Guess Who's Coming to National Clubs?

Hint: It starts with a "J" and ends in "A Pan".


That's right!

Word is that a Japanese delegation will be headed to Oz again to take on senior and junior WAG teams at the National Clubs championships, our first big event after Worlds, which this year will incorporate an international team 'duel' component. This competition will be very significant in regard to future national squad and international team selections.


Konichiwa, visitors!

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You might also be interested to know that the senior and junior WAG profile pages at the GA website have been updated with new pictures!

Worlds Team Trial Countdown 2

Alternatively titled: "Eeeeeeeeeeeee!!! *clapclapclapclapclapclap*

I am completely scrunching up my face and emitting small yips with excitement. There is something about THIS world championships and THIS potential team that has me thrilled rather than nervous like selections past. Don't ask me why. I just feel like the right decisions will be made for the right reasons and we have some big opportunities this year...


Oh all right, I'll cut to the chase and give you some goss.

This came today from a source:

"Larissa won bars first day of comp with 14.1, she had an extra kip handstand in there, so that's about.5 deduction.
Amber was only trialling beam and had a fall.
The judges are being much tougher as at nationals they were 'apparently' too nice and were not giving the gymnasts realistic international expectations."

OMFG YOU GUYS.

SHIZZ BE GOIN' DOWN IN CANBERRA! SRSLY. ALERT THE MASSES AND UPDATE UR TWITTERS, STAT!!!

I am hoping the team is named by 9 tomorrow as I am having another adjustment to these damned braces of mine. I will do my best to inform you as soon as I can though I will certainly not be miffed if someone finds out and breaks the news. Please ensure, however, that you are using reputable sources when doing so. I do get miffed when people post speculation as 'official' news.

Anyway.

Here is my loud and semi-inspirational Getting Excited for the Team-Naming and What Will Happen With the Namees in London Thereafter playlist that you might be interested in.

* Queen: "Don't Stop Me Now"
* Pulp: "Mis-Shapes"
* Bluejuice "Vitriol"
* Edith Piaf: "Non Je Ne Regrette Rien"
* Jebediah: "Fall Down"
* The Cat Empire: "Chariot"

Hey, I never said my tastes were straightforward... ;)


ETA sometime later: Lauren Mitchell debuted a Baitova (Yurchenko double) at the trial.


Lauren.

A motherflippin'.

BAITOVA.

Lauren.


Sitting her in first place over the two days' trialling AND bringing the Australian double Yurchenko count up to four: Mitchell, Morgan, Dennis and Joura. Holy amazing vault line-up, Batman!

Ch-ch-ch-changes.

They must be handing out free kittens or something at Moreton Bay College.

Amaya King-Koi has now made the move to the centre, and begun training under Chloe Sims' old coaches. This means MBC now boasts four national team members in Bambi, King-Koi, Larissa Miller and Georgia-Rose Brown (the latter two are pictured below).

Speaking of Bambi, it is believed her recent leg injury is actually a sustained hip injury. No confirmation on this yet (but it's pretty crap news either way!)

It's The Little Things

The women's Olympic squad is now in Canberra, undertaking their last training session together before the final team of six is named. Stay tuned, Wally Watchers!

I'm glad GA make technical bulletins and other administrative things open to the public. It is always interesting to read what goes on behind the competitions and what those off the floor think about what goes on.

Tidbits from Nationals 2008:

1. The "My Heroes" autograph session on the Friday night ran too late. Some gymnasts got 'home' well after midnight, no thanks to compulsory drug testing sessions that also happened once the competition was over!
2. Apparently judges at the competition don't get a great deal of audio-visual reference material after the event. Not all state programs were able to get access to filmed routines that were on show for their judges. Not enough filmers and not enough DVD's to go around. It was recommended by the technical committee they use "U-tube" [sic] for the time being. I don't like to snicker, but... *snickers quietly* Back on topic, did they not SEE myself and three friends video-ing next to eachother in the one row of seats? We'll work for free if they're that desperate!
3. With regards to National Levels Challenges, New Zealand, Japan and the USA have expressed interest in competing against our girls (thus making the events more of a 'challenge' as it were).
4. From 2009 onwards, the annual Carol Sussman award for floor artistry (won in the past by the lovely likes of Dasha Joura, Monique Blount and Nicole Alexander) will only be awarded to a National Levels gymnast.


