Sunday, May 31, 2009

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.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems her attitude hasn't changed.

shelley said...

Chloe has always received high scores because of her D/A score with a long history of poor form (especially her legs when twisting).

I'll be interested to see what she pulls out at Nationals.

One small correction, Chloe is definately not the first to pull out a Jaeger at National levels. Unfortunately my memory for names is not so great but from what I can remember, there was a lovely gymnast from MLC in VIC several years ago who competed a beautiful Jaeger, Felicity Jenkins from Vic also has a nice high one.

nswgymnast said...

kim dick (nsw) also did a jaeger, definately in level 10 but also, i think, in level 9

Step It Up: said...

Maybe she just did this comp as it was at her 'home' gym of MBC? But I'd love to see Chloe still competing at any level. And I think if she put her mind to it she could have awesome level 10 routines at Nationals.

I also would think she would make a great Sports Acrobat as the base in a Women's Pair or Trio!!

Anonymous said...

I miss Chloe at the elite level. All we ever hear about is her attitude. Call me weird, but I like her attitude.

Nic said...

I agree with "step it up" she'd make a great sports acrobat!

I dont care really what her attitude is like. As a gymnast she just didnt really do it for me because she wasnt that nice to watch compared to Hollie, dasha and monette. Still, I admire any gymnast at an elite level

Froggy said...

I too loved Chloe's 'attitude', her sass, her rebellious spirit. Unfortunately, it didn't stop at a bit of rebellion and that was her downfall. I hope she doesn't go to Nationals and treat it as a joke. That would just be an insult to the real levels girls and the effort they put into gymnastics.

Ribbit

Anonymous said...

I agree froggy. Nationals is not a joke and i hope it isnt treated that way.

Anonymous said...

She wouldn't do that well at acro, you have to be a team player for that and it think more about the other person than yourself

Wolfie said...

I loved Chloe's rebellious nature. I loved the fact that she refused to toe the line. I loved that she was the only Aussie gymnast brave enough to sport a funky punk hair do instead of Peggy's mandatory high pony tail. I loved that she came back and won the Commonwealth AA after being written off by many people, including some coaches. I loved that she behaved like a real teenager instead of an obedient elite gymnast (no disrespect to the cooperative gymnasts). I loved that she had raw undisciplined talent. I loved that she used to post on the old Aussie message board using her real name.

There's something about Chloe that makes me smile and helps me enjoy this wonderful sport just that little bit more.

I love her! Come back Chloe. We like your personality, spunk, sass, guts and entertainment. Pffftthhllllllbbbttthhh to the people booing on you. I hope they wake up one day and smell reality. All the best teams have a rebellious element. It's life.

Anonymous said...

Tianye Boorman and Brittany Boffo (won Int 6 at national clubs, both now IDP 8) are scheduled to compete at Vics too.

Interestingly, Brittany seems to have defected to QAS from MBC, which I find interesting since QAS is supposedly on the verge on breakdown and she had so much success at MBC.

Also interesting, Brittany is a Guiness world record holder for body skipping. No, I'm not joking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7qr9gIjUaU

I am wondering about Karina, Chantelle, Katie, Breanah McArthur, Ashlee Rodman. I didn't see them at trials yesterday and they aren't going to Vics. So they won't be at nationals.

LMNOP said...

"Also interesting, Brittany is a Guiness world record holder for body skipping. No, I'm not joking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7qr9gIjUaU"

Well thats got to be one of the wierdest things I have ever seen! what a bizzare talent!

Anonymous said...

That is bizzare.
It will be interesting to see how Stacey Anderson ex grips level gymnast has faired since her move to NZ and the elite program

Anonymous said...

GA announced the Japan team. It is Shona, Lauren, Amber and Britt.

I am sad we won't see Georgia or Emma :(

Anonymous said...

I thought it was meant to be a five member team?!?

nade00 said...

Well GA was originally going to send 4-5 girls to the Pre-Olympic Youth Cup and look how that turned out.

The meet is 5-3-3 so they can just have
VT - Britt, Lauren, Shona
UB- Amber, Lauren, Shona
BB- Amber, Shona, Lauren
FX- Britt/Amber, Shona, Lauren

Does anyone know Georgia's status? I would have imagined she would be a shoo-in unless there was an issue.

Anonymous said...

Georgia must not be fully fit yet for her not to be on the team you would think. I am a little surprised that Britt got picked ahead of Emma. Maybe there is something not quite right with her either. Nationals end on 14 July and this comp starts on 18 July, thats quite interesting.

Anonymous said...

Georgia has only just returned to full training since her ankles surgery.

Anonymous said...

I was present at the regionals trials on Sunday and Chloe was enjoyable to watch. She caught her jeager with ease and her double tuck dismount was stuck easily. She had a presence at the competition that could not be matched by any other gymnast, not even the international girls. Nearly everyone was watching her every move it is understandable that she had a little attitude.

It must be hard to go from International standard training to competing at this levels. A lot of the elite world consider the national levels almost as a joke. It would be hard to take it seriously, when the skills that you are used to seeing 11 and 12 year olds perform get a standing ovation.

Anonymous said...

Anon, Chloe was markedly different on Sunday than she was on Saturday. On Saturday she was fooling around. On Sunday she was much more focused on the job at hand. She deserved to win on Sunday. On Saturday she didn't and I'm pretty sure she knew it.

I hear you on Chloe's presence. She has tons of it and is interesting to watch just for that.

Anonymous said...

Brittany Boffo im pretty sure is originally from GymJets in SA. It will be interesting to see how all these girls go at QLD states in a few wks