Last night held some serious ups and downs but Australia walks away from day 1 of finals competition still sitting pretty among the world's top 8 gymnastics teams.
"Woohoo!"
GA has a score wrap-up here plus addition quotes from Liddick and Mitchell here.
“Our goal for tonight was to maintain our position from the qualifications,” said Liddick. “After a shaky start on beam I am really proud of how the girls performed and how this team has come together since the nationals in July.”
(Sorry for the late notice, but there's a great photo gallery at The Gymnastics Examiner of Australia's prelim round here and addition prelim videos [of quite a good quality] over at GymCat67's youtube channel here)
See post-meet Gymnastike interviews with Ashleigh and Peggy here.
Dutchfan33 is starting to put up videos from the fina; (thankyoooooou!) so keeping checking back at their channel for coverage of the Aussies.
Mariane has posted French coverage of Lauren's beam routine. Merci, Mariane!
42 comments:
Interviews with Peggy Liddick and Ashleigh Brennan after team finals are now up at Gymnastike - http://www.gymnastike.org/video
Lauren, you are an adult now, ditch the glitter hairspray!!!!!!!
Looking at the app scores beam was obviously a bit of a disaster but we're losing a good 2 full marks on vault from the top two teams and bars could probably be improved on too. BUT floor we picked up- our score was on par with the USA which is good. They had a fall and we had Bonora competing a full twist... overall good and room for improvement!
I think next year we could push for 5th but after that there's a decent gap. Either way it looks good for Olympic quals! Hopefully we start giving a few of the newbie seniors some o/s experience so that we don't have to rely on too much inexperience to qualify.
Lauren finished 4th on floor and only 1 tenth behind the leader who admittedly made a couple of mistakes. Also 3rd out of the girls who did AA. Georgia 6th AA. Bring on the finals!
Ashleigh seems so lovely.
If Lauren hits all four routines she can go 58 high/59 low. That could be enough for a minor medal. Might need some help but it's a very respectable AA score.
I really want her to medal again so the naysayers can't say that 2009 was a weak field and a fluke.
They are my pictures on The Gym Examiner- so you may have already seen them on GA
Anon 11.44. You are an adult now yourself (I presume)Perhaps you should learn some manners regarding the correct way to express your opinion. If you want to get a message to her re her glitter hairspray, do so in a nice manner. I wonder if you would look Lauren in the face and say this in the same way you expressed it anonymously?
I agree with 7:45 re: 11:44's post.
What a childish comment 11:44 made re: Lauren's glitter hairspray. It's completely harmless and irrelevant to Lauren's beautiful gymnastics.
Lauren, along with her Aussie teammates always looks professional, polished and classy when she steps onto the competition floor.
The glitter hairspray does not even warrant comment - and certainly not the kind of disrespectful, snide remark put forth by 11:44. I suggest you, Anon 11:44, are the one who needs to grow up.
Anon 6:12
Yes, I would love to see Lauren medal again at worlds too because whilst the year after the Olympics traditionally weaker she still went there and performed great routines. I would think that Lauren would more of a medal chance on beam and/or floor than AA. She has qualified for fifth in both of those finals and only seventh in AA. Whilst she is great on beam and floor and solid on vault she lacks a bit of difficulty on bars and as mentioned she may have to rely on the mistakes of others to get into the medals. But good luck for AA Lauren and Georgia.
What's wrong with the glitter hairpray?, I cannot believe someone even brought that up, that is not what we should be focusing on.
Glitter hairspray is tacky and undermines the professionalism of an elite sport.
Anon 12:51 I wouldn't read too much into where the girls finished out of those who did AA because only seven girls did AA in the team finals. I do agree that Lauren did very well on floor and has a real shot of a medal on that apparatus and beam if she can get the layout in order.
How about Marta Karolyi (aka Grandpa from the Adams Family) slagging out Mattie Larson. Sure she blew it just like Sacramone did in 2008, costing the team an Olympic gold.
