Jonesin' for a Win

Australia is yet to have a gymnast score coveted silverware at an NCAA National Championship but we must absolutely applaud Melanie Jones for her efforts over the weekend.

Now in her third year at Oregon State University, Mel made it to the floor final (her first ever apparatus final at a collegiate nationals) in front of a parochial Georgia crowd. She displayed a stunning routine which you can watch below, scoring a 9.925 for equal 4th place. The amazing thing is, verdict among fans and spectators was that not only was it a great routine, it deserved first place! It's not every day you have an overseas audience clamouring for one of your own. Buuuuuuuut you can't fight the system, and she got a nifty trophy out of it anyway (not to mention the acclaim of the crowd).


Onya, Jonesy!

"Mel did a fabulous job, I'm really proud of her," head coach Tanya Chaplin said. "She's done a wonderful job for us this season and put in a lot of hard work and it is great to see that pay dividends today."

Camp As

The Victorian Women's High Performance Centre is putting up photos from camp at their Facebook page! Hurrah!

Happy Olympic Year!

*balloons and party horns*

Hullo again, friends! 'Tis 2012, and what a year it is shaping up to be!

The big BIG event to kick off the year is the London Olympic Test Event at the 02 Arena.

Fulltwist has a comprehensive post featuring the competition details here. Best of luck to our Aussie gymnasts in all disciplines attending the event!




Update: Follow the event's proceedings at Twitter with the hashtag #FIGTest12

2011 Worlds: NEWS!

You might be interested to learn that I passed.


Also?

Floor final? Mitchell in, Bulimar out!?




OMG YOU GUYS

OH

TO THE EMMEST

OF GEE'S


Here's her stellar floor from the all-around. The top score on floor for the entire competition so far, I hear!

Certainly hope she can repeat this kind of performance on the night.




A lovely interview with Lauren post-aa can be found here.

AUSTRALIA IS GOING TO THE LONDON OLYMPICS

LET'S PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!

GA posted the following pic of the team upon learning the news...

AUTOMATIC TOKYO TEAM FINALLISTS
AND LONDON 2012 OLYMPIANS
AFTER 10 ROUNDS OF PRELIMS...

1. USA 234.253
2. Russia 231.062
3. China 230.370
4. Romania 227.228
5. Japan 223.543
6. Australia 221.846
7. Germany 221.163
8. Great Britain 220.553

Lauren Mitchell and Emily Little will contest the all-around final

Lauren is first reserve for the floor final


There is a nifty photo gallery featuring the purple Aussies here.

2011 World Championships Preamble

Our thoughts and good wishes go with the Aussie teams departing for Tokyo today.

So here's where AGB starts cranking into overdrive. Caffeinated beverages and aviator hat at the ready! There are a number of ways to follow the team's progress, so I hope you have a pen handy...


1. Right here. Or at my Twitter account. I'll be updating as time and resources permit, and welcome your contributions in the comments. That said, I will be firmly moderating discussions, so be advised that your inappropriate comment may be deleted. I can't stress this enough: I'm all for open-mindedness, but if you wish to use colourful or discriminatory language, or have something not backed up by an official gymnastics source, please PLEASE take it elsewhere. Having to break up fights really brings down the tone of the site.

I hope to have the kind of as-it-happens excitement we had during the last two World Championships. It was fun, and it was great to see so many supporters of Aussie gym showing their spirit. Here's hoping we get the kind of results to cheer and type in capitals about!


2. Gymnastics Australia who will be working their hardest to outdo the likes of British Gymnastics with frequent social media updates (jussayin'. GB are a hard act to follow!) so check out
- Their homepage
- Their Twitter
- Their Facebook page


3. Officials and On-The-Scene
- OFFICIAL Tokyo 2011 Event Page
- OFFICIAL FIG Tokyo Event Page
- International Gymnast (usually updates live)
- FIG
- Gymnastike
- The All Around (usually updates live)
- VWHPC Facebook Page


4. Blogosphere
- The Couch Gymnast
- The Gymnastics Examiner (usually updates live)
- Full Twist
- Universal Sports


Got all that? Great! I hope you'll be having 200 tabs open at any one time, like me!

