Trial Day 2, the be-all-and-end-all of Olympic teamship qualificationary, will be getting underway soon at the AIS.
I must say, taking 9 to the camp when 8 will be selected is a bit stodgy. I suppose the UnChosen One and the selected 'non-travelling' reserve can keep eachother company and console one another, but really. It's a bit unfair.
Anyway.
WILL Emma stand up the Baitova?
WILL Olivia show a solid bars routine?
WILL Dasha keep landing that layout-stepout beam series?
WILL Peggy choose wisely?
WILL you be frantically logging onto gym websites at 9:59 tomorrow morning?
Only time WILL tell... Stay tuned...
Tune back in to read this bit of gossip from our source, which has been shifted from the Comments page:
"Olivia had 3 falls off beam today. Ashleigh didn't compete floor or vault today and was getting therapy/massages for the first half of the comp (note not her legs but her lower back.hips). She had a fall off beam and made a mess of her run-up for her dismount, had to walk back and do it again. Lots of falls off beam today by the girls. I think the only ones who stayed on beam were Georgia, Lauren and Amber. Lauren almost stuck her piked arabian on floor but went OOB - but a lot cleaner then yesterday's landing of it. She went OOB a couple of other times too I think. Again, I'd say that the team is Dasha, Lauren, the Waverley 3 and Ashleigh (injury-free). Amber Fulljames to be travelling alternate. The last alternate spot I would give to Melanie Jones, simply due to her being more of an all-arounder then Olivia. I loved Emma's floor music and Amber's was pretty good too. Georgia and Lauren's music is kind of the same genre, and I don't really like that style of music. Vault was the best apparatus today overall."
Now, word just filtered through from someone who knows someone who was at the the event that the team was named, and it's as we thought (Joura, Mitchell, Morgan, Bonora, Brennan, Dennis, Fulljames/Vivian as reserves). I find it surprising that Olivia would top Mel J so I'm not really going to believe this lineup until I get more subtantiated confirmation.
ETA 9am Monday: More from Day 2, courtesy of our sources (I've mixed it up between the two so we get a bit of everything).
ROTATION 1: Floor
Georgia - great routine.
Emma - Bounced backward out of first pass, and just stayed in bounds. Other than that it was a great routine.
Melanie - Large step forward out of double Arabian, but stayed in bounds. Bounce backward out of double twist. Fell on front full into front 1.5 twist. Landed almost laying down the side of her body. Step on last pass.
Amber - out of bounds on first and second passes. Landed on line in last pass. Otherwise good routine.
Olivia - Fell on double pike last pass. Landed on hands and knees.
Shona - Bounced backward out of double pike, otherwise beautiful routine.
Lauren - out of bounds on Arabian double pike in first pass. Overall great routine.
Dasha - Awesome double layout. Fantastic routine.
Ashleigh didn't do floor.
ROTATION 2: Vault
Emma - BAITOVA. Awesome and stuck.
Melanie - Tsuk 1.5. Stuck.
Amber - Handspring front pike, small step backward
Georgia - Yurchenko 1.5. Good vault but large step right out of the lines.
Shona - Great vault, BAITOVA (!). Small step
Lauren - Yurchenko 1.5. Good vault, small step
Dasha - BAITOVA. Great technique and height. Small step.
Olivia and Ashleigh didn't vault.
ROTATION 3: Bars
Melanie - Missed going over the bar in half turn, extra swings. Missed going over the bar in giant full. Extra swings. No falls.
Amber - Great routine. Good height in releases. Small step on landing of dismount.
Olivia - Hit majority of handstands. Slight ankles apart in some places. Large step backward on double front dismount.
Georgia - Close Gienger release. Jump forward on double front dismount.
Emma - Great routine. Smallest movement after dismount.
Shona - Missed turn on high bar. fell the wrong way and had to improvise. Small step on double front dismount.
Ashleigh - Good routine. Very aggressive.
Lauren - Release kind of low and close to the bar. Bent knees throughout turning giant and resulted in an extra swing. A pretty deep squat on landing out of dismount.
Dasha - great routine. Hit pretty much every handstand. Small hop on dismount.
ROTATION 4: Beam
Amber - Great routine but large step backward out of double tuck dismount.
Olivia - Fell off after back walkover into layout step out. Fell off after front aerial. Fell off after side somersault. Missed that series. Step backward after dismount.
Georgia - Great routine, only step backward after back layout and step backward after dismount.
Emma - Step backward after back layout. Small wobble after side aerial. Fell off on full turn. Small movement on dismount.
Melanie - Step backward after switch leap with half turn. Wobble after full turn. Step backward and a bit of a low landing on front tuck. Overall good routine.
Shona - Fell off after back layout. Nice full twisting Korbut. Grabbed beam with hand after side aerial to prevent falling off. Wobble after full turn. Step backward after double pike dismount.
Ashleigh - Wobble after side somersault series. Fell off after back layout. Fales run on dismount. Had a bad hurdle so stopped and went back to the end of the beam and did a second take. Small step on landing.
Lauren - wobble after front aerial to 2 feet. Great layout series. Dismount 2 flips into double pike, stuck cold. Really good routine.
Dasha - Step backward out of back layout. Small step on double tuck dismount.
Hurray! Baitova's! A plethora of Baitova's! (claps for you if you get the Three Amigos referenc)
Other observations:
Melanie was better today, but still a few issues. During warm-up Peggy was coaching her a bit on beam and telling her what she is doing wrong. When she was on fx she took a big fall on one pass and Peggy had to jump out of the way so she didn't get bowled over. Classic. On fx she had a big fall on one of her twists and was low on her double pike and jumped back a bit, but otherwise she looked better than yesterday.