Not sure Mattie Larson will ever recover. Totally unprofessional of Marta to be bagging out her own gymnast like that. Very unfair and demoralising for Larson. Let's hope she is as tough as they say she is and bounces back.
I know! Poor Mattie, as if she isnt blaming herself enough without Marta bagging her too!
People complain about glitter hairspray, too many rhinestones on leos and makeup they don't like - i say glam it up - i luvs me some bling!!!
I agree, I thought it was apalling the way Martha singled out Mattie, who is clearly such an asset to team USA in the longrun.
Agreed, Marta was way too hard on Mattie. Mattie struggled on floor in qualification yet Marta made the decision to let her compete on floor in the team final so she can't entirely blame Mattie. You could say that without Mattie's fall on floor the US would have won but if you go down that track then you could easily say what if Russia hadn't had a disaster on bars, coming 7th on that apparatus they would have won more easily.
I am so nervous for BB finals after Lauren's fall last night. Frankly, if Lauren hits pretty solid on the layout, I think she has a very good shot of winning. She got credited with 6.7 on the first day of the comp, the highest of all the competitors. She was only .3 behind the leaders with a big deduction on the layout, while they pretty much hit their routines cold. There is a lot at stake this time around.
She also has a shot at gold on floor after her 14.7 on floor last night.
Anon 941pm - what's at stake this time around????
Also, head to Aunt joyce ice cream blog - the Americans do seem to love placing blame, can never just accept the result! There were even some comments earlier in the week about the US finding it difficult to adjust to a different brand of equipment - at least their girls get regular competition on a podium!!!
Well last year she was kind of an underdog, now she has a very real chance to win. She just needs to hit extremely well.
I just read Aunt Joyce's Ice Cream Blog the post was so critical. It wrote Mattie Larson off competely.
Also took a swipe at Australia's lack of depth saying that if Lauren and Emily made a mistake then they would get back in the team because of lack of depth. Sure, Australia does lack depth compared to countries like the US but Lauren won two silvers at last year's worlds and has made both finals again, she's a world class gymnast.
It's bullshit. We wouldn't be consistently finishing so well if we lacked depth. It's not a crime to have a stand out gymnast. Nobody ever seems to comment on the fact that the Brits would be nothing without Tweddle for example. All our girls scored in a similar range on most events with Lauren a standout. All contributed and scored very well relative to the field. After all, we had all 3 AAers in the top 24.
Looking at Larrissa's prelim bar routine I'ld say the stalder full was the culprit for the low D score. That's at least 0.3 deduction for not finishing the turn 10 dgerees from vertical if not a 0.5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJevgltojY4
I just had a look at some videos from gymcat67's posts and they are good. Good quality.
The Americans are good, ofcourse, but I noticed they definitely weren't sticking their landings they way the Aussies were! I have to say, good on Ashleigh - having a year off and coming back with those routines! I was a bit wary when Peggy selected her, but she's proved her worth. Lovely beam and floor. If she could get her bars a bit better she'd have a good chance of making the AA and doing well I think. Good luck to Georgia and Lauren. Lets hope they hit1
Just a quick heads up: I'm not sure if it was posted here or over on Couchy's blog then never confirmed but you can watch the competition at http://www.wkturnen2010.tv/. Just go to the 20th and it's one of the 3 videos there. The whole site is in Dutch and the commentary is in Dutch but at least you can see the routines.
Lets be honest, Australia DOES lack depth, how many seniors do we have? Depth is when your entire squad can get injured and you can still put competitive people on the podium. We can't do that... yet. BUT in saying that the athletes we have at the top are awesome quality and next year we may finally see the depth we need.
As for Mattie Larson, I think Martha was saying that it was her (Martha's) fault for relying on Mattie after she stuffed up prelims. Either way she is an elite athlete so she should be used to criticism. Maybe not in such a public arena but it would have been said on all the blogs anyway. She has always been outspoken- i don't know why people have been shocked with remarks!
