Assignments Due

First senior post-Olympic assignment has been announced:

Victoria's Georgia Rose Brown will be heading to the Mexican Open in Acapulco this October!

2012 Zibo Cup

4:10pm Saturday AEST Follow along live here (yes, we have annoying pop-up ads again, look for x's to close them or toggle full screen mode).

Best of luck to Lauren and Larrissa in the women's competition.

I just tuned in after the footy to see Larrissa in purple and black Tokyo prelims leo hit a great bars for 14.425!

... she's through to the bars final in 4th!

Update: Lauren is through to the beam final in 4th and is 1st through to floor final!

View view of Larrissa's bars (partial) here. Video of a screen showing Lauren's floor is here.

Update Sunday: What a happy easter for team Oz! Who likes medals? We do!

UB: Miller 6.2/14.6 for bronze
BB: Mitchell 14.6 for bronze
FX: Mitchell 14.4 for gold!

See Larrissa's finals routine in the video below.



Lauren's finals floor is here and her beam here.

2012 American Cup (Contin.)

A correspondent for The Couch Gymnast has dutifully put up a video of Georgia's bar work during podium training today.





ETA: Unfortunately I was not up to watch the stream. However, I believe they showed Georgia's floor routine and it sounds like people were pretty impressed with it. I will post video and photo links as they come in after the event.


The final women's standings were:

1. Jordyn Wieber USA 61.032
2. Alexandra Raisman USA 60.832
3. Larisa Iordache ROM 59.332
4. Victoria Moors CAN 56.365
5. Diana Chelaru USA 56.100
6. Lisa Katharina Hill GER 55.599
7. Georgia Simpson AUS 54.566
8. Rebecca Tunney GBR 52.132


The Gymnastics Examiner has a photo gallery here.

Image via Reuters/Daylife.com

Full HD coverage of the competition as it aired on NBC can be found here. Thanks as always to NastiaFan! Georgia's floor is at 1:01:38

(if you listen veeeeeery carefully, just after she is announced, some encouraging young fans yell out "Go Georgia! Go Aussie!" which I think is very sweet.)

You can see Georgia's (non-televised) bars routine in the video below.




Would you like some G-Simps on your blog? Check out these groovy gifs!

Gymnastike has a brief pre-meet interview with Georgia up at their website.

The Seniors Situation

We've had some recent news on Aussie seniors.

Wide World of Sports have a short piece on camp here, with Lauren Mitchell hinting there are some vault upgrades happening in the group.

Liddick has already stressed to her charges the importance of working together, even using a bit of Hollywood star power - via the movies that is - to help them along.

"Last camp we watched Moneyball with Brad Pitt and it was kind of like Peggy suggesting to us to see where our weakest links are and work and focus more on those things," Mitchell said of the flick.

Based on the book, it's about how a baseball side breaks down their sport scientifically in order to assemble their best possible winning team.

"One of our weakest apparatuses is vault and so everyone is kind of churning out these quite big vaults now," Mitchell said.

"It's only into the pit, but if we get them, we can compete them."

The VWHPC have updated on Ashleigh Brennan's journey towards the Olympics (including a luvverly new photo).

"Olympic Gymnast Ashleigh Brennan is limbering up for the London games with a busy few months. First stop for the 21 year Berwick student is an Australian team tour to Canada from March 9-11, followed by a World Cup appearance in Qatar at the end of the month. Then come the selection trials in Sydney."

So we can expect to see Ash in Doha in a little while!


There has also been a small Penrith Star feature on Katie Wurth which you can find here

Finally, a West Australian piece on Georgia Simpson, who we will see at the American Cup this weekend!

Australia WAG Teams Update!

This weekend saw the trial not just for the Pacific Rim 2012 team, but the juniors and seniors heading to Gymnix in Canada as well.


