Thursday, November 24, 2011

Tokyo Cup 2011

It's back to the land of the rising sun for Georgia Rose Brown and Maryanne Monckton this weekend.

Check out Full Twist's details about coverage from the event here.

I'll update whatever results and observations when I can, when I'm not...

er...

you know

busy.




Turning 25.


Update: According to FullTwist
via the event website, Georgia Rose Brown suffered a finger fracture during beam training, but was ok to continue.

There are now added Massilia videos here, including Brennan and Monckton.


In the Tokyo Cup, Maryanne finished 5th and Georgia Rose 6th. Apparently the only significant mistakes in the competition were two OOBs from Mez. Everything else a hit for all competitors.

See standings here.

I have been advised by an official source close to the team that Georgia was in fact competing on an injured foot and lower back, and is to be commended for completing the competition under the circumstances. Our thoughts go with her for a speedy recovery!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Lauren has Landed

Lauren's VISA commercial is up!



For those of you in or near Perth, Loz will be appearing at Challenge Stadium this Saturday (nov 26th) to sign autographs with other WA sports stars from 1:00pm as part of ABC Grandstand's 21st birthday.

2011 Massilia: Videos!

Thanks to Couch Gymnast for pointing out the hard-working French fans who captured Aussie routines (Chung, Wheeler and Brown at least) in Marseille.

Merci a tous!

Check them out here. The highlights for me personally are Nikki's rocked tumbling lines on floor (mistake on the final one aside... she FLOATS them beautifully and nails the landings) and Georgia Rose's crisp bars set.

A report featuring detailed results can be found at IG here.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Cirque And You Shall Find

Exciting news!

Cirque du Soleil are currently seeking new talent for their current shows and upcoming creations.


(click for hi-res)


Open auditions for artistic gymnastics, trampolining, and acrobatic sports will be held at Highflyers Trampoline and Gymnastics Academy in Perth, Dec 9, and the Victorian Women's High Performance Centre in Melbourne, Dec 11. Auditions for Circus based acts will be held at NICA in Melbourne, Dec 4.

Full details and registration information can be found here and here.

Elite Gym Massilia 2011

Just a quick result down the wire from France. I'll update as more come in.

Open Massilia - Australia 2 (Wheeler, Brown, Chung) finished third behind two Canadian teams on 154.450

The girls were in the purple and black flame leo from worlds.

Full results from this round (en francais!) courtesy of the Gymnet French gymnastics fan forum are below.

1. canada mixte 155.250 (Mauckel, Flett, Black (blessée au coude au sol), ...)
2. canada futur gym center 154.070 (Hofland, Carvalho, Douglas, Deans)
3. australie 2 154.450 (Wheeler, Chung, Brown)
4. pole france marseille 152.090 (Cano, Cormoreche, Errin, Lejoyeux)
5. belgique 152.010 (Dejardin, Waem, Rabaut, Fransolet)
6. france junior 151.040 (Pauffert, Martin, Chambellant, Plessis)
7. canada 2 149.055 (Latimer, Chant, Pederson)
8. suisse 145.095 (Kaeslin, Guissani, Hitz, Jelmini)
9. canada alberta 142.050 (Dick, Wilchuck, Pas)
10. france espoir 137.065 (Pause, Loan, Pilla, Marrot)
11. henin beaumont 137.00 (Delbecq, Belba, Seggio, Maalem)
12. pole espoir paca 136.000 (Detrez, Pedeneau, Iosip, Baltenek)


I am assuming more photos will go up as the event unfolds, but for now there's a photo of Nikki on the first page of Gymnet's 2011 Massilia photo thread.

The Gymnastics Examiner has a report here.

Georgia Rose came second AA (53.65) with Nikki in 5th. Unfortunately, I can't see where Georgia W placed.

Master Massilia - World championship silver medallist Viktoria Komova was unbeatable here, but huge kudos to Emily Little for managing 3rd in the all-around! I can't seem to find scores on the official site or at Gymnet.

The team was in the pink and black leo from 2010 Worlds.