And on a personal note - our girls deserve 'ticker tape' at their medal ceremonies and team announcements, just like the US girlies get!

If Only I Could Hire a Freelance Team...

Message boards are wonderful things. Thanks to regulars at GGMB and the Aussie Board who are always in-the-know (and who I really wish I could pay for their services or summat!), the following information has come to light:

1. At the very recent WA State Championships, Lauren Mitchell beat(!) Dasha Joura to the all-around title. Dasha scored a PB on floor and vault, she DID do the double layout but is back to a Yurchenko double on vault as far as I understand. Lauren has reportedly upgraded to a Yurchenko 1.5 (at last). Dasha's little sis Natalia won the International Level 10 division. Read all about it here where you can also find a link to photos and video interviews.

2. Chloe Sims' depature is allegedly due to her last-place finishes at the last few verification events at training camp. Again, full details are pending.

3. TEAMHURTYWATCH!: The intense training camp in Canberra was missed by one Miss Kerby Purcell who was nursing a knee injury. Dasha Joura came out of the camp experiencing muscle tightness (see wrap in picture from State Championships). Hopefully these will dissipate by Nationals.

4. Dasha will get a new floor routine after the Olympic Games.

Short and Sweet

Aaargh.
Tests and exams bring out the stressiest, on-edgiest, please-don't-let-me-die-or-worse-circle-A-instead-of-C side of me. Particularly when they're first thing in the morning.

So in a total brain meltdown moments ago, I flicked off my lecture notes and cruised around YouTube, discovering this. Sadly, the sound on this computer doesn't work so I'm assuming any narration is the stuff written in the "Info" bit. It's all footage from the Beijing Test Event. Enjoy!

And for those of you who like YouTube (who doesn't?), you can now watch the news report on the Waverley girls.

Less than two weeks until Nationals, people. I smile every time my train goes past Vodafone Arena.

Hugs Not Drugs

Gossip from Olympic squad training camp comes in the form of Olivia Vivian's latest blog entry. It's nice to know that the top gymnasts in the country are just one big, happy, cramped, diet-monitoring, pee-watching family.

When I made the state Sport Aerobics team some years ago (now there's a sentence you don't see on every CV), we trained for two days at the Victorian High Performance Centre. We had an ASADA official come and talk to us about the dangers of doping. Because... y'know... some of the kids there were aged seven and eight. I mean phwoar, if they're not the ones coked up to the eyeballs come Nationals time, then I'll be a monkey's uncle. They couldn't even spell "antibiotic" let alone administer it themselves.

Anyway. I couldn't take the whole thing seriously because
a) of the above point. Little kids? In trackies and sparkly scrunchies? Doping? I think not good sir (though you can never put it past stage mothers...)
b) The ASADA guy kept saying "ping".

"You take a cold and flu tablet? They'll ping ya for that."
"Try and use a masking agent? They'll ping you for that."
"Skip a urine test? They'll ping you for that."
"Take an energy supplement the day before? Oh, they'll ping you for that."

The poor kids in the junior divisions didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Thankfully the AIS and GA folk are getting the squad used to drug testing procedures now. They're not pleasant but at least the athletes won't freak out halfway through their Olympic competition when they go for their first drug tests after team qualifications.

And on another note - if Miss Joura gets team captain then I hereby nominate Olivia as Team Morale Officer. What a champ. I do love her personality even if I haven't always loved her gymnastics.

ETA - Dasha's new column is up with more insight from camp. When I last read about those distraction tapes, apparently they also had sounds of burps and glass smashes. If anyone burped out loud during a gymnastics competition and I was anywhere in the vicinity, I'd take them outside the venue and smack them sideways. Table manners go beyond the table, people.

Reasons to be Cheerful

Ok, so we were all a bit down after the news of Dykes' departure. Well, the past 24 hours have brought some good tidings (though not particularly ones worthy of a choir and red pompom hat).