GA have updated the following assignments, congratulations to all our gymnastics representatives:

Pacific Rim team: (Everett, USA)

Senior: Lauren Mitchell

Emily Little

Georgia Simpson

Reserve: Georgia-Rose Brown

Junior: Alexandra Eade
Madelaine Leydin
Jazminne Casis

Reserve: Georgia Godwin

Gymnix team: (Montreal, CAN)

Senior: Lauren Mitchell

Emily Little

Georgia Simpson

Georgia-Rose Brown

Georgia Wheeler

Nickola Chung

Ashleigh Brennan
Mary-Anne Monckton
Larrissa Miller

Junior: Alexandra Eade
Madelaine Leydin
Jazminne Casis

American World Cup: (All Around competition)

Georgia Simpson

The VWHPC has photos of their gymnasts up at Facebook.

You can also read about the WA girls (lovely pic!) in a new article here.

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!

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.

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.

2011 Worlds: Australia in Prelims

Ok, hit a slight snag setting up my ADSL modem *untangles self from cables* but the good news is I should having working internet at home by Wednesday evening. Which, happily, is right before prelims kick off!

Australia WAG: Subdivision 3, Friday October 7th. Starting on beam.
Australia MAG: Subdivision 7, Monday October 10th. Starting on p-bars.

Isle Have What They're Having

Best wishes to our competitors in the Commonwealth Youth Games in The Isle of Man...


Emma Nedov
Alexandra Eade
Madeline Leydin

You can follow the event and catch up on some related media at the official website here.

Going, Going, Ghent

Very best wishes to the Aussie MAG delegation competing at the Challenger Cup in Ghent, Belgium this weekend, Jayden Bull, Elliott Cook and Luke Wadsworth!

Jayden and Luke have been making their mark on the Aussie lineup since their inclusion in the Pacific Rim Championships last year.

Good luck, fellas!

Let's Hear It For The Boys

GA this week also announced our MAG squads and upcoming assignments. Congrats to the lads!

World Championship Squad:

Luke Wiwatowski - QAS

Sam Offord - SA

Prashanth Sellathurai - NSWIS

Luke Wadsworth - VHPC

Thomas Pichler - QAS

Josh Jefferis - QAS

Naoya Tsukahara - QAS

Sam Simpson - QAS

Michael Merceica - NSWIS

Sean O'Hara - SA

Philippe Rizzo - ACT

Jayden Bull - VHPC

Reserves:

Briece Newton - VHPC

Mitchell Morgans - NSWIS

Dion Pocklington - VIC

Junior Commonwealth Games Team:

Tyson Bull - VHPC

Kent Pieterse - VHPC

Declan Stacey - NSWIS

Coach: Leon Rachenko

Japan Junior Team:

Tyson Bull - VHPC

Coach: Leon Radchenko

Ghent Challenger Cup:

Luke Wadsworth - VHPC

Jayden Bull - VHPC

Sean O'Hara - SA

Elliott Cook - WA

Coaches: Greg Corsiglia

Coach/Judge: John Curtin

Open Levels Tour Team:

Level 7

Jack Norman - QLD

Matthew McKenna - SA

Joshua Meyer - QLD

Stephen Moulds - SA

Shoji Isomoto - Reserve - NSW

Level 8

Michael Tone - QLD

Dylan Sclumpf - QLD

Jordan Papandrea - NSW

Jay Pery - QLD

Zachariah Salameh - Reserve - NSW

Level 9

Michael Tonegato - NSW

Jack Doyle - NSW

Gerard Atzenl - QLD

Brendon Lee - QLD

Mark Rogers - Reserve - NSW

Officials

Niall O'Leary - QLD

Adrian Looney - QLD

Tricia O'Connell - NSW

Andrew Cordery - SA

Austrian Future Cup Team:

Scott Costin - QLD

Robert Thornton - QLD

Clay Stephens - SA

Lachlan Savill - QLD

Reserves:

Mitchell Jones - QLD

Zachary Perillo - VIC

William Sherwood - WA

Coach: Sean Wilson

Judge/Manager: Rohan Kennedy

Congratulations to all gymnasts, coaches and official for their selection to represent Australia.

