it to mean she gets distanced from anything GA-related and doesn't get the kind of fun, interactive opportunities that Monette Russo/Karen Nguyen/Allana Slater/Steph Moorhouse got at Nationals this year.

Battling an eating disorder and mental fatigue, [Sims] chose personal happiness over the ultimate prize of a shot at winning gold. It was the most difficult decision of her life, but for Sims it was the only way she could overcome her inner demons. “I was mentally unhealthy. I had a lot of problems. I had an eating disorder and I was under a lot of pressure,” she said. “Every morning I woke up and didn’t want to go to training. It felt like I was wasting my time and other people’s doing something I didn’t want to do.”

“It wasn’t gymnastics that go to me; it was the pressure [...] It was hard knowing that I wouldn’t be able to experience the Olympics, but I don’t regret my decision. I already feel healthier. I guess you could say I’m at peace with myself”...

“I still love gymnastics but I had to stop competing and training at that top level for my own well being. I’m so grateful for the amazing memories the sport has given me. Winning gold at the Commonwealth Games was really special but the best moment was when I got my first Australian tracksuit and leotard. The tracksuit was hideous, but wearing the green and gold had always been a dream of mine and earning that first tracksuit was the pinnacle of my career. The rest was a wonderful bonus.”

Since severing ties with the inner-circle of the Australian gymnastic squad, Sims said she has experienced feelings of social alienation.“It’s hard not to go to the gym every day and see all my beautiful friends. We were very close but it’s hard to maintain that bond outside the sport,” she said. “My parents and my brother and sister are very supportive and have been incredible through all this.”

“I have entered a new stage of my life. Now I can do whatever I want. I don’t have to look a certain way. I can be who I want to be”.

Her aspirations are to take up drumming, skydiving and dance. She's looking at having a go at aerobics (hurray!) and even the US college scene so maybe, just maybe, the NCAA will get another exciting Aussie in the ranks.

Good luck Chloe, in all your pursuits. Your gymnastics fans wish you the best and hope that you still hold on to the good memories you had while in the sport.

Nationals - My Photos!

Please excuse the inherent stodginess of them. I wasn't sitting particularly close to the floor and the zoom on my camera is not the best. Some I had to manually zoom in the photo editor. The arena, it was concurred, was also too dark. Not perfect photography conditions.

Victorian on floor. Their leos looked great.

Red and yellow shirts made up for Vic fans with the names of the Waverley and VIS girls on them. Awwww...

(I tried to zoom closer to get the names but it didn't work)

AA presentation

Level 10 AA podium.

Let me know if you'd like to see larger versions. I do have some, I just didn't want to take up all the space on the page :P

Nationals - All Around Final

2008 National Championships MAG All-Around Final

Gold: Joshua Jefferis, QLD (84.650 and he's sporting a ridiculous new fuzzy hairstyle)
Silver: Sam Simpson, QLD (82.900)
Bronze: Christopher Martin, NSW (79.300)


2008 National Championships WAG All-Around Qualification

1. Dasha Joura, WA (61.600)
2. Shona Morgan, VIC (60.400)
3. Ashleigh Brennan, VIC (59.450)
4. Emma Dennis, VIC (58.200)
5. Lauren Mitchell, WA (57.150)
6. Georgia Bonora, VIC (56.800)
7. Olivia Vivian, WA (55.225)
8. Amber Fulljames, QLD (54.200)

2008 National Championships WAG All-Around Final


Gold: Dasha Joura, WA (122.200)
Silver: Shona Morgan, VIC (120.700)
Bronze: Ashleigh Brennnan, VIC (119.650)

Gossip just to hand: Dasha J to compete in the upcoming Moscow World Cup??? Hm... this is not a great move, Peggy. I thought you wanted girls on the team who were "competition savvy"? If that really is the case, then send Shona or Ash or Emma along too, so they can GET competition savvy! It's only fair. Don't waste a good opportunity lest we fluff preliminaries again and risk missing a finals placing! Don't ya see!? DON'TCHA SEE!?!?!? *grabs imaginary Peggy and shakes*

THE COMPETITION (hasty post-comp notes, cross-posted from GGMB, to be refined later)

Ok, there's not much new that I can add.

It was rather a splatfest but Dasha and Shona outdid everyone.

It was great to meet and re-meet some GGMB-ers and Aussie Board folk. You guys rock.

Crash of the night - Georgia (I think? Possibly Emma. It's 2am and I can't remember) whose full-in ended in a shuffle to a hasty forward roll. Interesting save. Ties with Emily Little who whacked her foot on the bars and crashed to the ground in a very nasty fashion. Good on her for getting up and continuing.

Lauren WAY out on the arabian front piked again. Overdid it in warmup, didn't learn from the mistake and did it again in the comp. OOB on the other arabian too, I couldn't quite tell. Otherwise, GREAT new routine. New music for Shona too, so she's not blushing behind Sacramone. Emma had a lovely beam mount - press to handstand, bring legs through to sit in pike. Big applause.

The camera I was using crapped out 3/4 of the way through but I managed to get the Waverley chicks on all events. Stay tuned for vids.

