LAUREN MITCHELL
SILVER MEDAL
WOMEN'S FLOOR EXERCISE
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Tip your editor Meredith at ozgymblog@gmail.com.
Log in using Google or OpenID to leave comments. Cheers.
This blog wishes, with all sincerity, to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people; the original and ongoing owners of the land upon which this author lives and upon which these words are collated.
9 comments:
Congrats Loz - silver on floor. Great effort considering she's only been training since November, but CLAUDIA FRAGAPANE - WOW!!!!!
I would love to see this girl go up against the powers of gymnastics. She's such a little pocket rocket and her tumbles are fantastic!!!
So out of a possible 11 WAG medals at these games (based on 1 x team, 2 x AA and 8 x apparatus medals (based on 2 athletes per country)) we managed a grand total of 4 silvers. Very disappointing if you ask me! Thoughts anyone?
Congrats to MEZ && LOZ!!!! Great work girls. Fragapane was fantastic omg.
Pretty disappointing overall - not in the girls themselves, but it's a shame to think how little we've progressed since Delhi. I too want to know how we could not be prepared when we took a year off worlds for this.
What would we even have done if Larrissa, Lauren and Olivia had not come back? A shame some of the young ones couldn't be given this opportunity - i think it would have been a terrific confidence builder for them - the event had a nice atmosphere.
My thoughts:
Larrissa: I feel like she might be our best hope for a world/olympic medal (=funding) in next couple of years. She has such an effortless and clean base already on bars, if she could upgrade, who knows what she could achieve. Very confident in this Miller-Waverley combo. If she can get the difficulty, she can compete with the Chinese/Russians/Americans.
Lauren: Peggy will be on her knees begging her to stay training. i think it's pretty clear we need her through to Rio. This meet was interesting in terms of understanding how her new routines will be received at major meets. Seems she needs just a little more fitness/flex/extension to get the e-scores we are used to seeing from her. She was really slammed in execution this week, and in terms of getting skills credited.
Mary-Anne: Not sure on her injury status re AA but in any case she will be a strong three eventer for us. Hopefully she can upgrade her vault (FTY seemed too easy) and bars back to her old difficulty. She seems to have matured into a more consistent performer.
Brown: Poor girl, but she is still unique and will be on worlds team. Still needs a few upgrades on all events. Regardless of her results this week it is wonderful to have such a stunning gymnast representing us. Hope she can learn from this experience. She has only been to one worlds prior to this after all, and we don't know if her foot was playing up still. I'd really like to see her upgrade bars and get that set really world class. She's still rarely breaking that 14 ceiling.
Vivian: Really warmed my heart. We can be proud of this one. As was said previously, I could see her as a great travelling reserve for worlds. Godwin actually has higher difficulty on bars and in a 6-5-4 situation, it's harder to cover the gaps, which is why it might be harder for LivViv to compete. I honestly think the best route for her from her is to really go hardcore for a world class bars. Her d-score is still pretty average by world standards, whereas for selection I think she needs to really be like our Tweddle.
Vault: Worrying but I see some hope. I could see Munteanu, Godwin and Monckton with DTYs and Brown hopefully a 1.5 if not a double. Or Brown could go down route of half on-tucked rudi off, for example. If we turn up to worlds with the same vaults we have competed here though, I think there needs to be some serious discussion about the direction of the program. I am also disappointed to see barely anybody training second vaults.
Overall I think the main issue is mental. The US girls believe in themselves, and the Brits. I'm not sure our girls really believe. Georgia Rose looked like she was going to pass out after her FX fall, her legs were buckling. We are starting on beam at worlds - we are going to need strong heads and hearts.
Totally agree with that, our girls don't seem to go out with a lot of confidence. I think Lauren is about the only one, but she has had more experience and success than most of our gymnasts. Larrissa made an interesting comment about how she felt she wasn't good enough, I think this is a common attitude that many of our girls have. Where does that come from? I would say it comes from negative coaching, if you've ever seen Peggy in action, you would understand why they lack confidence and don't think they are good enough for selection into these teams.Mental attitude can be the downfall of an amazingly talented gymnast.
Funny you mention their lack of confidence... Lauren mentioned they had heaps of training in team building and mental strength... Yet none of that was really evident in their performances, except maybe from Larrissa.
Really, it does seem like there is something toxic happening if our top gymnasts are lacking confidence. If they don't believe they can be competitive with gymnasts from overseas, then what's the point? They never will be. Confidence is such a big thing here. I'm wondering if Peggy simply doesn't convey that she believes in them behind the scenes. Maybe the no-show for Worlds last year threw the girls a bit? Something must be going on there. Not in a conspiracy sort of way, but in a 'things need to be more positive' sort of way.
Two years exactly until Rio! That's a bit scary.
It will be interesting to see if GA stick to thier qualifying scores at the Worlds trials. Going by the scores the girls received at CWG I wonder if even Lauren would have high enough scores to qualify under GA's rules. Does anyone know what the criteria for selection is?
Last year the criteria was the D score. Maybe it will be the same this year. Invited to trial last year in Canberra was M. Monckton G Godwin E Nedov. Not sure who else there was.
No good having the D score if it can't be executed.Thats where I think we go wrong. Maybe more time perfecting skills rather than just trying to get the D score up.
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