Now, with regard to livestreaming sources, we can consider any of the following sites dutifully suggested by other gymfans:

Sportv: http://www.zuumptv.com/2010/06/sportv.html
Sportv 2: http://www.zuumptv.com/2010/06/sportv2.html
CCTV5: http://english.cntv.cn/live/
or anywhere that can give us a non-geoblocked BBC or Universal Sports stream... but I'll keep you posted.


Just to get you that bit more excited, here's a thing.

Annus Olympicus

Best wishes to all our gymsporters preparing for London 2012.

You can see the Australian Olympic Team's official site here.

ONE YEAR TO GO!!!

Not A Shonky Builder in Sight

Thanks to the Anon for the heads-up and then GA for confirming:

The WAIS program will be having a large story covered on Channel 7's Today Tonight on Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th July, 2011.

This will be viewed on Perth's program and follow the intense training that all gymnasts go through in the WAIS program and what it takes to become a World Champion like Lauren Mitchell.

Champ Changes Gear

Oooh-err!

Tucked at the bottom of the page in today's Herald Sun sport section is an update on Lauren Mitchell!



Read the full article here.

During the week she finished working with world-renowned gymnastics choreographer Adriana Pop, who designed a program aimed at first defending the West Australian's title before chasing gold in London.


"I needed a new floor, because the world champion can't go back to the world championships with the same routine," Mitchell said.


"Peggy opted for some really different music and when I heard it, I thought, 'Wow, I don't know if I like it', but we got Adriana down here and she's come up with some really cool stuff.

Mitchell intends to launch her new routine at the Japan Cup at the start of next month.

"I needed something that would stand out and Peggy said, "You have to shift sideways and then go up a level"*, and I think this routine achieves that," she said. "Hopefully it's up there. I think definitely the dance has got the potential (for an Olympic gold medal), I just have to add the tumbles in now."

*Wait, whaaaaat?



Edit: GA have given us more info about the exciting new routine!

Awwwww!

Is it cold where you are?

Here's something adorable (and somewhat blink-and-you'd-have-missed-it) from about three weeks ago to warm your heart:

A name from the list of Sydney Morning Herald's "Team of the Week"...

Luke Wiwatowski. Last year in India, Australia won their first Commonwealth Games gymnastic gold medal, courtesy of this young gymnast. Last Saturday night he donated it to the Castle Hill RSL as thanks for the club's support of his career since he was eight years old.

I bet he loves his mum, too.

Shameless Self-Promotion is Shameless

Yes, that's me.

The article entitled "You Make Me Wanna Shout!" in the latest edition of International Gymnast.

Please form an orderly line for autographs behind these small starry-eyed children.

Zeitgeist or Something

If it hasn't aired in your state yet, make sure you catch tonight's episode of sports quiz show The Trophy Room on ABC1 because Lauren Mitchell gets mentioned as a clue!

But not just mentioned... pictured, discussed and praised by the panellists!

Breaking: The Thing What I Done Wrote And That

Yours truly will be published in the March 2011 edition of International Gymnast magazine!

It is a piece entitled "You Make Me Wanna Shout" and is all about far-flung NCAA gymnastics fans. I'm not photogenic so disregard the accompanying headshot when you see it. Or, y'know, use it as a teeny weeny dartboard, whatever works.

Oh, and speaking of IG, Lauren Mitchell stars on the cover of the Jan/Feb 2011 edition! She appears in a feature article, alongside an interview with national coach Peggy Liddick.

(Left: Cover. Right: Contents)

International Gymnast: The Fantastic Person's Magazine of Choice!

Also...

HAPPY BELATED 3rd BIRTHDAY
TO THE AUSTRALIAN GYMNASTICS BLOG!

Thanks one and all for your support and contributions.

THE POWER OF LOZ 2

For those of you who missed the medal ceremony, skip to the end of this video...




(I think it's interesting that they used a version of the anthem that included lyrics rather than an instrumental)

And here is her 'homecoming' (along with Emily and Georgia's, of course) as shown on Nine News:




It also features here at FoxSportsNews (includes extended video).

Print press coverage here and here.

