The Road to Nationals: Queensland

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Some news, notes and videos from Queensland state titles begin.... right now!

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"Moreton Bay College was the great winner at the Saturday portion of the Queensland State Championships, winning all three of the all-around titles as well as the majority of the event golds in the IDP 10, Junior International and Senior International categories.

Georgia Godwin dominated the IDP 10 competition, winning all five gold medals and showing the best beam routine of the evening in the process.

Amaya King-Koi took the Junior International title as well as three apparatus titles.

Last but not least, Larrissa Miller won the Senior International title plus the vault and bars golds. Miller has not quite returned to full difficulty yet, but is certainly on her way back from injury. She looked considerably more stable and determined here than she did a few weeks ago at the SEQ Regionals, and showed greater difficulty on several events, although she seems to have left out some of her more problematic skills at the same time.

The competition was marred by a great number of falls. The worst of the lot claimed Delta’s Kristy Bishop, a serious contender for the national Level 10 title. Bishop suffered a bad landing on her opening pass and had to be carried off the floor. She had to watch the rest of the competition from the sidelines. There was no sign of Peggy Liddick at the competition, but former Queensland star Chloe Sims was on hand to distribute medals."


Senior International

"Larrissa got off to a decent start on bars, where she seems to have dropped her problematic Adler for the time being to concentrate on her other skills. She was slow on a giant-full and had a large leg separation on her Gienger, but was solid elsewhere. She also started well on beam, where she stuck her flic-layout step-out (which seemed to give her problems at Regionals) cold. Sadly, she later fell on her power skills (punch front, back tuck, 2.5 twist dismount), where her sore foot seemed to be bothering her. She opened floor with a fall on her double Arabian and finished with another fall on her 2.5 twist, but it was good to see her attempt more difficult tumbling. She finished the competition with a very good layout Yurchenko-full (hop on the landing) for the gold.

Karina Brooks hit a very decent bar routine featuring a hecht, piked Jaeger and double pike dismount (big step). She also showed the most stable beam routine of the three Senior International girls, and remained mostly error-free on floor. Sadly, her difficulty was not quite up to par here (double tuck, 1.5 twist to tucked punch front, layout front full twist, double twist). I missed her vault, but I think it was a layout Yurchenko. Brooks was considerably more stable here than at Regionals, and showed some good work, but will have to upgrade considerably to be a contender for international assignments.

Bridget Beattie started off well on bars, where she hit a fine routine featuring a piked Jaeger and a stuck double pike dismount. She showed good jumps on beam, but fell on layout step-out and side aerial. She wasn’t faultless on floor either, falling on a double pike and suffering a deep landing on her double tuck. I think she vaulted a layout Yurchenko, but I’m not sure.

Sophie Budack sadly didn’t compete."

Results
All-around: 1) Miller, 2) Brooks, 3) Beattie
Vault: 1) Miller, 2) Brooks, 3) Beattie
Bars: 1) Miller, 2) Beattie, 3) Brooks
Beam: 1) Brooks, 2) Beattie, 3) Miller
Floor: 1) Beattie, 2) Miller, 3) Brooks


Junior International

"Amaya King-Koi was the cream of the crop in the Junior International competition. She started off with a fairly successful bar routine, marred only by poor handstands and a weird moment when she seemed to hit the low bar with her feet while kipping out of her Jaeger. She handled the incident well and finished her routine (which is improving all the time) without any other problems. She also stayed on the beam, where her worst deductions were major wobbles after her back tuck, change-leg split leap and 1.5 turn. Her floor exercise was marred by a fall on her dismount, which was probably supposed to be a double pike but looked more like a double tuck – the second one in her routine. She was solid on her other passes and dance skills. Her vault was a slightly piked and bent-legged Yurchenko-full.


Katie Wurth took the silver. Wurth looked slightly less impressive here than she did at Regionals, but still showed some lovely work. She vaulted a full-twisting Yurchenko (piked down, big hop). She was one of very few gymnasts in the competition who seemed to hit her toe shoot to high bar on bars, but wasn’t able to cast out of it and had to pause on top of the high bar after her kip. Her pretty beam routine was sadly marred by falls on the sheep jump and Onodi. She went out of bounds on her second pass and lacked a bit of difficulty, but was as always beautiful to watch on floor.

Natalia Joura (competing with a heavily strapped left ankle) didn’t have the greatest competition. She landed her Yurchenko-half vault on her bottom and also fell on her Jaeger, which she seems to perform very far from the bar, resulting in frequent falls. She also fell several times on beam, among other skills on a punch front. She finished her competition with a fairly successful floor exercise featuring a double pike, 1.5 twist to layout front, double twist, double tuck and triple turn. She has great form on nearly everything she does but seems to be desperately in need of some consistency.

Shar-lee Clark didn’t have the best of competitions either, starting with an unsuccessful bar routine (good Jaeger, dead hangs on both toe shoots, low bail-half, no handstands, fall on full- in dismount). She counted four falls on beam and also took some deductions for lack of split on her jumps. Her floor exercise featured a double pike, layout front to tucked front, 1.5 twist and double twist. She finished with a fairly decent handspring piked front vault but didn’t seem too happy with her competition."

Results
All-around: 1) King-Koi, 2) Wurth, 3) Joura
Vault: 1) King-Koi and Wurth, 3) Clark
Bars: 1) King-Koi, 2) Joura, 3) Clark
Beam: 1) King-Koi, 2) Joura, 3) Wurth
Floor: 1) Wurth, 2) Joura, 3) King-Koi


IDP 10

"Georgia Godwin owned the IDP 10 competition, receiving the highest scores on all events. She showed good swing in her bar routine, but suffered a dead hang on her toe shoot, some leg separations in the giants and a lack of difficulty on her dismount (a layout flyaway). She was solid on balance beam, where she showed a gorgeous side aerial-layout step-out combination and a stuck ff to back tuck. Sadly, her change-leg split leap, full turn and punch front were a bit on the wild side and she didn’t have a real dismount either (again, a layout timer), but it was an impressive routine nevertheless. She also showed excellent tumbling on floor but suffered an uncharacteristic fall on her closing double pike (overrotated). Her vault was a somewhat piked Yurchenko-full. Keep an eye on this one – she needs more maturity in her presentation but has tons of potential.

Brittany Boffo started her competition with a nice bar routine which featured a successful toe shoot (gasp) and nice stuck dismount. Sadly, she collapsed on the bar on a giant-full. She also counted two falls on beam (ff-layout step-out and side aerial) and generally seemed to lack confidence, but did show a nice planche mount and good form on her acro skills. Her floor tumbling was solid, although she did go out of bounds on one of her passes. Her vault was a stuck piked Yurchenko.

Third place went to Tianye Boorman, who started off with a bar routine featuring a dead hang on the toe shoot, leg separations on the handstands and a fall on her bottom on the double back dismount. She counted many balance checks on beam, but showed good difficulty on floor, where she hit a double tuck and 1.5 twist to tucked punch front but fell on her closing 2.5 twist. She also fell on her piked Yurchenko vault.

Fourth-place Yasmin Budack showed some class on beam, where she showed off her beautiful lines to great effect but fell on a front somi. She was one of the more elegant and balletic performers on floor, working to slow music, but her difficulty left a bit to be desired. She vaulted a layout Yurchenko with a hop."


Results
All-around: 1) Godwin, 2) Boffo, 3) Boorman
Vault: 1) Godwin, 2) Budack, 3) Boffo
Bars: 1) Godwin, 2) Boffo, 3) Boorman
Beam: 1) Godwin, 2) Boffo, 3) Boorman
Floor: 1) Godwin, 2) Boffo, 3) Budack