Yesterday was men's and women's podium training.
A brief report on the men's session is here.
"We had two falls on each of the (pommel and p-bars) apparatuses, which usually does not happen," head coach Vladimir Vatkin told AAP.
"It was because we had a lot of nerves."
I'd like to give a big thanks to Ozgymnast on the scene, who has given us the following tidbits from the women's session...
The first subdivision had a really low standard, with all the individuals competing. Jennifer Khwela was the standout, and her floor looks good. The other South African also had a great routine on floor - very nice dance.
Subdivision 2 (most of my information is about Australia, I'm sorry, as they are the ones who I watched most).
The Aussie girls looked great. Very confident and well prepared. It looks like Lauren Mitchell, Georgia Bonora and Emily Little will do AA; Ashleigh Brennan BB & FX and Georgia Wheeler UB. I couldn't tell who was doing V between Ash and Georgia W, but I'm thinking Ash? Ash did a Tsuk full (I think) and Georgia did a handspring pike front. Of course, this line up could definitely change, but it is the order that the team seemed to be preparing for.
Lauren looked great, and is definitely the best AA'er in the field. She had a couple of minor things on bars, but nothing too concerning. Beam and floor look excellent for her, and her Baitova is improved. Emily was very steady, and I think she has a new floor (although I can't really remember what her music was at Pac Rim). Georgia B also solid, and Georgia W did a couple of great bar routines, and also seemed like a new floor routine. Ash was really nice on beam and floor.
Based on training, the team comp is definitely between Australia and England. Australia looked stronger today, as England had a few problems/falls. But they have potential, so who knows... It looks like Becky Wing is only doing bars, and there are a couple of new faces on the team. Jocelyn Hunt looked pretty good (nice floor), and Laura Edwards' bars has real potential, but she had a few problems today. Imogen is looking strong on vault.
I didn't see too much of Canada, as they were on at the same time as Australia. They had a few falls and poor form at times, but I will look forward to hopefully seeing more of them during the competition.
Injuries... Emma White from Scotland and Olivia Curran from Isle of Man are out with knee injuries, and a Malaysian girl hurt her elbow on a fall from bars right at the end of training. The poor thing looked to be in quite a lot of pain.
India was also in the last subdivision, and have definitely improved since the last Commonwealth Games. Their bars still doesn't look great, but it seems that they work with the bars a bit wider now!!
Leotard report. England had the nicest IMO, with a white leo with sparkly red design on the front. Australia had a variation on the usual green with white shoulders and gold/navy swirl. Canada had a sleeveless black leotard with some red and gold (I think?) design. Singapore had a really nice light blue sleeveless number, with white sparkles.
Hope it's a good competition, but overall, the standard wasn't great.
And here are some marvellous pics from the lovely lady!
Thanks for that report. Not long to go now.
ReplyDeleteI would think Ashleigh Brennan will do vault, as it is a higher start score than a handspring pike
ReplyDeleteI would think so. 0.6 is significantly higher. According to the camp report Ash was scoring about 13.75 on her Tsuk full. Georgia W would have to have execution in the 9s to get that.
ReplyDeleteThe leos are nice but it is so boring having basically the same leotards every time. Surely they can come up with something more original?
ReplyDeleteNot a bad leo girls. Good choice!
ReplyDeleteWish they'd left the black off the girls leo, and instead made it teal; then it would match the leo the senior aus girls wore at tramp worlds last year.
ReplyDeleteThe leotards look really elegant. Ashleigh brennan how gorgeous does she look!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I like the green and gold particularly in team finals but they could alter it a bit more. I remember at Stuttgart World Cup in 07 Dasha wore a dark green leo with some gold on it, I thought it was quite nice, a different type of green and gold. Not a real fan of the black on the leo, just looks out of place for mine.
ReplyDeleteSeeing Peggy with that stop watch keeping time of Ash's routine reminds me of when we were timed when we had showers at school camp during the drought.