"Maybe a few more people will recognise me around and about but my life's still going to be the same.

"I guess I didn't get the whole extremity of everything because I was away (from Australia when I won the gold medal) and I think everyone back here got the full force of it.

"And so coming back on the end of it, everyone's like 'oh my god!', and I'm like 'what?'"

Get used to it, sister-girlfriend. That medal's going to take you places!


As her journey ends, so does my coverage of Delhi and Rotterdam.

Thanks everyone for logging on, dropping in, stopping by and popping past. It's been the best fun I've had in a long time, and I know it'll take a longer time to wipe this huge grin off my face.

Additional thanks to every single source on the scene at both big competitions for taking the time to capture Aussie gymnasts in action. We appreciate all the information you have shared and the effort you went to in order to share it.

What an amazing month of gymnastics for Australia!

Glad to have been one small part of it.

THE POWER OF LOZ

What a day, my friends, what a day! All hail THE POWER OF LOZ!

(I WILL NEVER NOT POST THIS:)




I'm told that up in WA, Lauren is the first item in many radio and television sports segments. She also got a double page spread in MX today, yahoo! I am also told she featured heavily on Melbourne radio today (especially evening sports programs), everyone's regarding her as an inspirational story worth telling!

(One thing I've forgotten in all this is to give a shout-out to Stacey Umeh - choreographer of the 2010 WORLD'S NUMBER ONE FLOOR ROUTINE!!!)

JumpMedia have uploaded news segments featuring Lauren from ABC and Nine.

Relive the golden moment again (and again and again) thanks to Mariane:





Lauren's post-meet interiew is shown from a slightly different angle here (with a very cute start).


How has THE POWER OF LOZ helped you today?

Has she been a conversation starter? A bond-builder? A smile-bringer? She was certainly a conversation starter for me at work today, several people who remembered I follow gymnastics asked me what I thought of the news!

Here is my soundtrack for the day:

* Loz Will Bring Us Together
* Baby Loz
* Stop! In The Name of Loz
* Everlasting Loz
* All You Need is Loz
* No Other Loz
* Crazy Little Thing Called Loz
* It Must Have Been Loz
* Best of My Loz
* Loz is a Many Splendoured Thing
* Hot Loz

Awesome article in The Age here. It's by Greg Baum who did the profile on Lauren after last year's Worlds.

''I wanted to prove on the floor that I belonged in the top three,'' she said. ''I wanted to prove to the judges that Australia is up there with the world.''

As a rule, gymnasts don't trash nightclubs to celebrate. Mitchell said she and her teammates had resolved beforehand to watch the horror movie Saw, and ''pull an all-nighter''. ''We didn't last!'' she said.

Gymnastics Australia has a full wrap-up of Lauren press as well as additional quotes. Here's hoping her homecoming makes the news, too!


If you see a small letter in the Herald Sun this week by "Michelle of Nunawading"... let me just say you all know her VERY VERY VERY WELL. *shifty eyes*

Rotterdam 2010: Apparatus Finals Day 2 Wrap-Up

What's to wrap up? Except WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!




(Mark Baretta gave her a Twitter shout-out. I responded (along the lines of "I was one of many up late watching her, she is an inspiration!") so here's hoping my message makes the telly if they mention her again.





We shall have to shift Lauren Mitchell Day, methinks!

Lauren's reaction here as well as here.

The best moment for her? "It's pretty amazing seeing the Australian flag being risen," she said. On Peggy Liddick: "She's been an amazing coach throughout my whole campaign," Mitchell enthused. "She's been great support. Everyone's been fantastic."

Media here and here and here plus Couch Gymnast's on-the-scene coverage here.

"I think I nearly started crying. It didn't feel like my routine was so good but obviously it was. It's kind of surreal at the moment.

"I've been pushing and pushing and pushing and finally I've got it!"

Thanks to Gymnastike, here is Lauren's routine:





And (hankies at the ready, SHE GETS APPLAUDED AS SHE WALKS IN!) here is Lauren's interview with Gymnastike afterwards:

Visit gymnastike.org for more Videos

"I really need to think of a new word other than amazing, no it’s fantastic! Coming from the beginning of the year and not competing at any events until the Commonwealth Games, it is a fantastic feeling."

