Farewell 2011/2010 Award Wiiners

Hi everyone.

So he were are then, the last day of 2011!

I hope it was enjoyable for all of you. Thanks again for taking the time to pop by AGB. I'll be back in 2012 to cover some of those HUGE events that will grace our arenas and screens.

I am extremely sorry I never announced the winners of the last Australian Gymnastics Blog Awards on the first of January. It's extremely remiss of me and I won't let it happen again! I am rectifying the mistake by acknowledging the winners right here right now! Thanks so much to everyone who emailed in votes, it was a great turnout. I hope to hear from you again in the 2012 Awards, which I vow to manage much better.

So here we go! The winners of 2010's Australian Gymnastics Blog Awards as voted by you, the readers!


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1. Female Gymnast of the Year (Senior)
* Lauren Mitchell
Honourable Mention: TIE - Maryanne Monckton and Georgia Simpson


Female Gymnast of the Year (Junior)
* Angela Donald
Honourable Mention: Amelia McGrath


2. Male Gymnast of the Year (Senior)
* Prashanth Sellathurai
Honourable Mention: Josh Jefferis


Male Gymnast of the Year (Junior)
* Jack Rickards
Honourable Mention: Declan Stacey


3. Australian Artistic Gymnastics Team of the Year
* WAG Commonwealth Games


4. Coach/Coaching Team of the Year
* Nikolai Lapchine and Martine George, WAIS


5. Routines of the Year

MAG
Prashanth Sellathurai, World Championships EF

"His routine is amazing! although he didn't get any place at worlds watching the routine makes me go :O wow... "


WAG
Lauren Mitchell, World Championships EF

"Well done to this routine! i don't think many were expecting her to win this but she did! and it was great!! she performs it so well and her tumbles are awesome!"

"Champiooon!"


6. "Smile" Moment of the Year
* Prashanth Sellathurai gives Commonwealth gold to his mum


7. "Sad" Moment of the Year
* Aussie boys crash out at Worlds


8. Surprise of the Year
* Shona Morgan signs to Stanford


9. Simon Reeve Award for Gymnastics Media Coverage
* (TIE) Foxtel, for Commonwealth Games broadcast and OneHD for Pacific Rim broadcast
And thanks for all the interesting comments about Make It Or Break It... it seems to be every gymfan's guilty pleasure!


10. Brittany Boffo Award for Memorable (If Unfortunate) Mishaps
* Australia's beam lineup in the Delhi women's team final


11. Gymsport Athlete/s of the Year
* Naazmi Johnston, Rhythmic Gymnastics


12. Monique Allen Award for Successful Ex-Gymsporters
* Lydia Lassila, aerial skiing gold medallist


13. Photo of the Year



Thanks again everyone who emailed in votes, they made my inbox smile.

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I hope the new year starts off amazingly for you and you get ample time with your loved ones. Enjoy a sip of champagne for me. Thanks for the support, on and offline.

Gym on, superstars! See you in 2012!

Pre-2012 2012 News!

Woah, hi there, sudden-exciting-interruption-to-hiatus!

GA have announced our delegation to the 2012 Olympic test event!

Congratulations to.....

MG Team Members:

John Curtin – coach

Serguei Chinkar – Coach

Yu Bo – Coach

Phil Cossens – Physio

Paul Szyjko – Judge

Andrew Martin – Judge

Thomas Pichler – gymnast

Sam Offord – Gymnast

Joshua Jefferis – Reserve

WG Team Members:

Martine George – coach

Georgia Simpson – gymnast

Emily Little – gymnast

Trisha Hade – judge

Jill Wright – Judge.

TRP team members:

Nikolay Zhuravlev – Coach

Blake Gaudry – Gymnast

Darren Gillis - Judge

"The Test event will serve as the second and final qualifier for both MG and TRP. Australia aims to achieve one country spot on both of these divisions.

The Australian WG team qualified for the 2012 Games at the 2011 World Championships and will be using the event as a preparation event leading into 2012.

The MG team will be travelling to Waveney Gymnastics Club, for a week of training starting on December 27^th before heading to London on January 7th. The TRP team will depart on Australia on January 5^th, to spend 3 days training at Northampton Trampoline Gymnastics Academy prior to the event."

Happy Chrimbo

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel, Buon Natale and everything else under the (Aussie) sun!

This is me.

Thanks for your support and contributions this year. I certainly can't do it alone.


Unfortunately due to time constraints there will be no Australian Gymnastics Blog Awards this year. I am truly grateful for everyone that voted in last year's awards, however, and will (finally!) post the winners before New Year's Eve. Next year should see them reinstated!


Thanks again for all your contributions and support. 2012 is going to be HUGE, not least of all because of the Olympic Games. It is also my fourth year of blogging and there will certainly be lots to talk about.

Wishing you, your families and those of our gym community a safe and happy Christmas period.

Keep on smiling.

xoxoxoxo

Meredith

This is a marsupial.

Spotted

Christmas has kept me busy, folks!

Thanks to The Couch Gymnast for shining a spotlight on two familar faces this week.

One former Victorian elite seeking greener pastures and one current Victorian elite on the brink of stardom!

Aussies also feature here as part of Gymnastike's "Workout Wednesday" video series.

2011 Mexico Open (2)

News out of Acapulco is pretty scarce and I'm getting some mixed reports.

What I can tell you is that Emily Little is in 4th overall as an individual after day 1; though each female gymnast is paired with a male gymnast and they can win a pairs title as well. Emily is paired with Santiago Lopez of Mexico as well as Sergey Khorkhordin (due to less female than male gymnasts taking part). With Lopez she is sitting in 7th but with Khorkhordin she's in 3rd!


Her scores for the two apparatus competed so far are

VT 13.950 (Yurchenko full only)
UB 5.3/13.350

Footage of her bars routine is below, and you can see a shot of her and Martine training bars on the event's webpage photo gallery.

Like their Facebook page for more photos, videos and results.




Day 2:

MORE OF THIS STUNNING LEO, PLZTHNX!!!

Emily finished in 4th all-around, just a smiiiiiiiiidgen away from the bronze medal position with 54.9 Beam score was 14.25 and floor was 13.35.

Gymnastics Australia have more lovely candid shots and a summary here. Apparently an earthquake hit during the competition... if Em can handle competing after that, then anything 2012 can throw at her will be a cakewalk!

Her beam routine is below.

Em and Sergey finished 3rd as a pair.

Finally, to cap off an exciting competition, Emily also performed an aboriginal-inspired Australian cultural beam and dance routine, as part of a televised gala that all gymnasts were invited to participate in.

You can see footage of the routine below.

2011 Mexico Open

Hi guys.

Thanks to all those who sent birthday wishes! You unquestionably rock (what didn't rock was the rubbish weather)!

There is now an official website up for the Acapulco event that was mentioned during the World Championships. It's this weekend! Note that Emily Little is listed to compete, not Lauren Mitchell.

Speaking of Lauren, VISA have uploaded a lovely-looking new promotional feature on Lauren. Hope that gold filter is a sign of things to come!

That's A Bit Cool!

Look who popped by the Victorian HPC!

You can see Hamish in action at the gym here. Hope he didn't get chalk in his eye!


Speaking of the gang in Prahran, is award-winner Ash Brennan already a lock for PacRim 2012...?