Please see below the athletes who have been named on the National Squads for July 2011 - July 2012:

Senior National Squad:

Naoya Tsukahara QLD

Josh Jefferis QLD

Luke Wiwatowski QLD

Thomas Pichler QLD

Sam Offord SA

Luke Wadsworth VIC

Michael Mercieca NSW

Sean O'Hara SA

Jayden Bull VIC

Sam Simpson QLD

Briece Newton VIC

Prashanth Sellathurai NSW

Elliot Cook WA

Vincent Lam

Philippe Rizzo ACT

Kevin James VIC

Dion Pocklington

Mitchell Morgans

Junior National Squad:

Tyson Bull VIC

Declan Stacey NSW

Mitchell Jones QLD

Scott Costin QLD

Brody-Jai Hennessy QLD

Kent Pieterse VIC

Kristian Wan QLD

GA/Olympic Squad:

Prashanth Sellathura NSW

Naoya Tsukahara QLD

Josh Jefferis QLD

Luke Wiwatowski QLD

Thomas Pichler QLD

Sam Offord SA

Luke Wadsworth VIC

Michael Mercieca NSW

Sean O'Hara SA

Jayden Bull VIC

Sam Simpson QLD

Briece Newton VIC

Philippe Rizzo ACT

Tyson Bull VIC

Brody-Jai Hennessy QLD

Declan Stacey NSW

Kent Pieterse VIC

U16 National Squad:

Robert Thornton QLD

Lachlan Savill QLD

Zachary Perillo VIC

Corey Morton VIC

Christopher Remkes SA

Ben Congedi SA

Clay Stephens SA

James Bacueti ACT

Aden Messori QLD

Trenten Wan QLD

U14 National Squad:

Jackson Clarke QLD

Etienne Rousseau Forward QLD

William Sherwood WA

Justin Tan VIC

Joshua Di Nucci WA

Gabriel Swan NSW

Jack Riek QLD

Yari Marazzato WA

Rourke Jenkins QLD

Christopher Subasic QLD

Darren Fung NSW

Ethan Stethakis NSW

Matthew Richardson WA

Gabe O'Sullivan WA

Sean Forde WA

U12 National Squad:

Finaly Kroon NSW

Christopher Jenkinson QLD

Cassiel Rousseau Forward QLD

Jack Sweeney NSW

Max Mingay NSW

Andrew Sumner WA

Ben Leong NSW

Jack Miller QLD

Alec Traina NSW

Ryan Woodhouse WA

Maikolo Fekitoa NSW

Nathan Brophy WA

Elija Meegan WA

Harrison Jones WA

James Ciupac WA

Julien Horrocks NSW

Samuel Schukin QLD

Alex D'Cruz WA

Morgan Evans QLD

Brodie Chaffey QLD

Curtis Lindeman QLD

Travis Donaldson NSW

Oliver Dilnutt VIC

Whitiora Monaro NSW

Mitchell Repsevicius WA

Indigo Dragon QLD

Alexander Maratos VIC

Philip Koe-leong VIC

Kyle McCartney QLD

(Indigo Dragon!? AWESOME.)

2011 Japan Cup

Konnichiwa!


You can find some pre-competition media from Tokyo at Facebook or view the official event website here.

The Victorian Women's High Performance Centre have put up some great photos onto Facebook of the Aussie girls in and out of the training gym. Check it out!

I'll update anything as it comes to hand (if I'm near my phone or pc). WWGym and GGMB have updates and media coming thick and fast so it doesn't hurt to keep your eyes on those two as well.