LOZ YOU'RE AMAZING AND FANTASTIC AND WE LOVE YOU!

AND YEAH. PRETTY DAMN 'GROUSE', NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT.

If you see Lauren in the news today, drop me a line!

Rotterdam 2010: Apparatus Finals Day 2 LIVE!

Best of luck to Lauren.

Quick Hits: Gymnastics Examiner or the twitters listed below
Facebook: International Gymnast or Brigid Couch Gymnast McCarthy
Twitter: Ozgymblog, Gymnastike, IntlGymnast

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

Am having difficulty finding a feed but will update you when I do.

Apparently Lauren's warm-ups are looking good, she appears to be working extremely hard (especially on her beam series). Live updates from the arena are coming from The Gymnastics Examiner, see the link above.

Best shot so far is the ten-minutes delayed Georgian television feed here: http://tvali.ge/index.php?action=sat&channel=70955

Do I hear any advance on Georgian television?

11:29 looks like the men's vault final is over, bring on the women!



BB: Loz up after Sacramone. 11:33 AEDST They've marched in!
11:39 Right. Here goes. Reports say: SHE HIT THE LAYOUT!

Mitchell (AUS) : her mount, flic – flic – layout to 2 feet, split – wolf jump, 3/1 cossak turn, switch leap ½ (wobble) – back tuck, free aerial – switch leap – front somi, switch ring leap (step), ff – ff – double pike off (hop fwd).

"A huge smile and a little skip as she leaves the podium" = Awwww!

D: 6.6; E: 8.600; 15.200 into first place for now!


EDIT: After some very strong performances, Lauren finishes outside of the medals in 4th place. Her 15.200 was a fantastic score (her best of the competition I believe?) and proof she can hit when it counts. Onya Loz! Good luck for floor.

Veetle feed is up! Currently doing a beam wrap-up (on slight delay I think). I think it's the BBC feed!

http://www.veetle.com/index.php/channel/view#4caf5326c8e9a great quality footage and information from Tweddle/Smith on each event.


FX: Up last, hope she can control her nerves. It has been a HUGE three weeks for her.

24:55 AEDST they've marched in but we're not seeing the intros. Beth gives a shout-out to Lauren as a medal chance.

Loz in the crimson/black 2009 Worlds prelim leo. Here goes...

HITS the arabiab stag! Big hope back on piked full in wolf turn a tad messy AWESOME 2.5 to layout. Hops back on double pike but WOWZERS great job.

Waves to the team she can hear in the stands.

And...

and...


14.833

LAUREN WINS SHE IS OUR WORLD FLOOR CHAMPION WOOOOOO COACHES THRILLED PEGGY CRYING MY HEART IS THUMPING

SMILES EVERYWHERE I SIMPLY CAN'T BELIEVE IT

LAUREN MITCHELL IS AUSTRALIA'S FIRST FEMALE WORLD CHAMPION

OUR MOST SUCCESSFUL EVER

I AM SHAKING!!!


LOZZY LOZZY LOZZY OI OI OI

BBC are doing talking heads over the medal ceremony but you can hear the crowd go NUTS for her in the background as she is announced!

Ah, they cut to the dais as the anthem starts - Julie Anthony methinks!

Peggy singing and BAWLING, Lauren sparkly-eyed

We see the Aussie team (guys and girls) in the stands going nuts

aaaaand my feed cut out.

Delhi/Rotterdam 2010: Awesome Source

Hulloooo! It's a simply wonderful Wednesday because I'm up to my ears in awesome news!

1. A hearty congratulations to Team Australia who won an historic gold medal last night in the rhythmic teams event. This marked the first time we've scored team gold in rhythmic at a Commonwealth Games, and thus all the gymnastics disciplines in the one Games. Wowzers! Hopefully it's the start of something big.

"We've not ever won any more than bronze in the teams - we've always been pipped by Canada and Malaysia constantly. Now we've finally come up," [coach Danielle] LeRay said. "We have a really consistently strong team now, not just one member being strong like we've had in the past."