More photos (incl. podium shots) are up at Gymnet here.

A full report from GA can now be found here. Mez and Georgia Rose will now head to Tokyo! Good luck, girls!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Mitchell Media Mania

I love it when gymnastics pops up in the media, all smiles!

Lauren Mitchell's VISA campaign is hotting up, with a bunch of press pieces doing the rounds. 'Like' her official page at Facebook to see videos from Fox Sports of her media call yesterday. One includes a glimpse of her commercial!

There are also articles here, here and here.


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Visa Champ

An update from the Australian Olympic Committee just gave a tantalising teaser...



(click for higher res)

Adnews.com.au says:

Visa signs Mitchell for Olympics campaign
Visa has signed Australian gymnast Lauren Mitchell as one of its sports ambassadors for its London 2012 Olympics campaign, "Go World", to be unveiled 24 November. Mitchell joins American swimmer Michaehelps and New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams.




LATER THAT DAY...

Lauren's official Facebook page has put up a comprehensive update on the campaign, including a press release and some STUNNING shots from the advertisement. Checkit!

“The Olympic Games begin and end with the athletes and we’re excited to have Lauren join Visa as our first Australian Olympic ambassador,” said Vipin Kalra, Visa’s Country Manager, Australia. “Lauren is a true inspiration to thousands of young gymnasts around the country and we are proud to be supporting Lauren in what will be one of the greatest sporting challenges of her life.”

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

2011 Elite Massilia

No rest for the Aussies, it's on to France!

The official event site is here.

You can have a stickybeak at the official event program/media release here.

And while we're at it, a very happy birthday to team member Maryanne Monckton!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

2011 DTB Stuttgart (2)

Hi all

Bit of a funny old weekend for me, only playing catchup now.

Vids of the Aussie girls competing all-around can be found at this YouTube channel and there is a wrap up of results from International Gymnast here. Lauren finished 4th and Emily 8th.

You can see a photo gallery here.

Speaking of Perthies, a huge congratulations to dual Olympian Allana Slater on being inducted in the WA Sports Hall of Champions!

Edit Monday - Congratulations Australia!

Our pink-and-black-clad girlies Emily, Lauren, Nikki and Larrissa finished a commendable 2nd behind Russia at the DTB Cup team final!

International Gymnast has scores here.

The Gymnastics Examiner has quick hits from the team final here.

Videos are once again going up here. Thanks, GutsuFan!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

The Commonwealth Games are coming back to Australia!

CONRATULATIONS GOLD COAST!

BRING ON 2018!

2011 DTB Stuttgart

Hi guys.

Just got word from The All Around that the standings from the WAG team qualification in Stuttgart went thusly:

1. AUS 110.350 (!!!!!)
2. GER 106.250
3. RUS 105.950
4. NED 105.200
5. SUI 100,500
6. AUT 99.500

See a results pdf here. Lauren scored phenomenally on beam while Nikki rocked the second highest start scores on beam and bars (of the team).

Gymnastics WA have put up some of Desiree Jones' photos from the training gym on Facebook. Like their page and check 'em out!


Monday, November 7, 2011

Radio Gym 2

An interesting piece on the psychology of 'talent' and 'practice making perfect' on ABC Radio in the last few days featured Victorian gymnast Georgia Wheeler. Check it out here.

*strokes chin sagely*

There is also a photo gallery of Georgia in training here.

Post-Worlds Assignments

Hi guys.

I'm going to update this post as official word of assignments filters through.

The VWHPC is sending four athletes to the Massilia Cup in Marseille, France - Ash Brennan, Georgia-Rose Brown, Maryanne Monckton and Georgia Wheeler. Apparently WAIS is sending some delegates too?

Lauren Mitchell is slated for the DTB Cup in Germnay but I will post official confirmation when I get it.

Edit: GA have updated! The Tokyo team is on the move again!

Lauren will indeed head to the DTB Cup in Stuttgart (Nov 11-13), accompanied by Emily Little, Nikki Chung and Larrissa Miller.