Wheeler's prelims bars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-KT0lKujqo
ANd her vault:
http://www.youtube.com/user/piibunina#p/u/72/VMCFOP_XIYU
Yikes! While some people are way too harsh on her, you couldn't deny that she was a bit of a mess at this comp.
Just saw on the FIG site that Mitchell is registered for the Stuttgart world cup and Glasgow Grand Prix in a few weeks. Call me crazy but why does she need to compete again, after this marathon?
Couldn't this be better utilized by giving the spot to an inexperienced gymnast like Simpson or Wheeler who will benefit much more? It's really annoying how they only ever give assignments to the same people.
All other countries share these types of meets around their senior team. If we want backup athletes who can hit, then you can't only give one gymnast the opportunities.
Anon 2.31pm
True. How are our gymnasts to get the experience otherwise? I agree wholeheartedly with you.
Yes, it would be great to give other gymnasts an opportunity. But I think the reason GA send their best gymnasts is because I think they have to try and get the best results possible, like medals, to justify taking the gymnasts. I don't agree with this but I think that is the way it is. Simpson would be one gymnast who would benefit from international experience because Wheeler has had a fair bit this year but at least WAIS is sending Simpson to Massila Cup. Does anyone know what juniors are going yet? We know Georgia-Rose Brown is definitely one but there is still no official world on the others.
Larrissa hit her feet on the low bar into her dismount which is a 0.3 deduction. So it was just unlucky... she lost 0.6 in the last little bit even thouh it was a great routine.
I thought the WAIS girls were sent to all these comps because WAIS pays for it and not GA. I know that in the past WAIS funded some of the tripsfor Dasha and Lauren.
Wheeler doesn't need anymore comps right now. She's just come off Worlds and Commonwealth Games. She needs to have an uninterrupted training season so she can improve her form and add her upgrades. peggymenitoned before Commonwealth Games that she had upgrades for UB planned. Now's the time to start putting them in rather than going to world cup meets with a double pike dismount on UB.
I'ld send Simpson and Miller as they missed out on Commonwealth Games and haven't had many meets this year.
In the minutes of the GWA SMC it mentions Nikki Chung was also picked for the France team. There was no mention of Simpson going though.
Nikki Chung and Natalia Joura are going over to France.
So...
Joura
Chung
Brown
Surely that can't be a whole team?
Also noticed on the Massilia list of teams that VWHPC has entered a separate team....
In terms of depth lets not forget - population of USA approx 200 million versus population of Australia approx 20 million - for every 1 elite level international gymnast we have the USA should (statistically speaking) have 10 of them! We will never have what the US has - around about 10 girls who could all compete and medal internationally because we simply don't have the population to support it in comparison! Overall the results we are getting are well beyond what other countries have done with similar populations, and with such a short history in the sport - Australia has really only been noticed since 1996 so it's only been 14 years, not very much compared to the USA, China, Russia & Romania's long history in the sport!
I'm nearly over hearing that the juniors need to be given opportunity at events like world cups. Yes, international experience can assist an individuals development but recognition and reward needs to be earned, not a right of passage. Do we think the next quad can replicate the deeds of those that have delivered such consistent results over the last 4 years? I really hope they can. Rather than look at who is ahead of us, look back and see who is in our wake. Aussie gymnastics is in great shape. Credit to Peggy and the 91/92/93s
I wasn't aware that juniors were able to compete at world cup events. Don't they have the same age rules as worlds and olympics?
Where did you find out the information on the Massilia Gym Cup.
Speaking of juniors I can't wait for Amelia Mcgrath and Angela Donald get out there and compete with the big guns once they turn senior. They impressed me so much at nationals and obviously Donald at the youth olympics. I reckon Aussie gymnastics will be in excellent hands with the likes of these two coming through.
I think whether they make the world tam will depend on their vaulting. Georgia Rose has the edge because of her bars (already 5.6 this year) so her weakness on vault is more excusable. Nikki Chung is good on both VT and UB so she also has an edge. Angela and Milly are both lovely, but I'm not sure how many beam workers we are going to need at the expense of bars and vault. Maybe only 1 of them will make it.
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