If you'd like to view (or try and view!) a stream of the event, Ono No Komachi from WWGym suggests:

1) Download Keyhole TV http://www.v2p.jp/video/english/

2) Look for the characters for Fuji TV フジテレビ

**********************

Day 1: Australia finished 4th with 152.950 in the team competition, and scores went thusly:

Vault: Maryanne 12.100, Larrissa 13.200, Lauren 13.700
Bars: Georgia-Rose 11.150, Larrissa 13.700, Lauren 13.950
Beam: Maryanne 11.400, Ash 11.650, Lauren 13.750
Floor: Ash 11.850, Maryanne 12.650, Lauren 13.850


Day 2: Lauren Mitchell and Maryanne Monckton finished 4th and 5th respectively in the women's all around final. Both put in commendable performances, improving on their scores from the team event. Lauren had the top beam score of the day, outscoring 10 other competitors with a 14.150!

Here is Lauren's new floor routine! (Many thanks to Tenshiguy78 for taking the time to capture and upload from the stream)

Ja-Panorama

Very best wishes to the Aussie WAG team travelling to next weekend's Japan Cup -

Ashleigh Brennan
Georgia Rose Brown
Larrissa Miller
Lauren Mitchell
Maryanne Monckton


A quick "get well soon" shout-out to MAG strongman Josh Jefferis, who (I am told by someone at the event) was injured at this weekend's Queensland state championships. Hang in there, Josh!

If you have any news, reviews or observations from your state's gymnastics championships this month, please don't hesitate to share them!

Kudos and Catch-Up

This is a general "sorry I'm so late for mentioning these" post.

You can read a round-up of Australia's excellent results, and see some lovely competitor pics, from the recent Portugal International here.

You can check out videos of Aussies at the Pre-Olympic Youth Cup here. I have only seen snippets of Alex Eade's new floor routine in training, but the finished product should be fantastic. The day she busts out a double layout, as she has been seen dutifully training, I will be one excited Eade-gionnaire*!

Echoing Lauren Mitchell's World Cup Final win on beam in the 2008 World Cup final, Olympian Prashanth Sellathurai has been named FIG Overall World Cup Champion for pommel horse!

And yes, how awful of me, I am FIVE MONTHS LATE announcing the winners of the AGB Awards. How slack is that!? Exceptionally slack, I know. Call me Slacky McSlackenson why don't you. I will make a "here are the winners" post very soon, I promise.

Or my name isn't Slacky McSlackenson.


*working title for fans of Alex Eade. If you can think of a more hilarious one I'd very much like to hear it.

Doha Delights

Unfortunately, I didn't get to post this earlier today.

Good news out of the Doha Challenger Cup!

All members of the Aussie delegation have made apparatus finals at the competition- Ashleigh Brennan will contest beam and floor finals; Larrissa Miller will join her in the floor final and line up for the bars final.

Fresh from a first place pommel final qualification in Paris, Prashanth Sellathurai has qualified in first to the pommel final and sixth to rings.

You can see some photos of the team in action at Gymnastics Australia or at the Victorian Women's High Performance Centre page at Facebook.

Here's hoping all our Aussies equal (or better!) their rankings and bring home some hardware.

If you would like to see some videos from the recent Wild Rose Invitational, check out this YouTube channel. Katie Wurth's striking floor routine is of particular note.


Edit Friday: More good news out of Doha as apparatus finals play out - Congratulations Larrissa Miller for snaring a silver in the bars final behind Tan Sixin of China (5.9/13.450)!

And in news just to hand, Prashanth Sellathurai won pommel!

Edit Saturday: It keeps getting better and better - Ashleigh Brennan adds to Australia's tally with a silver on beam (13.800, a few wobbles but stayed on) and a silver on floor (5.3/13.300)!!!

Larrissa Miller unfortunately couldn't quite keep up in the floor final and suffered a fall on her double arabian (12.150)

Thanks to Wen Shuli for finding this photo of the bars medallists:



You can see Larrissa's silver-medal bars routine in the video below (02:53 in). Check the nailed dismount!

Rose Pink

Lovely pic from the VWHPC Facebook page of Team Australia at the Wild Rose Invitational.

"Like" the page to see more from the event, as well as photos from our Doha World Cup delegation. (I'd like to amend my post titled "The International" to indicate that Larrissa Miller of Queensland is also competing in Doha.)