1. It was quite literally a matter of good timing. Last night in a fit of boredom I flicked onto the cable sports channel Fox Sports News. Which, to explain for any international readers, is...well, exactly what it says it is. A 24-hour sports news channel owned by the Foxtel (cable provider) network. Anyway, here endeth the extraneous information. I instantly had to chuck a video into the VCR as they began to talk about gymnastics (FSN as of late highlights football, cricket, rugby, cricket, cricket, golf, cricket, basketball, cricket)! It was a profile piece on the WAIS girls, namely Dasha and Lauren with some insight from their coach Martine George (who *really* deserves to take the reins from La Liddick for a day, she has a much better rapport with the athletes in my opinion). We saw them training on floor and beam respectively. Both were quite articulate in front of the camera, talking about their experiences at the Beijing Test Event, which they took back to share with their team-mates at training camp, and their expectations for the Games themselves. Dasha is rocking a cute little Betty-Boop style haircut and Lauren has braces (I feel your pain, little Loz!). Miss D talked about working with Adriana Pop, whom she liked very much, and thinks it must be reciprocated because "I can do my [floor] routine ... kinda okay!" with a modest laugh. Lauren did some acro skills on beam. No new ones, but she was sticking her punch front somi and two-footed-front-aerial-to-front-somi cold. Martine highlighted their World rankings and medal chances. We saw them also do a few tumbling drills on the tumbling strip and Dasha stood up a double layout. A DOUBLE LAYOUT, PEOPLE. How freaking awesome for her, hope she keeps working at it and puts it into her floor routine eventually. A couple of months ago we heard she was working on a whip-triple twist, so that's looking like some fantastic upgrading!

2. Sydney Olympics team member and 2002 Commonwealth Games medallist Alexandra Croak is looking to crack into the 'shadow' national diving squad from which the Beijing team will be named. Alex has already become the first ever Australian (male OR female) to medal at two consecutive Commonwealth Games in different sports (Gold with team and silver on vault in Manchester 2002; Silver with synchro partner Melissa Wu in Melbourne 2006). Good luck to them and all the divers this year.

Alex and Melissa: Synch or Swim in Beijing?

3. My tiny little blog is getting a tiny little following. *appwause* Thanks to people who have been giving me feedback, it is most helpful and above all: encouraging. You're the people I'm doing this for!

4. Melbourne got some rain today, albeit just a short shower! Two straight days of 40+ (celcius, up to 47 in parts of WA!) is just a leeetle bit exhausting.

Photos courtesy of Nade and Fairfax Media

*Insert Expletive Here*

Hollie Dykes has retired. Good on the Courier Mail for typing her name wrong in the headline, though, the silly duffers. That's going in her scrapbook, y'know. Liddick's attitude? Don't get me started. Real sour grapes, no "goodbye and good luck".

There was talk Hollie had taken time off for injury (one of many we've come to hear her fall victim to). Talk she was just moving back to the Queensland Academy of Sport after being on-and-off with injury and light training since 2006 (AIS is more and more proving to stand for Athletes Injured Serially. Why there more than any other state training centre?) and talk she really had thrown in the towel. Now we know.

I really, really, REALLY hope she gets struck by some divine inspiration and opts to return because despite all the flack she got for being inconsistent, she was a beautiful gymnast to watch. Dainty and balletic and precise, she was such a unique competitor and a medal prospect for Beijing... she was capable of 16 and above when she hit and to see her, Liukin and the likes of Li ShanShan duke it out in the final at the Games would have been fantastic, and whoever won gold would have done so justifiably - truly beautiful gymnasts are few and far between in these days of the new scoring code.

If the decision is final in Ms. Dykes' eyes, then I wish her the very best of luck in whatever she pursues. We, the fans, will miss her a lot.

Hollie Johnston Dykes

* Member of 2006/07 World Championship teams (7th all-around in the former)

* Gold on beam, 2007 Australia vs China

* Silver on beam, 2007 National Championships

* Gold on beam, 2006 DTB World Cup

* Gold with team and on floor. Silver on beam. Bronze all-around (qualified in 1st place), 2006 Commonwealth Games

* Bronze all-around, 2006 Pacific Alliance Championships

Peace Out.

Happy Birthday to my brother Matt who turned 24 today! :D