I personally couldn't see P-Liddy anywhere, but that might have been my seating arrangements; she certainly made herself known at the very end, jumping up and taking photos of the juniors on the medal podium (for posterity before she BREAKS THEM I assume). She seems to really be behind Olivia who, I must say, showed a pretty sketchy bars routine. Nice personality but really irksome execution. Olivia stood right near the end of the floor podium and cheered for Lauren when she was on. I got brief video footage of WA's team huddle before the comp began.

Dasha was the class of the night, she has that double layout DRILLED like crazy. Shame about the NZ girl, she scored a 9. something at one point. A really rough meet, falls all over the place.
I went up to Melanie Jones afterwards in the foyer and simply said "good luck" and "there are lots of fans gunning for you" and her eyes opened wide and she said, 'Wow! Thanks! Thank you so much, that's great to know!" Several gym parents went up and hugged John Hart/Martine and thanked them for their daughter's opportunities and wonderful performances etc etc.

I got an ace photo of Dasha hugging her coach after the comp was over, but I don't have a usb cord to upload it at the moment.

I'll be there tomorrow and will hopefully get some vision of BabyDasha competing.

Again, it's 2am *is dead*.

2008 National Championships WAG Level 10 All-Around

1. Natalia Joura, WA
2. Amaya King-Koi, QLD
3. Angela Donald, VIC

Today was an up-and-down day.

The camera battery conked out again and the spare one didn't work so I only got Wurth's floor routine at the very beginning. Natalia did indeed win the day after leading from the start, but didn't seem as pleased about the whole thing as her sister. She's got lovely execution on floor, nice pirouettes and neat twists, doing everything high on her toes... she even runs into tumbles on her toes! WAIS were very systematic in their floor warm-up. Instead of all separating to different corners of the mat, they all lined up in the one corner and moved around together practising the same tumbles (double pikes, double twists etc).

Add the following to the "now where have we seen that before?" file:
1. Tierra Exum looks like Betty Okino, though her long legs were not always working in her favour.
2. Tierra's floor is lifted DIRECTLY off Steph Moorhouse c. 2002, music AND choreography. Even the very end pose. Think Commonwealth Games team final. That's what we saw, just with a new and much younger girl.
3. I think it was the McGrath girl on beam who does a nice straddle to handstand planche mount, just like Hayley Wright.

There were a LOT of vaults landed to bums and a LOT of flubs on bars. A South Australian girl got a 7.175 on beam. King-Koi had a nasty stack on floor on her opening double-pike but she recovered pretty well. Wurth had a bad one too.

I'm rather glad I changed my seat from where I originally chose. There was a girl in the row in front of me who I KNEW I must know from somewhere but couldn't work out where. Then it hit me - it was Naomi Russell. Naomi was sitting with some Queensland juniors and cheering for her team. In the seating bay adjacent to mine were the WAIS girls - Dash, Olivia and Lauren, all cheering Natalia and the other Level 10's. Olivia came over to chat to Naomi, wavy hair done up nicely in butterfly clips. All smiles and hugs. I can report that Naomi was wearing some kind of ankle strapping. It was purple. At first I thought it was a thick furry sock! She seemed pretty nonplussed about it. She joked with Olivia about her Pink Panther floor choreography ("Your first one [arm swipe] was like 'raaar' but your second one was like "RAAAARRRR!") and showed her some footage of herself training bars on her pink iPod. Then one rotation later, lo and behold along come Melody Hernandez, Monique Blount and one Miss Hollie Dykes. I must admit it actually took a while to recognise Hollie. Her hair is now chocolate brown and since being out of gymnastics she's got a fuller figure. Regardless, she seemed happy to be with her mates and not out on the floor. They all cheered their respective club-mates but I couldn't decipher much of what they said to one another.
Allana Slater helped with presentations and got a hug from Peggy prior to doing so.

Photos up soon!

Nationals - Team Final

Ok. New post.
*exhale*
Let's get going with some results. Who's running this sheep station, anyway!?

2008 National Championships MAG Team Final

Gold: Queensland (335.450)
Silver: New South Wales (315.850)
Bronze: Victoria (311.300)

2008 National Championships WAG Team Final

Gold: Victoria (178.050)
Silver: Western Australia (173.975)

Some videos from the women's team comp are up at YouTube, courtesy of MistySakura. Check out Dasha's floor with a kick-arse double layout and quad pirouette, yeeha!

Getty Images apparently has some photos up, so perhaps try searching under "australia gymnastics" or the athlete's name.

Dasha Joura, WA (darling, lose the back-combed boof. You're better than that and you know it)

Lauren Mitchell, WA

Kirsty Gully, SA

Looking at some of them though... there is some SHOCKING form going on. Particularly on bars. Flexed feet like nobody's business.

Gymnastics Australia has results up for Day 1.

Dasha got a mention at IG but sadly her record-setting floor score didn't get the pomp and circumstance awarded to the likes of Cheng Fei or He Kexin. But hey, you can't rush progress and in terms of Australian gymnastics, no press is bad press (that recent Courier Mail article notwithstanding...)

More to come soon. Stay tuned for the all-around final!