Sunday, March 30, 2008

Pac Rim News and Notes: Part Something-or-Other

Argh. I was at work today, 5:30am - 2:30pm (don't ask).

I've missed pretty much ALL of the women's PacRim competition. By the looks of things, Lauren had a few mistakes (but still scored well on beam despite a fall), Dasha did great despite a mere Yurchenko full vault (thumb problems still, I assume). She hit her beam set which is great for her, and rocked bars according to the quick hits. Nastia Liukin will no doubt be uneven bars and/or beam champion tomorrow, but the Aussies are definitely in the medal mix after getting some shakes out of their system today.

Waiting waiting waiting for final results... Wahey, Dasha got a 15.1 for floor and 15.15 for beam. It's not often she scores above Lauren. She didn't do the double layout though.

Anyways, I don't have the excited nerves coursing through my system like I did yesterday; I'm a bit dejected now because I missed the whole thing, and Australia made some mistakes anyway. Don't know how good we're looking for defending that team silver medal. Now there's an anxious wait because they have a bye in the final rotation. To be honest, I'll be a bit p*ssed off if beastly Jana Bieger wins silver behind Liukin. She probably will, looking at her scores. But Dasha's form is so much nicer AND she doesn't get home country favouritism. It'd be a fairer victory in my book.

*sigh* Bloody USAG.

Dum di dum... Team USA having a rough time on floor, falls/OOB's from four of their athletes (including Bieger!) but still high scores across the board [of course]. I like them as athletes but hate their one-sided judging. Our girls' scores get marked so harshly when we foul up but for the US girls, it always seems to get just a little scratch off the score. It's parochial to the point of bias.

Aha, here we go. Results are in. Nastia in 1, Jana in 2, DASHA IN 3!!! Repeating Hollie Dykes' result from 2006. Good on you, Dash! Sadly, Australia ended up behind USA-Canada-China in the team standings. Still, a good debut for our juniors and good showings as usual from Mitchell/Joura/Brennan.

Final senior all-around results here. Dasha and Ashleigh both hit 59, placing 3rd and 4th respectively. With a Yurchenko double or 2.5, and that double-layout that I really really hope will eventually manifest itself in her floor routine, Dasha could easily push 60+ and make an all-around medal podium placing if she couples them with the kind of bars and beam routines she did here and at the Beijing Test Event. She's getting a little better every time.



ETA: Photos keep on coming, you can see some here and here. Call me crazy, but I always think Ashleigh is going to slip in those footsocks. They look so cumbersome!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gotta agree with you on Beiger getting silver. That is such an injustice, no matter how high she scores. Her gym is UGLY.

Loving your blog. Never knew it existed til I saw the link on the facebook page. Finally a blog about Australian gym...I thought they didn't exist! And I was just nodding my head off in agreement with you through your entire post!

Larissa

Anonymous said...

I am praying Bieger doesn't make the olympics- her gymnastics is foul enough to make me change the channel.
I think that Dasha was hard done by- definately should have got the silver even with the watered down vault.