Gymnix/Montreal World Cup fever is starting to rise.
MLC Gymnastics sent its North America-bound delegation a lovely little document that you can read here. It's informative and interesting, whether you're savvy with the club or not.
No word on podium training.
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Wow, a lot happens when you're away for the day!
You can probably glean a lot from this post's comments, but regardless:
Emily Little didn't do as well as hoped.
Vault: 12.900 (Yurchenko 1.5)
Bars: 11.975
Beam: 12.300
Floor: 12.350
Did not qualify to any event finals and finished 8th in the all-around.
This is quite disappointing, Em's got some some big skills under her belt, some yet to be debuted (see: Baitova). Don't quite know what happened here, nerves or fatigue or under-preparation.
Amelia McGrath's into the floor final with a score in the 13's; as far as I can fathom that's the only event finallist out of the MLC girls in the junior division.
I am having trouble viewing results on this particular computer.
Thanks to Nade for filling the gaps I couldn't. :)
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Apparently they have cancelled the qualification round of the 'World Cup' component of the competition as there are so few female participants; they've all been automatically put through to finals.
GA posted the following results -
West Australian, Emily Little has placed 8th in the All-Around competition at the 2009 International Cup in Montreal (CAN).
Little competed all apparatus and finished the competition with an All-Around score of 49.525.
The event was won by Elizabeth Price (USA) with an AA score of 53.450, ahead of team mate Madeline Hanley (51.875) and Canadian Anna Gamelo (51.400).
Little was joined by individual gymnasts Chloe Turko (12th with an AA score of 48.075), Georgia Wheeler (16th with an AA score of 47.775) and Amelia McGrath (18th with an AA score of 47.770) representing MLC Gymnastics Club.
Thanks to the Anon poster who posted these results-
2 other girls from MLC also competed yesterday in the Novice section - Kristina Ostojic and Isobel Looker . Both did really well, Kristina coming 3rd AA , also placing on floor and bars (with a fall) and Isobel (only competed 2 apparatus due to elbow injury) with a 4th on floor with a fall.
So that's a slight mood-booster (falls notwithstanding)!
I'm sorry I've not been as diligent with covering this event for you all as I could be. As I said, I've been working long hours and now I'm having trouble accessing the .pdf competition results.
The event was won by Elizabeth Price (USA) with an AA score of 53.450, ahead of team mate Madeline Hanley (51.875) and Canadian Anna Gamelo (51.400).
Little was joined by individual gymnasts Chloe Turko (12th with an AA score of 48.075), Georgia Wheeler (16th with an AA score of 47.775) and Amelia McGrath (18th with an AA score of 47.770) representing MLC Gymnastics Club.
Thanks to the Anon poster who posted these results-
2 other girls from MLC also competed yesterday in the Novice section - Kristina Ostojic and Isobel Looker . Both did really well, Kristina coming 3rd AA , also placing on floor and bars (with a fall) and Isobel (only competed 2 apparatus due to elbow injury) with a 4th on floor with a fall.
So that's a slight mood-booster (falls notwithstanding)!
I'm sorry I've not been as diligent with covering this event for you all as I could be. As I said, I've been working long hours and now I'm having trouble accessing the .pdf competition results.
17 comments:
Hi Mez,
The link doesn't work ..... too many https. I just deleted one from the URL line and it worked fine. I note that Peggy is listed as the "National Stream Head Coach" I guess that's a typo.
Ribbit
Emily's scores:
Vault: 12.900
Bars: 11.975
Beam: 12.300
Floor: 12.350
Nothing to write home about IMO. Her execution scores were all in the 7.0 range. She competed Y1.5. She is one of our best juniors yet was beaten by D list Americans and C List Canadians. Unfortunately she didn't make any event finals either.
Best wishes to all of the MLC girls
Yep, this is extremely disappointing. We send our best juniors and yet they're easily beaten by North American D Group gymnasts.
We're doing something wrong. And before someone replies with "Oh, the girls doing their best. They read here" or something equally inane, I already know that, okay?
I'm not having a go at our gymnasts. It is our system that sucks. It's failing them and us. GA, do something NOW!
I find it a bit disappointing. I have felt very disappointed these last 2 years since nothing seems to be going right, and there has been a rough period of multiple retirements and sub-par results but I think we need to give it time. We have beautiful gymnasts,m they just need to get their skills together as a set and fill all the compositional requirements. I just wish there was a 'push' rather than 'ok, that's sufficient difficulty', which is how I would characterise the Beijing team. You have to want it and continually work to better your routines and sets, not just keep the same skills for years and years.
Emily seems to have been nowhere near competition ready given her execution scores were in the 7s.I wish a greater variety of juniors could get some experience, rather than sending the same people to AYOF, PAC, Gymnix, Massillia etc etc. It gives them an incentive and just shares some of the fun around.
The MLC girls weren't much better. They scored lower than Emily. Amelia McGrath made the FX final with a score in the mid-13s which is great for her but her bars sv is only 2.9 and her execution was in the 6s so she will never be able to do AA, and bars is where we need people most.
I think they need to restructure the compulsory program and
1. Add the low bar in at IDP 8 (bars is dismal in Australia ATM and much of the issue seems to be that none of them can adapt to the low bar and consequently lose their rhythm in the routine.
