Monday, August 11, 2008

Staying Hopeful

Here are some nice things to keep positivity going after the qualification drama.

Dasha Joura is featuring in the Olympic news segments as an 'inspiration' and a courageous performer. Word of her brave efforts are currently doing the rounds.

So my wish is for her, her teammates and her fans to keep their spirits up as the team advances to the team final on Wednesday.


(Injury and all, she got us into the final. Smile on, D!)


(you can't tell when the photo is this size but G-Bo's wearing a big smile)




See a snippet of Georgia's bars and Ashleigh's beam here (excuse the "Australians are [only] good at two things..." remark. I quite like their blog besides the occasional snarkery). You can see part of Dasha's floor here. Ugh, that DLO stumble!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hehe, their commentary does amuse me. It's sad... Dasha's presentation on that floor routine, the ten seconds of which I saw, was the best she's ever done. Good work from Georgia.

Anonymous said...

Just in case you guys didn't get to see everything from the coverage here is a little run down from the nbc feed
Beam:
Shona- nice set, probably down graded on her full piouette with leg up
Georgia- beautiful, slight wobbles here and there, big jump back on double pike dismount
Ash- fall on side somi (pike) then got a bit distressed and had a few wobbles.
Lauren- fall on front aerial to two feet, fall on switch ring. The rest was solid though. Lauren was very upset, Olivia consoling her a LOT.
Dasha- connection break between her change leg and back tuck. Big wobble after front aerial then a fall on side somi. missed change ring- did another split change and did a RO Layout dismount- lands one leg basically. Looks devastated and gives the judges a little look as though to say 'its all I could do'. Limped a lot in the backgroung while the others were warming up to- in pain. Big cry on Olivia's shoulder. Heart breaking.

Olivia is a great support system for these girls

Anonymous said...

don't forget about the rest of our fabulous team.
Olivia had to wait through two apparatus before her event. How nervous must she had been. As usual, solid as a rock. Well done Liv. keep up the good work through to the team final on wednesday. go team

Anonymous said...

Bars:
Shona- Few missed handstand, pretty well done though
Georgia- Nice Comaneci, hop on dismount. I thought her routine was actually nicer than Shona's.
Ash- Looks stressed. missed a shoot to the high bar, stopped dead and had to do an extra swing... maybe this is the 0.3 extra deduction?
Ok other than that- few handstands missed.
Olivia- Couple of missed handstands, usual technique. Stuck dismount.
Dasha- Limps to the podium, high 5s Liv on the way. Still presents with the mad head flick! Gorgeous routine. Slight step on dismount but other than that I loved it. Lots of hugs and encouragement from Martine.

Peggy is nowhere to be seen- another blonde coach is there, short blonde hair?

They show a lot of background stuff on the nbc feed and no commentary. A few things I noticed- Shona and Gergia dont interact that much on this rotation at least. Martine is pretty cool, seems relaxed and encouraging. Dasha is smiling a lot after bars. All the girls are wearing cute adidas slippers

Anonymous said...

Vault:
Warmups
Male coach adjusting the board, Ash's coach I'd assume. Dasha screams a lot of encouragement but looks pensive. Warms up a lay Y to her back. Georgia is VERY pretty. Ash does a nice tsuk 1.5. Dasha lands a bit awkwardly on a Y-2.0

Shona- Y-1.5 with very tucked legs, not sure if it was a mistake but it looked like a tucked vault.
Looks annoyed.
Georgia- y-1.5 slight hop. Good distance. Goes and talks to the blonde coach- Im still not sure who she is. 14.85?? Wow- ripped off badly!!! Her vault was wayyy better than Shona's and only 0.05 higher.
Ash- Nice vault, a little bend in her knees. Good landing, maybe a little low.
Lauren- Nice height/length big jump on landing.
Dasha- Nice y-double lands with legs apart though. High fives all round, big hug from Olivia.

Im sorry- I think Shona did fantastically overall and Im really hope she made top 10 but her vault was the worst of the lot. I do not know how she outscored Lauren and Ash and was only 0.05 behind Georgia.

Anonymous said...

Bah there's a technical problem with the floor rotation.... grrrr annoying.

Im not even sure if this was all necessary but being in the USA we have 'all access coverage' with nbc so I thought this luxury might be a help. Some of these may come on youtube but will likely be taken down pretty quickly.

Thanks so much for your blog Mez- I like being able to access the aussie media so quickly. I really hope the girls can push it in finals and maybe get on the podium- its a stretch but.... At least I would Love them to beat either Rom or Rus. If you would like me to email with any specifics on routines of anyone (when they say all access they mean it) just let me know

Hope I've helped
:)

Anonymous said...

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/GA/C51D/GAW400101.shtml#GAW400101

According to this Dasha is gonna tough it out and do vault and bars in TF. I use to have so much respect for her but now she's a total legend. God I wish her ankle would miraculously get better so she could do FX too and score like a 16 :)

Can anyone else envisage Dasha pullin a Strug?? Our final ap is bars with Dash going last. Aus is just behind Russia and Romania. dash hits the routine of her life sticks the landing. As she's hobbling off the score is announced and we win bronze Dasha breaks down in tears but this time tears of joy. Peggy screaming "See I'm not insane we can win bronze".....it's nice to dream.

projected tf scores based on prelims
5 Score Team Totals
3 Score Team Totals

1. CHN 248.275
1. CHN 187.8

2. USA 246.8
2. USA 186.975

3. RUS 244.4
3. RUS 185.25

4. ROM 238.425
4. ROM 180.175

5. AUS 235.45
5. AUS 177.6

6. FRA 233.875
6. BRA 176.9

7. BRA 233.8
7. FRA 176.325

8. JPN 233.175
8. JPN 176.125

We're 8 points behind Russia but that's countin some crappy scores. Fingers crossed

Anonymous said...

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/GA/C51D/GAW400101.shtml#GAW400101

thats the link for the roster

Anonymous said...

Thanks nik, you're a legend. I'm watching the feeds via proxy, and I wish so much that I could capture it and share it with you guys, but my computer can't handle streaming and capturing a video at the same time.

Dasha's floor routine was excellent. She was obviously unsecure on a couple of landings, and we all saw the DLO to knees, but once again her best presentation ever, and a lot of the time her injury didn't show a bit. Heck, she did a triple turn on her taped ankle. And her beam was going so well too -- solid ff-layout and everything.

You rock, girls!

Anonymous said...

Just rewatched the end of Dasha's floor (which didn't load for me the first time); she also landed her double pike to her knees. Ouch. Ashleigh did a great floor though, great form and presentation.

Anonymous said...

what time are team finals on today - is there anywhere we can get "quick hits" of TF on the internet?

Mez said...

I'm going to ring channel 7 and will then try and find a link to web feeds.

-M

Mez said...

Ps - the women rotating with the team who are NOT Peggy are Martine George (light blonde ponytail), coach for Lauren/Dasha/Olivia and the team's physiotherapist (light bobbed hair) whose name I've forgotten for the moment...

Karen something?