Aah, it's good to be home, and even better to be home to gym news!
In an interesting match-up over the weekend, collegiate Aussies Mel Jones and Olivia Vivian (Oregon State) took on conference rivals Stanford, where one of their stalwarts is fellow Beijing 2008 squadder Shona Morgan.
Competing in front of a home crowd, OSU came out on top, with Olivia scoring an awesome 9.925 on bars. More great reviews are flooding in for Mel's floor (I still haven't seen video of it?) while Shona competing without major error on beam and floor. I do so love her choreo!
(ETA: If you would like to watch an archived stream of the meet, go here.)
Superstar newbie Georgia Simpson will compete at the 2012 American Cup!
The lineup has been announced by USA Gymnastics. It will be held at Madison Square Garden on March 3rd.
In other happy news, our national women's coach Peggy Liddick will tomorrow officially become an Australian citizen. She appeared on Adam Spencer's breakfast radio show in Sydney earlier this morning to talk about it. Happy Australia Day, boss!
Check out this nice news feature on national team choreographer (AND TOTES MY SECOND BEST FRIEND BECAUSE WE'VE MET IN PERSON AND EVERYTHING LOLZ) Stacey Umeh, training young gymnasts at the Central Coast Gymnastics Academy. She has some lovely things to say about Lauren Mitchell.
NCAA Gymnastics has kicked off for 2012, and Aussies were right there in the lineup.
At Oregon State, Olivia Vivian and Mel Jones (the latter now competing all-around for the first time at the school) helped the Beavers to victory over Oklahoma. Check out Olivia's new floor below. After an Iron Man routine in her second year, and a cheeky hat-tip to Burlesque last year... should we call this one Three Musketeers?
Meanwhile, over at Stanford, Victorian expat Shona Morgan also saw victory with her team, scoring a 9.725 on both bars and beam to help the Cardinals best three rival schools. She also scored a 9.500 on floor. (image courtesy Stanford Women's Gymnastics at Facebook)
In the hallowed halls of George Washington University, Monique Blount's team managed a commendable second overall at their season opener, despite being homeground hosts of the competition.
Olympian and Commonwealth Games medallist Ashleigh Brennan, who turns 21 today!
Since her first big national team assignment in 2006, Ash has grown into an elegant and reliable team leader, who will no doubt be gunning for a place on the Aussie team in London.
The VHPC put up some lovely photos of the squad celebrating in Canberra. Hope you had a great day, Ash!
A hearty congratulations to our athletes that qualified to the Olympics in London.
You can read a small article about where Emilyand Georgiatrained here, while there are also some new pieces on Josh and Tom after their competition. A curious photo of Blake Gaudry is here at ABC's "Day in Pictures" gallery.
Gymnastics Australia have put up a new page for ongoing updates and photos from national coach from Peggy Liddick. Emily Little now tumbles a piked full-in!
"Emily and Georgia went through their programs normally without anything unusual.... Both girls conducted themselves like professionals and were ready for the podium."
The FIG have photos up on Facebook here and will reportedly be doing a livestream of the competition through their Youtube channel here.
*** Gymnastics Australia advises that Australian MAG competitor Sam Offord has had to withdraw due to an injury sustained during the friendly at Waveney. He will be replaced by Josh Jefferis.***
As at 7:30am Wednesday, Georgia's bars and beam are up here. Em and Georgia start on bars in session 2 tomorrow (late tonight our time)
You can follow the women's proceedings live here at the Gymnastics Examiner or here at The All Around. Unfortunately I can't stay up to follow proceedings but according to Blythe, the Aussies are in their green, gold and white national leo (hooray).
ETA Thursday...
Australia has officially qualified one MAG spot to London; the selectors can choose between Josh OR Tom to compete at the Games.
The Gymnastics Examiner and All-Around links above should take you to quickhits of the women's session. By all accounts the Aussies did a great job, notably newbie Simpson.
Check out her STUNNING floor below, as well as Em's vault.
See Emily's beam here See Emily's bars here See Georgia's beam here
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This blog wishes, with all sincerity, to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people; the original andongoing owners of the land upon which this author lives and upon which these words are collated.
