Unfortunately, nothing much is being said in the media about our men but the senior all-around and apparatus finals have wrapped up, with a mixed bag of results.
Congrats to our 2011 National AA champ Luke Wiwatowski!
Luke was second behind the yet-to-earn-citizenship Japanese dynamo who keeps tongues wagging Naoya Tsukahara, but won by virtue of his, well, residency! Not content with just one gold, he also snagged the national floor title. AA favourite Sam Offord managed second, with Victorian upstart Jayden Bull (rocking a 6.5 high bar SV!) finishing in third.
Olympian Phil Rizzo is still making a comeback, unable to medal on his pet events, while Queensland golden boy Josh Jefferis managed three events in his road to recovery. And look out, world - Prashanth Sellathurai is comin' atcha with a 6.9 pommel SV!
The road to Tokyo is taking some interesting twists!
Naoya is a permeant resident of Australia, therefore he is eligible to compete within Australia. Hence why he was competing for Queensland. This mean he is the rightful National Champion. Congrats to all the boys.
ReplyDeleteit's not about residency - it's about citizenship. Different things. hence not actual title to wins....
ReplyDeletehowever - well done to all!
i think the mag program deserves more credit i think they have stepped up quite a lot!
ReplyDeleteBeing a permanent resident means you can win national and state titles. Otherwise Naoya couldn't have competed for Queensland and he wouldn't have been awarded the titles in Canberra. To represent Australia as a senior requires citizenship.
ReplyDeleteIn the spirit of true sportsmanship the gymnast with the highest score is the champion.So let's not spoil Naoya's success. Naoya is not going to be a "future" of Australian MAG program while Luke has shown incredible progress and has a potential to make his country proud of him in the years to come.Well done Luke, and keep it up..
ReplyDeleteWithout the past or current crop of senior MG we have no future. The younger boys look up (mostly, hehe!) to the seniors no matter what stage of the competitive careers (see post on Phil). And might I add the hands on encouragement delivered by all in the national senior MG squad. To see them take time out of their own training to pass on some tips or demonstrate to the young level 6 boys is just awesome. These youngsters have no better role models than these guys ;). BTW It should be noted that the QLD boys in L6 under 12 swept all gold north taking team, AA and apparatus as well as 2nd & 3rd AA. ;). JazzyK
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