ReplyDeleteKeos look nice but a little variety would be nice. We went from a pink and purple craze into a patriotic green and gold one.
Anon at 10.02 it was dark green with fluorescent green. Looked great. I personally loved the warm up leos from Beijing with the black body.
Thanks for the news! I like how you always have the most recent updates about the comps etc! :)
ReplyDeleteI personally think the Leos need to change! the styles that is.... it has been swirls for too many years and always green and gold.. I like it but something new & different would be nice!
I forgot about the Bejing Podium Training leos, they were pretty nice but never saw much of them. I like the patriotrism that come with green and gold but do agree a change would be nice. I am sure there is something else which can be done with green and gold.
ReplyDeletemake up your mind people-first you complain because there is no green and gold, now you complain because there is too much! just wait for worlds, i bet you will see some more variations, commonwealth games has to be green and gold, same as olympics, worlds has more freedom.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Of course the CWG are going to be drenched in green and gold for the leos. It makes sense. They looked good on the girls in melbourne in 06 and I am sure that like during EF there, we will see some different colours for EF and maybe for AA too.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course Worlds will be a different kettle of fish completely.
I don't mind the ones in these pictures. They seem pretty fancy for just podium training, so maybe we will have something really stellar for TF. The only thing I dislike about the leos shown here is the way the gold looks a bit like they have a snake on their chest :P
I have to agree that the Beijing podium training leos were the nicest we've possibly ever had - but I don't think they'd ever be used for TF or anything - they're too black and too plain and not sparkly enough or flash enough for Peggy's liking I am sure.
I look forward to seeing what the other nations are wearing as well. I hope this time round canada leaves those horrific purple green and blue leos at home!
I don't think anyone is complaining about the green and gold they are just saying that maybe there should be a bit more of a variation on the green and gold. I think most people would agree that there should be green and gold at least in the team competitions at the CWG and the Olympics. Also, I don't think anyone is being overly critical of the leos just suggesting there could possibly a bit more variation. It is just a discussion.
ReplyDeleteI love the colours, but they've basically been wearing variations on the same design for four years now... maybe it's time to get over the 'swirls' and come up with something new? I get that it's hard with GK as a sponsor, cos basically their entire catalogue consists of swirly designs that barely differentiate between each other. Even just switching up the shades, like having a white body with green arms or something, would be refreshing. I'd like to see some nice blue designs, too. Blue can pass as a patriotic colour (if not, just tell people it represents the ocean or some shite like that!) and look beautiful on everybody.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to get started on that icky shiny fabric. Wake me up when that goes out of style please.
How about a caption contest for pic of Ashleigh and Peggy with timer?
ReplyDelete"Annihilate, annihilate (Dalek voice), took too long to catch breath during pose."
I really like the leos. Long live tasteful leos in patriotic Aussie green and gold colours for international events. If they look great and they have green and gold on them, who cares if they're variations of a similar theme?
ReplyDeleteI loved ozy's report - it seems the competition might be interesting after all. I just hope it is a close competition (and the Aussie team maintains their winning streak in the team comp).
Go Aussies!
If it's a close competition even though Canada and England have sent their 'b' teams, how well are we going to fair at worlds?
ReplyDeleteWellllllll England/GB has some awesome depth currently, so their B team is actually really competitive. I guess they're in a similar position as we were in 98/99, with all the money being funneled into sport for a home Olympics there. Canada in comparison seem to have no depth whatsoever, and their A team even would not be as much of a threat as previous CWG. My money's on an Oz-England-Canada podium.
ReplyDeleteEnough with a negativity on Aussie girls prospects, anyways. I feel like since the 2007 disaster Peggy and the rest of the coaches have hit their stride in terms of preparing teams for major competitions. It's been awhile since we seen stressed, burnt out, injured gymnasts rocking up to a major comp, so I think finally the system is working the way it should, you know? Not that theres no problems, but I think we're getting there.