Ashleigh is injured in some way. Before the comp she was warming up on floor and looked like she was hurting - it could be that she really does have shin splints, there could also be something with her back because her coaches were working on that. She didn't compete floor or vault. She looked pretty good on bars though with just a small hop on her dismount. Beam was a disaster...she had a fall and big wobbles on 3 skills I think and then for her dismount she got to the end of the beam and stopped and had to run back to the other end to give her dismount another try. Poor thing didn't look happy and she seemed to be in a bit of pain. She stayed away from the other girls most of the time with her coach, so I hope that she is alright
Baitova's, yay!
Injuries, boo!
Are you needing a change of pants yet? It's nearly time!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
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14 comments:
I'm serioulsy considering taking the day off school tomorrow to find out the team straight away!
At school all forums are blocked, all blogs are blocked so fingers crossed GA will have it on their website ASAP : )
Olivia had 3 falls off beam today. Ashleigh didn't compete floor or vault today and was getting therapy/massages for the first half of the comp (note not her legs but her lower back.hips). She had a fall off beam and made a mess of her run-up for her dismount, had to walk back and do it again. Lots of falls off beam today by the girls. I think the only ones who stayed on beam were Georgia, Lauren and Amber. Lauren almost stuck her piked arabian on floor but went OOB - but a lot cleaner then yesterday's landing of it. She went OOB a couple of other times too I think. Again, I'd say that the team is Dasha, Lauren, the Waverley 3 and Ashleigh (injury-free). Amber Fulljames to be travelling alternate. The last alternate spot I would give to Melanie Jones, simply due to her being more of an all-arounder then Olivia. I loved Emma's floor music and Amber's was pretty good too. Georgia and Lauren's music is kind of the same genre, and I don't really like that style of music. Vault was the best apparatus today overall.
wowwww thanks heaps :)
i think we are too inconsistent as a country to place in the top 10. i think we will battle it out with japan for 11th place.
Thankyou for your insight, it has been most helpful.
Looks like the team will be as we've been predicting, and I have a soft spot for Mel so I hope she gets travelling reserve spot. If not, then Amber. The only thing not working in their favour a lack of experience.
You do mean Emma's Baitova? The word 'Amanar' gives gym fans heart attacks. Thanks anonymous people!
Sorry, yes, Baitova, yes. I keep DOING that! Grrrr! I don't know why. I was sitting there and I thought "Double is the Amanar. Wait, no it's not. Yes it...wait... no no, Amanar."
Thanks for the heads-up, I will fix it! I'm having brain-farts because I'm so nervous for news! :P
I was just told it is:
Shona
Georgia
Dasha
Lauren
Ashleigh
Olivia
Traveling reserve: Emma
i was at the event and left once it was complete but autographs/photos with the girls were still happening. peggy did mention that the girls were going to be told who was on the team this afternoon. the above post could be true...but if olivia is on that team i am very surprised given her 3 falls of beam today and her 2 falls on bars yesterday. i do believe she ended one of her passes on floor on her knees today as well. frankly i would have placed amber, who despite a fall on her gienger yesterday, had a really good competition otherwise. i wonder when the last olympics was, when there were no AIS-based gymnasts on the team. i think it may have been before the AIS was actually created !!!
If some of these reports are just being given without any inside info, it's childish and incredibly immature. If Olivia is named on the competing team, I think Peggy really must've lost her mind.
I don't see why Emma wouldn't be used when she's proven able. And then why would Olivia be alternate over two gymnasts who've proven they're equally capable, if not more so, except this experience will be used at next years Worlds or following events. Olivia doesn't need it and she isn't needed.
It would be crazy to not utilise the gymnasts who are capable, just as much as or more so as the experienced gymnast, to give them experience. A perfect opportunity and Peggy should snatch it up for the alternate spots. Sorry Olivia, but I hope that Emma is on that team and Amber and Melanie at the alternates.
I don't think using Olivia is that crazy. She has a 6,7 on bars, which is about 8.-.9 more SV than the person who will do bars instead if Emma makes the team (probably Georgia. That is a lot.
Olivia would also make a great team captain, has competed in 3 world championships with an excellent hit ratio in both.
She has struggled lately, but it sounds like more of an endurance issue to me if she keeps doing a laboured front giant and sitting down the dismount, and there is still an intense, 1 month training camp to come which could prove beneficial to solve the issues.
She really won't be needed anywhere except bars, so IMO the other events don't really matter.
I agree nade. I think that Olivia has a lot to offer and desrves the spot as much as Emma, Mel or Amber, who if they have her longevity could be around to have another crack at it in 4 years time.
There is a post on AGMB from someone who's "friend" stayed afterwards, that the team is Daria Joura, Lauren Mitchell, Shona Morgan, Ashleigh Brennan, Georgia Bonora and Emma Dennis with Amber and Olivia as the reserves. The suspense is killing me. Does anyone know for sure???
yes...i can see some sense in her being on the team in terms of a morale/leadership aspect. she was very supportive of all the gymnasts competing at the trials, and went over and consoled ashleigh after beam today....however, having said that, dasha was also very supportive of the girls today as well. and given the bars travesty our team had at worlds last year, it does kind of make sense for her to be included. Also, just wondering, when was the last time that Australia had a WAG Olympic team without an AIS-based gymnast?
hi..blog hopping here...from indonesia, you have nice blog...:D :D
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