Friday, July 9, 2010

WAG Nationals: Senior/Junior TF Wrap-Up

From Gymnastics Australia.

A solid performance by Beijing Olympian Georgia Bonora has helped Victoria claim back to back senior national team titles at the 2010 Australian Women’s Gymnastics Championships in Perth tonight.

Doubling as the selection trials for both the 2010 Commonwealth Games and 2010 FIG World Championships – the first qualifying event for the London 2012 Olympics –Australia’s stars are not only vying for national titles but the opportunity to wear the green and gold.

On the opening night of the senior competition, Bonora posted a total score of 54.325 to lead the all-around ahead of tomorrow night’s final.

The 20-year-old recorded solid scores on bars (13.200), beam (13.600), floor (13.625), and vault (13.900) but was happiest with her floor routine.

“The assignment tomorrow night is to do one thing at a time and the aim is to stay on the apparatus,” said Bonora.

“I’d like to fix my bars up, I stayed on the bars but I didn’t exactly get all my handstands and my landing was bit off but everything else was good.

“I was pretty happy with my floor tonight. My fitness isn’t as high as it can be at the moment but I was happy with my turns and leaps, which we’ve been pretty hard on at the moment.

Fellow Beijing Olympian Ashleigh Brennan (VIC), who took 2009 off to concentrate on finishing her Year 12 VCE studies, made her much-anticipated return to the national scene. The 19-year-old put in a quality performance to sit second in the all-around with 51.750 points – vault (13.300), bars (12.300), beam (12.975) and floor (13.175).

In her first year at senior level, Australian Institute of Sport-based Mary-Anne Monckton (NSW) also impressed. The 15-year-old recently returned from a year on the sidelines after having two small bones removed from her ankle, but returned with vigour to currently sit third in the all-around with 51.325 points - vault (13.450), bars (12.775), beam (12.500) and floor (12.600).

Australian women’s head coach Peggy Liddick said she was happy with the effort tonight but there was still some work to be done.

“I asked the judges to really be strict tonight. We’re not going to get any favours when we go over to India or The Netherlands for world championships,” said Liddick.

“They are going to have to clean up some things tomorrow night if they want those higher scores posted.

“Some of the seniors did a good job tonight, Mary-Anne came through, we haven’t seen her for a year and a half due to injury.

“Georgia Bonora looked really good tonight. I think she is only one a few who went four for four. I was really happy for that.

“Ashleigh Brennan also looked really good. She had 18 months out of the gym and her beam and floor looked really good.”

Victoria also took out the junior team title with Angela Donald leading the junior all-around with 52.800, followed by fellow Victorian Svetlana Sanders (51.075) and Queensland’s Amaya King Koi (50.725).

Five positions on the Australian team for the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games are up for grabs, the women returning to Challenge Stadium tomorrow night for the all-around final.



Good luck to all competitors tonight.

My apologies for not being able to cover the event as it happens, but I WILL be here for apparatus finals in the coming days.

See you on the other side!

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Australian women’s head coach Peggy Liddick said "she was happy with the effort tonight".
Perhaps this is our first problem, a national coach whose expectations are so incredibly low.

Anonymous said...

Are you being selective just so that you can criticise. The comment also included "..but there was still some work to be done.

“I asked the judges to really be strict tonight. We’re not going to get any favours when we go over to India or The Netherlands for world championships,” said Liddick.

“They are going to have to clean up some things tomorrow night if they want those higher scores posted.

Anonymous said...

No reference was made to the judging as it is not the scores that are of concern, these can be influenced negatively or positively by Peggy, but rather the lack of difficulty and quality within many of the routines. The number or falls was significant at such an important trial. Peggy requesting the judges to be strict played no part in the quality or difficulty of the routines.

I did leave out Peggy's comment that work needs to be done as that is a given! If this competition was 1 year prior to Comm games I may agree with her, but given Comm games are less than 4 months away there is limited time to make significant quality improvements, consistency and in many cases - difficulty increases.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11.44am, Peggy said "she was happy with the effort tonight"
Not, the outcome, the effort the girls put in. With all the injuries they are coming back from it's great the they got some routines together and showed up. No matter how low in difficulty.

Anonymous said...

We are 4 months away from Comm Games and Worlds. In the gym, alot can be done in that time!

Anonymous said...

Agreed - so much can happen in 12 weeks. That's over 350 hours of training!!

Anonymous said...

Victoria are victorious again at IDP 6 Team event.

nade00 said...

I have been reading comments about last night and wow, talk about premature assumptions. While the scores are low, it's kind of hard to make judgements unless you are there and understand the score relative to the routine.

Shona looked sub-par at 2009 nats and turned up at worlds with EF worthy vaults. Similar with Larrissa, a bit sloppy at nationals last year, and a totally different gymnast by worlds.

And although at times I complain about things she says in the media, you have to hand it to Peggy, she is good at getting the team prepared and polished.

Well, 2007 maybe an exception, but in the last few years our girls have looked pretty good by the time time worlds rolls around relative to how they looked in the months prior.

2006 world trials sticks out in my mind as being a meet where people were concerned because of poor performance, and we did great at worlds that year.

So wait and see, you might be surprised.

Anonymous said...

Ahh note to judges...

If ANYONE seeks to influence the way you judge a competition, tell 'em to sod off!

Am I the only one who is outraged by the fact that Peggy would actually publicly confess to influencing the scores? That is a cancer on our sport that is so open to abuse, it's not funny.

We need to be able to rely on our trained, experienced judges to tell it like it is. The gymnasts deserve that.

Anonymous said...

Great to hear Maryanne doing so well after 1 year and a half of injuries!! A lot of people would've just retired. Glad she didn't!

Anonymous said...

Why would you think Peggy has influenced the scores - she has merely told the judges to be strict. National comps are often known for being a bit lenient - take the American Cup as a prime example - she hasn't disadvantaged one girl over another merely preparing for world judges.

Anonymous said...

Some people just want to jump down Peggy's throat over anything.

As long as the judges are being equally as strict with gymnast A as gymnast B I see no problem with Peggy wanting them to be a little less lenient on the girls. Look what happened in Paris to Emily and Georgia W. Their hit routines were only getting low 13s when some of us had unrealistic expectations of 14s.

At least with being strict at nationals you leave the girls with realistic scoring expectations and the chance of being pleasantly suprised later in the year rather than being confused as to why they're scoring half a point or more lower than usual.

I doubt Peggy "influenced" the judges to score gymnast A over gymnast B in order to fulfil her own personal agenda. What would be the point? From what I've heard from last night Georgia B was lookingthe best and the other gymnasts were ranked accordingly. Sometimes the paranoia and specualtion by supposed fans can get out of hand.

Anonymous said...

Telling the judges to be strict IS influencing the scores.

What if we had another trial next month with the same judges but with different gymnasts. This time Peggy tells the judges to be lenient. How can you compare the results?

What other sport would that happen in?

Anonymous said...

To anon 8.48
I agree totally especially considering that Emily's scores from previous competitions will be compared to these scores. If the judges are being extra hard then that really makes Emily look better than she is.

Not a fair situation at all for all girls who are truly in with a chance to make the team.

Anonymous said...

I assume Emily's scores from Pac Rim will be at least one of the major scores used for her. Given that was an international event the judging should have been fairly strict there.

Anonymous said...

mary-anne is a great gymnast whose determination has really paid off. good work mez and all the other gymnasts.

Anonymous said...

Wow, based on Nationals i think we will struggle to make the top 50 teams at worlds. I think we will be lucky to beat India at comm games.