Breaking: Dennis' Adieu

Waverley Gymnastics Centre have released an official statement on the status of senior Emma Dennis.



It reads as follows:

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EMMA DENNIS RETIRES FROM ELITE GYMNASTICS

22nd December 2010

Emma Dennis has announced her retirement from elite gymnastics competition. After a long and illustrious career, she has decided it is time to scale back training to give full attention to her VCE studies in 2011.

Emma’s coaches John Hart and Shaoyi Jiang are very sad to see Emma retire from elite competition but are also excited for her taking the next step in her life. She intends to keep training with reduced hours and may consider competing in the National stream from time to time for the enjoyment of the sport.

The 18 year old is a proud member of Waverley Gymnastics Centre and expressed how much she will miss her club, team mates and supporters. Emma particularly wanted to thank her coaches John Hart, Shaoyi Jiang , Club Director Tanya Johansen, ballet coach Grace Yang, physiotherapists Paul Haas and Jenni Allen from Bounce, Dr Dan Bates and Dr Don McIntosh all for their exceptional dedication and commitment through the years.

Emma’s involvement in elite gymnastics would not have been possible without the support of the Victorian Institute of Sport.


Emma’s incredible career spans 7 years of elite gymnastics. Some of Emma’s career highlights include:

Competed successfully at 5 International competitions as both a Junior and Senior in Sweden, Germany, Belgium and officially representing Australia in Japan, Ukraine and Britain.

Selection as non‐travelling reserve for the 2010 Worlds team

In the 2010 Victorian Championships Emma placed 5th AA, 4th Bars, 4th Beam, 4th Vault, and 5th Floor.

Selection as travelling reserve for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Team

Emma has been Victorian All Around Champion twice as well as won more than 15 State
Championship apparatus medals throughout her career.

At the 2010 National Championships Emma placed 4th AA and on vault, bars and floor. She is the current Australian Senior International title holder for beam.

Emma has won nine National titles at Australian Championships – 2010 Beam, 2007 AA, Beam, Floor and Bars, 2006 Bars, 2004 Floor and Bars and Bars in 2002.

Emma has represented Victoria at seven Australian Championships.

Selection to represent Australia at the 2007 Youth Olympics. Emma was the highest placing
Australian at 7th AA, she also made all four apparatus finals and she won 2nd on vault and 4th on Floor.

Awarded 2007 Junior Athlete of the year by Gymnastics Australia.

Emma was first selected into the National Squad in 2006 and was reselected onto the squad every year since.

We thank Emma for her wonderful commitment and contribution to Australian and Victorian Gymnastics and wish her the very best in this exciting new stage of her life.

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Wishing Emma a healthy and happy future, starting (of course) with a very merry Christmas.

The Winning Season

The Mitchell household is going to need a bigger pool room!

Lauren Mitchell was last night awarded WA's ANZ Sports Star of the Year Award. Not only that but her coaches Martine and Nikolai were awarded joint WA Coaches of the Year!

Congratulations WAIS!

TV Alert Dec 15

9:00am AEDST (ten or so minutes, people!)

Stuttgart World Cup Day 2

Fox Sports 3

Watch Lauren win some World Cup hardware in Germany!

Gonged But Not Forgotten

As if there wasn't anything further she could win this year, Lauren Mitchell has been awarded AIS Junior Athlete of the Year.

Former gymnast turned Olympic skiing gold medallist Lydia Lassila was named Athlete of the Year.

“Lauren’s performances on the world stage demonstrate a talent beyond her years,” Senator Arbib said.

“With athletes like Lauren, the future of Australian sport is in very good hands.”

Follow this link to read more about the AIS Awards.

Speaking of awards, please leave a comment on this post if you're happy to see the Australian Gymnastics Blog Awards back again and, if interest proves strong enough, I will make a nominations post before the end of the week.

Oh What a Feeling

The stars were out for the Toyota Cup in Japan this weekend.

Australia has not yet fared as well as hoped in the first round of apparatus competition.

Tom Pichler managed a 7th on floor (14.750) and Prashanth Sellathurai a 6th on pommel (13.625, sounds like there were problems there).

On the women's side, Lauren Mitchell fared better with a 4th on bars, while Larrissa Miller was pipped into 6th.

Edit: Lauren won beam! With 15.200 over Mustafina. Congratulations, Lauren!

Read more about her competition season wrap-up here.

"I'm relieved that I was able to perform well and that I finished the year really well," Mitchell said from Tokyo.

"Today was like a worlds final so I went into the routine with the mind set to put it all out there and see what result that would bring.

"After all the travelling it is really important to know that I can do it under any circumstances. It is very satisfying to finish the year with a win."

Happy Lozmas

IG have interviewed World floor champion Lauren Mitchell about her prospects for the silly season.

Note that they mention Loz will feature in the Jan/Feb edition of the magazine. Hope she makes the cover as well!

"After the Toyota Cup I'm having some time off, so that will be when I will celebrate."

Happy Birthday To...

Waverley tough cookie and Singapore Youth Olympics superstar Angela Donald!





Ange turns 15 today, we look forward to more of her gymnastics loveliness in the new year!

National Clubs Round-Up

My sincere apologies for not covering the event this year.
Yes, the junior and senior sessions DID straddle my birthday (again!) and I WAS busy doing a few things during the week of the competition.

Here are some links to results, reports and media from the event for those who haven't managed to keep tabs on them yet. The listed links are only to those sources that provided results and reports from the event, apologies for any missing states/territories. I didn't include club reports because there are far too many of them!

If you happen to find something I missed, please put a link in in the Comments for this post and I will make an update, or email me at ozgymblog@gmail.com
Cheers!


Gymnastics Australia

NSW

QLD

WA

SA

Close But No Cigar

Despite our best efforts, our dear Lauren Mitchell missed out on Sports Performer of the Year last night.

But gosh, didn't she look fab!



Good on you, Lauren! Hope you enjoyed the night. May it be one of many many cool award nods you get on the road to London. You have done tremendous things for the sport in the last two years.

Read a sweet new article on Lauren's gymnastics journey here.