Transitions are so important in keeping the flow for each subsequent skill yet they seem to be neglected and ignored. Only QAS seems to be able to teach decent transitions ATM)
2. Take out compulsory skills and routines in IDP 8 altogether. Or just take out IDP 8, widen the IDP 10 net and allow them to work on double bars and optional skills after IDP 6.
They're spending their time learning ballet and dance passages when they should be developing usable skills earlier. I mean, you can be 13, in IDP 8 and only tumbling single saltos with no twists. Not good enough at 13 IMO.
They have already done ballet/dance based routines since the earliest stages of the IDP anyway, so I don't see the program going down the Canadian route where every second gymnast is clunky and unrefined due to lack of compulsories.
I think that GA/Peggy/someone has realised that this is the case and that more difficulty is needed early on.
At the Technical Information day Jo Richards was a guest speaker and she was talking about getting skills earlier and how they are re-doing the lower levels of the IDP and have new programs etc in place to try and fix this problem.
She mentioned that in the past Peggy has been spread too thin trying to co-ordinate everyone from level 1 through to seniors. Now with Jo having taken over the lower levels and allowing peggy to concentrate on the more senior athletes perhaps we shall see some changes. It seems that they know what the problem is and it looks like they are trying to do something about it.
Change won't come over night. Give it some time. Yeah our juniors are lagging a bit at the moment but they'll improve. Honestly they are lagging behind he 2006 seniors generation which was really ridiculously good for an Australian team. So many talented girls went senior that year. For some reason the girls don't really start to shine unil they're seniors.
Dasha was still competing a FTY in 2005 and over the next 2 years she added another full twist. Emily already has a decent 1.5 and if you compare Britt's routines form last year with what she's been seen training now she's really upped the difficulty.
Yes our juniors need to learn their skills earlier. As fans we use to be able to say " Yeah the Aus girls don't have the most difficulty but at least they have the artistry and form." Well routines in the 7s shows that not only are the girls competeing weaker routines but they're not competing them well.
It's still early in the year and for some reason we always tend to perform badly at the start of the year. Comm Games might be the exception but that was somethign the grils really had their eyes on and were well prepared for, though if it had been staged later in the year we may have done even better.
Finally I think the younger set of juniors is really where the future lies. Natalia, Amaya, Angela and Tierra all look like they could be good gymnastcs one day. SO I'm still holding onto the hope :)
I have heard the mlc girls were only going for an experience trip, and were not expecting any major results. for some of the girls it was their first junior comp and were going only to get some competition experience. they were not selected because they were meant to be the best juniors, it was just a club decision. And were not there to represent Australia just MLC.
and may i add that all of the girls with the exception of Chloe Turko are younger than Emily.
2 other girls from MLC also competed yesterday in the Novice section - Kristina Ostojic and Isobel Looker . Both did really well, Kristina coming 3rd AA , also placing on floor and bars (with a fall) and Isobel (only competed 2 apparatus due to elbow injury) with a 4th on floor with a fall.
Before you go bagging the girls and making ill informed assumptions about what they will and won't be able to achieve in the future FYI amelia mcgrath had execution scores of 8's & a 7 on the other 3 apparatus with sv's of 4, 4.8 & 5.1. She is only 13 so I think it may be abit premature to write her off as an AA
She may be only 13, but guess what? She's competing against other 13-year-olds and they're beating her.
Of course we hope she does well. Of course we'll support her. Of course we're behind her 100%, but please stop pretending everything is rosy in the land of Aussie gymnastics. It isn't! End of story.
Guys: Relax.
I can see hackles getting raised already.
How disappointing and unAustralian to have such cattyness out there. With the lack of support you all show what hope do any Australian athletes have when there is no support from home. Does it always have to be about results for Australia why not personal best results for this group of girls from MLC. What a fantastic job they have all done.
Hear, hear
Just because people make critical comments doesn't mean we don't support them. Of course, it is a great job for the MLC girls in their first international meet.
I don't think there is anything wrong with fans making comments on the quality and level of our gymnasts, so quit accusing people who are dedicated and passionate about this sport of 'bagging' the girls.
With the strength of our past results it is only natural we expect quality performances and competition-ready gymnasts.
It is blatantly obvious after AYOF and Gymnix that our juniors are weaker than most other top 12 nations AT THIS STAGE, and there is no point denying it.
Nobody is saying that they are not nice gymnasts, or that they will never amount to anything, they are simply pointing out that thus far the performance standard has been under what would be expected of a strong gymnastics nation like Australia.
I find how the program could be improved a valuable and interesting discussion topic, but any moment a negative comment is made people jump down our throats screaming we are unsupportive.
re: Amelia McGrath, she is certainly a terrific gymnast on floor and beam but with a bars a-score of 2.9 I don't think you can deny it is a very weak piece for her. It is not like she will be able to make up the exta 2.5 point a-score deficit overnight.
Thank you, Nade. :-) As usual, your level headedness and understanding that being critical is NOT a bad thing have made complete and utter sense.
I am so disappointed that there are people in the world who think that any type of criticism is bad. ???? As for the person who accused posters of being unAustralian, um .... unbelievable. Probably the most ridiculous comment in this whole thread.
Wolfie.
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