A hearty congratulations goes out to Emily Little for winning a silver medal in the beam final! Onya Em!

The International

Team Australia are certainly clocking up the frequent flyer miles this quarter! Ashleigh Brennan and Prashanth Sellathurai will travel to the Doha World Cup to compete on their pet events, March 30-April 1. Prior to the competition, Prash is spending some time training at the Waveney Gymnastics Club in the UK. This weekend (this one! Right now! That we're in!) sees Britt Greeley, Tierra Exum, Georgia Rose Brown, Emily Little and Katie Wurth to compete at the Wild Rose International in Canada. You can follow live scores here . I am told there is very limited access to the live webstream so apologies if you are encountering problems.

Alive and Kicking

Sorry for the scare, everyone, I am still here! Battling a nasty cold but still here! I am still without a working laptop and, in response to someone's suggestion, am nowhere near an internet cafe. A solution is only a couple of days away though, so until then I am making do with alternating between my phone and our slow old PC. I'm as frustrated as you all are but appreciate your patience. So here's a quick catch-up. 1. Cottbus Cup: We were represented in Germany by Rotterdam team members Ashleigh Brennan and Larrissa Miller. Ash managed a commendable 7th in the floor final, Larrissa finished 8th in bars qualification to unfortunately miss out on that final. 2. Paris-Bercy World Cup: Lauren Mitchell and Prashanth Sellathurai are currently flying the flag for Australia. Qualification has proved to be a bumpy ride, with errors for Mitchell on bars, beam and on her new floor tumble - whip immediate double Arabian. Her best result was a 4th place qualification for the beam final. Prashanth is having more luck, blitzing pommel qualification with 7.0 difficulty and 9.000 execution according to IG. Wowzers! See a report from IG and scores from the qualification round here. The Gym Examiner has an on-the-scene report and videos from podium training and the qualification here. French Youtubers are dutifully putting videos up here. ETA: Rough outings for both Mitchell and Sellathurai in their finals. Lauren suffered a fall on her 2-foot layout to finish 4th on beam. Prashanth also had a fall from pommel though the crowd got behind him to finish. Both finished in 4th place. 3. Gymnix International: Another mixed bag of results for our budding superstars after their duel with Great Britain. Several of our delegation made finals, but only one held on for some hardware- Nikki Chung showed a masterful beam routine that scored her bronze in the final. Onya Nikki! I certainly hope to see Georgia Wheeler's new double layout bars dismount in action at national events! You can see videos of Team Australia at the event here. Results are on the competition page. 4. Pac-10 Championships: It was an all-Aussie affair today with adopted homes Stanford and OSU competing alongside a handful of other schools in one of the biggest meets on the road to the NCAA gymnastics championships. The PHENOMENAL news out of the event is that Perth's own Olivia Vivian has clawed back her #1 national bars ranking, scoring a 9.9 to tie for first place on the event and, in the process, help Oregon State to the team title. And she scored a second place on beam with a 9.9! A #1 NCAA ranking and Pac-10 title is the first for an Australian gymnast within the NCAA program. I hope to have my videos from the VWHPC open day up within the next fortnight. The event's official photographer has some lovely photos up here. Coming up next in their gym is the Senior Invitational on April 9. Sorry (again) for the delays. Drop me a line at ozgymblog@gmail.com to raise any issues you might have.

On the March

Exciting things are happening for Aussie WAGs in March as competition season heats up.


March 5: Lauren Mitchell at American Cup (Jacksonville, USA)
March 5-6: Monckton, Lorenzin, McGrath, Wheeler, Chung at Australia vs Great Britain Challenge (Manchester, UK)
March 11-13: Monckton, Lorenzin, McGrath, Wheeler, Chung at Gymnix (Montreal, Canada)
March 19-20: Mitchell at Paris World Cup (Paris, France)

With more international assignments still to be announced!

"Autographs? ... Better get used to this!"