Lauren will then head home while the other three, plus the Victorians mentioned above, zip over to Paris for the Massilia Cup (Nov 18-19). 4 girls will compete in the Master Massilia round and 3 will compete in the Open Massilia round.

UPDATE - Little to compete alongside Mitchell at the DTB all-around? Not sure if accompanying or replacing altogether.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Radio Gym

Hello, I'm still here, pootling along.

If you're in Melbourne, don't forget to tune in at 6:25pm to Radio Eastern (98.1fm) tonight to hear VWHPC gymnasts talking about their experiences.

There is also a Channel 10 interview with SA trampolinian (my word, not theirs) Blake Gaudry here.

(Ohhh is it pronounced "GORR-dree"? I always said "GOW-dree"! *packs up and leaves human race*)

6:27 I just tuned in. G-Wheels and Zoe L are on air!

Zoe tries to explain the complex scoring system. Not easy to do!

Georgia says you eventually 'get the hang' of balancing gym and school, and schools are always a good support network.

Q: "Is gymnastics good enough to make [you] a living?"
Zoe is very articulate, admitting that it isn't easy to make a living because it doesn't earn you a lot, and says gymnastics for those over 20 can be difficult... but with a shout-out to Chusovitina!

Zoe aspires to to a journalist - with a shout-out to RMIT!

Q: "Do you know lauren Mitchell personally, and were you inspired by what she did?"
Georgia (with a shout-out to her 2010 Worlds participation!) says she is an inspiration to everyone, great to train alongside, and a good person overall.

Talk turns to the benefits of the system no longer being centralised. Zoe says (in short) it's great for gymnasts across all the states, it's much easier not having to travel to Canberra all the time.

Georgia's highlight was the team gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and competing at Worlds. She hopes Australia can carry that into 2012.

Zoe's highlight has been her overseas assignments earlier this year, and her participation in the Youth Olympic Festival.

The big goal for both is the 2012 Olympics ("We've always been training for it"). They recognise that USA, China and Russia are the big competitors.

Injuries. "They're a huge part of this sport, it's everywhere, every girl has had at least one injury that's kept them out for months or years... it's an annoying part of the sport [but] you have to learn how to manage competition load."

The token "how many apparatus are there?" question. DUDE, SAY IT WITH ME: RESEARCH. Aaaaaaaaaand once again rhythmic gymnastics comes up. Zoe laughs and says "That is SUCH a common question! When we tell people we do gymnastics they always go 'oh, so you do the ribbon?'" Georgia and Zoe say in unison "That one's RHYTHMIC!" with a giggle.

Georgia's competition superstition is sticking with the same brand of hairspray. She worries that they don't make it any more and she's running low! And she has a little buddha figurine whose tummy she rubs before every competition.

Zoe - her special talent is reciting the alphabet backwards really fast. The host asks her to demonstrate, which she does, but not before guffawing "But that's not gymnastics-related!"

Q: "Do you have to be small to do gymnastics?"
G: Being small is an advantage, but being tall doesn't stop you. (With a quick shout-out to the two "awesome" tall girls at their own gym!)

Q: "What are the numbers like at your gym?"
Z: About 70 at the VWHPC.


They describe a typical day/session of training.

"Zoe...err, can I call you Zo?" Whaaaaaaat. He has their nicknames on a sheet of paper and feels like being cheeky. He even busts out "Wheels"!

Q: "What's the VWHPC like?"
Z: "It's always busy, there's always someone on the mat... there's always someone on an apparatus doing something."

The "We Ask Every Guest" question - who are your rivals? Who do you love to stick it to?
Both say China, America and Russia. "To beat any of those three... that's like the best day ever!"

Q: "How many sponsors and support team members do you have? Any plugs/shout-outs?"
G: The VIS, the coaches (shout-out to Tracey and Misha!)

Benefits of gymnastics:
G: "I have made the best friends through gymnastics. It's great... everyone in the gym is just like a big family."

The girls then nutted out the selection and training process after the trials. Hardcore stuff.

Aaaaaaaand we're off air!