Thursday, August 14, 2008

A New Day, A New Focus


Good to see Dasha's not giving up despite her horrific bars accident (her face! Her beautiful face! Oh, the huge manitee!) and that the team in general are now keeping their spirits up. It must've been a bit of a shock at the time but they rallied behind her and made sure she was ok.


No more dwelling on this, ok ladies? *points up, then down*



Of course, Miss D in the past has bounced back amazingly after disappointment. I know she's going to get thinking, "I don't want to be remembered as the girl who smashed her face at the Olympics, I want the world to REALLY know who I am and what I can do! Take THAT, adversity!" I just can't wait to see what she brings out in 2009.

She's already got her next year's routine planned out,'' Liddick said.

"She did that the night after she jammed her ankle.

"So she's not going to take her toys and go home. She understands. She's disappointed and I'm going to give her time to be disappointed."


The team did their best without her and will continue to grow in light of their Olympic debut.


For now, we have Georgia and Shona's all-around competition to follow. Go girls! What a marvellous achievement for a non-institute program.

The whole country is behind you!
(ETA: The panel program Yum Cha just announced that Dasha had won their "Onya!" Award for the day, for continuing with the bars routine despite the painful mistake. Yes, they showed it in slow-motion and it looked quite hurty. Hurty a lot. But you could see her face, she immediately regained a focussed look and kept on swinging like she'd caught the release perfectly. Onya indeed!)

ETA - Some 20 minutes later, Yum Cha is actually talking about the team final! Great montage of the gold, silver and bronze medallists. Replaying a bit of China's dominant performance... Lauren and Ash are on! Wow, they look good. And they're so well spoken! They're talking about the distraction tapes from camp that helped them master the crowd noise. Damn, they're showing Ash's floor which we didn't get to see. They're saying that they fed off the excitement of the crowd and had a good time but still stayed focussed. Heeheehee, they sheepishly say they've enjoyed shopping in China a lot... What the? They got a present from the hosts? Errr... cooking pots? Yum cha pots or something? How patronising.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure if this helps again but here goes. Its out of order because I just open the files in whateer order they are saved on the site.
BARS-
French go before us... the leotard is really weird, especially at the neck line. Dasha falls on her Comaneci in warm up.
Shona: A lot of screaming when Shona mounts because China is on floor. Misses a full pirouette after her two piked stalders. Just kips and then does her half over to the low bar. Not sure if she missed something else out becuse of that. Tkatchev is sky high. Dismount stuck.
Olivia: Sooo much chanting because China basically knows they've won at this stage. Bit slow on the swing, hits most handstands, bail 1/2 to low bar was loose, almost lost it. Small step on dismount. Pretty nice routine.
Dasha: Im sure you all know this one... I wont re-iterate.

FLOOR
Warm up, Ash almost faceplants a piked full in. Both Liv and Dasha get up and talk to Georgia as she stands on the podium before competing. Looks so friendly!

Georgia: beautiful pike full in I like the funky music, good tucked full in, decent triple pirouette. Her third pass is 1 1/2 twist through to full twist- seems a bit basic (is this what she normally does?). Stuck double pike. Nice routine!
Dasha claps and laughs excitedly. All the team is standing and cheering for Ash excpet Shona (I know it may seem like I pick on her but she never seems 'into' the team, or is she just sedate in general?)
Ash: Hop fwd on piked and tuck full ins. Beautiful leaps. 2 1/2 twist to punch front is pretty nice, a bit uncontrolled but the rudi in the next pass is great. nice ending.
Team is is stting back down for Lauren's routine. Chinese SCREAM for a Chinese dismount. Ooh ooh they played the wrong music for Loz! She presents and walks off. Poor bugger has to wait quite a while, kinda bouncing around on her ankles.
Lauren: Looks right at the judges, Dsaha style! Massive step out on piked arabian double, like a fall out. Big hop on tucked double arabian but stays in. Misses triple pirouette, nice leaps. Much more expressive than I've previously seen of her! 2 1/2 twist to punch lay was lovely. Can barely hear the music because the Chinese are yelling so much! Step on double pike to finish.

Could see Semenyova in the background on beam- she is TINY- if they're in the habit of questioning age they should look at her!

Aussie look pretty relaxed and to be enjoying themselves.

Mez said...

Thanks Nik for your great contributions. I really can't get over how badly Channel 7 treated gymnastics thus far. I'm hoping they do better for the All-Around because as far as I know, some people have phoned/written in and complained about their coverage!

As I said, this morning we saw a wee bit of Ash's floor and Dasha's bars that were not shown on their broadcast when they spoke on Yum Cha. Shame they didn't talk about Dash.

There was a second broadcast of the final later in the night that I think had more routines (ie Pavlova's floor) but I didn't see it because I was toiling way at work.

:)

Anonymous said...

channel 7 have parts 1,2 and 3 on line but as i am at work i have not had time to view it all - Lauren's beam is in part 1 - that's all i've had time for so far

Anonymous said...

No probs, I feel like this is the only perk in the NBC coverage because being on the west coast the b*stards delay everything for 3 hours so we dont even get it live- EVEN THOUGH its live on the east coast... grrrrrrrr!

Ok side not- Brazil has the UGILIEST leotard I have EVER seen!! Teardrops right on the boobs... are they serious??? hahaha
Now for beam:
Warm up, Lauren falls on back layout to two feet, Ash fell on something too.
Shona: Small wobble on layout stepout, knee form issues, nice barani, nice rulfova, ugly back flip 1/4 turn to handstand. Solid side aerial and side somie, small step on dismount. She looks somewhat please. High five from Georgia when the score comes thru

Ash: Big wobble on lay stepout, break connection to Korbet flip. Beautiful aerial to side somie. Solid leaps, stuck pike side somie. Niiiice change ring. Stuck flip stepout lay stepout. Ugly full pirouette. Small hop on dismount. They pan to the girls and Dasha and the physio chick are smiling huge! Looking very happy/relieved.
Ash looks very happy- big smiles from her.

Lauren: Not a fan of the mount but whatever. Nice front lay to two feet connected to back tuck. Hunphrey turn MUCH smoother than prelims. Lay stepout to lay to two feet, decent wobble on two feet. Niiice front aerial to front tuck, connected solid, decent change ring. Almost stuck dismount, small hoppy step. Huuuge hug from Martine, big hugs all round, Peggy looks stoked. Haha they slow-mo'd the girls cheering for her. awww the physion took a quick pic with her digital camera of Lauren in front of the beam before she runs off to the bathroom. She has the camera around her neck which would have some awesome pics on it!!

Second side note: NBC is playing a LOT of adds for Kath and Kim- they have their own version with Selma Blair and the lady from Superstar, Molly Shannon is the mother. It looks terrible! I dont think the comedy translates too well. Have noticed living here Americans dont like to poke fun at themselves much.

Im not going to do vault. It doesn't interest me so much and the boyfriend is cooking dinner, getting frustrated at me being an 'internet nerd'. ;)
Happy to help and can comment on AA as well later this week!