Hi guys.
Check my latest tweet (Twitter link at right) for a link to a new radio interview with Lauren Mitchell from camp in Canberra.
Edit: Speaking of camp, this morning we have a brief training camp update from our MAG and WAG teams in Canberra, over at GA.
The girls are in good shape and not anything unexpected from the Physio reports. We will depart on Friday and are looking forward to arriving in Tokyo."
"The Men's team have been fine tuning their routines at training camp this week. The gymnasts are maintaining a good positive focus on the job at hand and are looking great as a team.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we also have an additional brief word from Peggy on the team trial and Lauren's championship defense chances at IG here.
I can't get the link! Could you please post it here?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.radiosportnat.com.au/audioplayer/1316738091.mp3
ReplyDeleteso I guess Emily will sit out floor, Larrissa will sit out vault and beam, and Ash will sit out bars...
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Nikki on her selection as the travelling reserve!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading about the Romanians and Team USA, we will need all our girls to hit all routines and to be in top form. They have a big challenge ahead of them. Good luck Team Aussie!
ReplyDeletethe aus girls are not competing against usa or romania, they are just trying to survive the top 8. stop comparing them to chn or rus, those contries are in another league.
ReplyDeleteExactly a top 8 finish is the goal, at worst top 16 so we have another chance to qualify a team to London. Unless they implode USA, China, Russia and Romania will be top
ReplyDeletefour. Australia is fighting teams like GB Japan etc to make the team final.
I think we will make top 8 fine.Im just super excited for the event finals and all around!
ReplyDeleteWe will be fighting to get in the top 8. Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Japan, Great Britain, Canada...they will all be in contention. Qualifying straight through is definitely not a sure thing. All it will take is one dodgy rotation and we won't make it. If the girls perform to their full potential, we should make it. It is not a sure thing though.
ReplyDeleteI think if they perform to their potential they will definitely make it. People have been doing analyses of D-scores on various forums and we are about 6th in that department. If you think about the counting scores we have a pretty good balance for 4 count. I think this team has the potential to score better than last year for these reasons:
ReplyDelete1) Mitchell has increased her difficulty, notably on floor by .5.
2) Brennan has upgraded vault to add .5 to our DV on that event last year, and has added .2 in DV to her floor.
3) The '6th' gymnast this year, Brown, is not a token gymnast like Wheeler was last year. Wheeler really didn't contribute to the team, whereas Brown can offer a strong bars, and usable vault and floor. This year on bars we should count routines worth 5.7/5.9/5.9/6.2, compared to last year which was 5.3/5.3/5.7/6.2. A big improvement.
4) If we see Monckton as replacing Bonora from last year, Monckton is more valuable. We lost Bonora's experience, but since this is about potential, Monckton has the same vault, adds .6 on bars, loses a couple of tenths on beam, but then adds another .5 on floor.
What I am nervous about though is whether we can indeed hit, especially starting on beam. I am worried especially about Monckton and Brown, being inexperienced, especially after the Japan Cup disaster.
I'm worried, too. I will be watching from behind my fingers and doing every skill with them.
ReplyDeleteI want a top 8 finish SOOOOO much for them!
I could see Australia finishing
ReplyDelete5th or 6th in TFs. Japan and Great Britain are at about the same level as Australia with Italy and Canada probably behind.
Qualifications is where it will be tough if they still need to count a FTY as one of the VTs and 5.3s on UB, BB and FX. In a team final situation they will probably fair better. Australia is ahead of GBR on vault and beam but loses a lot of ground to Japan and GBR on UB.
By virtue of having a strong AAer in Lauren plus some decent D score routines they should be able to field 3 fairly strong routines in finals. They really need to work on UB and FX though. Under this code it's VT and UB where the most ground can be gained .
The girls could struggle. A top eight finish is no guarantee, especially now.
ReplyDeleteInteresting score breakdowns from The All Around Forum:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.the-all-around.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=247
Wow, thanks for tht link Mez, very interesting!
ReplyDeleteTom Pichler has been named MAG captain for worlds
ReplyDeleteSeems to be a lot of pressure on Lauren.Only hope that she is able to cope with every ones expectations of her.The whole team will need to do exceptional.I think we will fit between 6th and 8th.
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous 2011 11:24 PM, I agree that if the girls compete at their full potential they definitely have a chance to make it, but about everything else... you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
ReplyDeleteThere does'nt seem to be as much media coverage this year as was last year.Could it be that GA are keeping things tight lipped due to how close our selection to London could be? Perhaps last year we had the Comm games as well to add to the hype. Good luck to the girls, are they leaving tomorrow?
ReplyDeleteTo anon at 4:21, if you are going to tell other people that they have no idea what they're talking about, at least bother to provide the grounds on which you are insulting them. What kind of nasty individual says someone's opinion sucks and doesn't bother to say why?
ReplyDelete11:24's points are fair enough, but in the context of Olympic qualification- the other countries have hardly been sitting idle in the past year either and have their own upgrades to add into the mix. Comparisons to last years scores are irrelevant, really. It's all about keeping pace with upgrades in comparison to the other teams, and THEN about making those upgrades count on the day. This World Championships is going to be a splatfest. I would bet good money at least two of the top teams will fall apart under the pressure of Olympic qualification, I just HOPE Australia isn't one of them.
ReplyDelete