Sims Not Saying Sayonara?

I received this latest piece of news from a Queensland source. Don't know what to make of it, myself. All I can say is what I said after I read it the first time: "Oh-kaaaaaay...?"

It seems Chloe Sims is not entirely retired after all. She competed last night as a Level 10 at a South East Queensland regional competition held at MBC and won her category despite the fact that she was clearly out of practice and out of shape and treated the competition like it was some kind of joke (she laughed after each botched routine and actually pumped her fist after her second fall on beam).

She started well on floor, performing a none too difficult but very well choreographed and presented routine to the Cranberries' hit, 'Zombie'. She then hit a decent layout Tsukahara on vault before things started to go pear-shaped for her. On bars she showed easily the most difficult routine of the night, including a Jaeger - possibly the first Jaeger ever shown at this level. Unfortunately she hit the low bar with her feet on her front giant, only to come off on the Jaeger that followed. She fell again on her dismount, a double tuck. Beam was even more of a splatfest. She fell three times, but still ended up winning the event because of her massive D score.

She clearly didn't know whether to be amused or disgusted with herself, taking her medals off as soon as they had been presented to her.

The second day of competition brought some other interesting performances forward.

Chloe Sims was competing at the SE QLD regionals again today, for a place on the Level 10 state team this time. She did a lot better than she did yesterday, winning the competition by a landslide. I think she only fell once on beam, or maybe it was just a big wobble. She also caught her Jaeger on bars this time, although she had to concede a few extra swings and had a wonky transition to the low bar. Her attitude towards the competition was a lot better than the night before, possibly because Peggy Liddick was in attendance. She was mainly there to check out MBC's junior international kids, Sharlee Clark and Georgia Rose Brown, both of whom competed watered down routines. Brown is turning into a beautiful gymnast. She has long legs and great form on nearly everything she does. She could do with some more leg power though. Clark is a bit untidier (her bars need a lot of work) but she has a catlike bounciness that is quite nice to watch. I don't expect these two to become superstars, but they're promising all right. Sadly Larrissa Miller (possibly Queensland's best bar worker) didn't compete.

On Saturday the crowd was treated to a glimpse of MBC's most promising youngsters, a tiny little girl called Tiana or Tiarna (International Level 6 if I remember correctly) and Georgia Godwin (International Level 8, I think), who showed a beautiful double pike on floor and a nice handspring piked front on vault. Godwin has a great array of skills on all events (especially for a girl so young - I think she is 11) and form to match, although her bars were a bit iffy on Saturday. Keep an eye out for her. If she stays healthy and motivated she could well be the next big thing.

QAS only sent a few lesser known girls to regionals and they were completely outclassed, which lends more credence to the belief that all is not well at QAS. Hopefully their better known gymnasts will show up at the State Championships and do a better job of it.