Usually when your mobile phone starts beeping uncontrollably when you're a long way from home, you can bet it's bad news.

For Australia's rhythmic gymnastics coach Danielle LeRay and her charges Naazmi Johnston, Janine Murray and Danielle Prince, it wasn't.

It was good news. Very good news...

2. WAG podium training pics from Rotterdam via The Couch Gymnast (click for larger).










You can follow Rotterdam updates (reports and pics) via Gymnastics Australia here.

GA also have some lovely pics (many from Couchy herself) up here as well.

There is a podium training report featuring Australia's subdivision on the official Rotterdam website here.

"Emily Little, Australia’s upcoming star, also trained brilliantly, performing solid, hit routines repeatedly and performing high, clean double-twisting Yurchenkos on vault. Georgia Simpson, an elegant gymnast who possesses a natural gift for dance, soon became the many photographers in the arena’s darling with her exquisite execution. It looked almost as though she had been watching some YouTube videos of Nastia Liukin! She even had the flick of the ponytail and the stare down to a tee!"

GymGirl84, dutifully posting updates at GGMB, provided the following snippets from podium training (unfortunately she didn't ID too any names beside Mitchell so I'm filling in the blanks from what I know of the girls' routines!):


VT: Mitchell, Little each did their Baitova. Two other gymnasts (unnamed) competed a tsuk full and a piked front respectively (my guess is Brennan and Wheeler)


UB: Lauren caught her jaeger a little close, but stuck her double front dismount.
Wheeler shaposhnikova, high tkatchev, double pike dismount
Bonora Comaneci, overshoot, dead hang getting to high bar, fell on her double front
Little jaeger, shoot to low back up to high, toe on full, double layout


BB: Mitchell ff-ff LO; jumps, does not get her double spin in sitting position around; free walkover-split jump-front tuck; switch ringleap; low double pike, second time her turn was all the way around. Still low double pike, but the rest is solid as rock.

Wheeler full turn sitting position; front tuck; ff-back tuck; side somi; full turn not complete; ff-ff layout, seemed to put her foot wrong and did only a layout.

Bonora split-back tuck; free walkover combo to LOSO; nice onodi, side somi; free cartweel; yang bo; full turn; double pike. Later again split, wolf, back tuck; free walkover combo to LOSO; free cartweel; onodi-side somi; switch ring; double pike.

Simpson Nice start at side, split on the beam; full turn leg horizontal; wobble at front tuck; split-wolf; breaks free walkover to LOSO combo; repeats, is good. Split jump-pike back, free cartweel, long pause before dismount: ff-ff double tuck. Knees together, fought for landing but had to take a step.


FX:

1. Bonora double tuck; double twist; triple spin; 1,5-full; free walkover; double pike
2. Little? Full in; double tuck; could not follow the rest because of a phonecall
3. Brennan Full in; straight somi to front full; double tuck.
4. Miller Falls out of triple spin; double twist front fall; high stuck double pike; 2,5 twist
5. Mitchell double arabian OOB; piked full in; 2,5 turn in sitting position; double pike.
6. Wheeler double arabian to sit; double tuck; full turn in sitting position; front full, front; split jump; double pike
"7th girl I did not watch, but she performed".


Please please PLEASE don't use these notes as reason to start a "They're too tired for this!/So-and-so was a poor choice!/I bet so-and-so-gets-dropped!/Our results are going to suck monkeys!" muck-fling. Comments are moderated.

Delhi 2010: Day 1 Wrap-Up

What can we say?


Maybe I should leave it to the team's 'old boy', Josh Jefferis -

"We’re absolutely ecstatic, Melbourne in ‘06 we knew we had the potential to win that one and it was very disappointing and we wanted it so bad here now," he said.

"Now we’ve rewritten history, we’re the first Australian men’s team to win gold and it’s an amazing feeling to do it with such a great group of guys as well."

Or maybe National Champ Sam Offord?

"It was an amazing team effort... We have had a blast, and winning this gold was brilliant."

Read the fantastic news as it broke here.

Leave a comment here.

See pictures here.

Read and hear post-competition thoughts here, as well as here.

Read the news as it broke in England here.

Read scores, qualification ranks and more quotes here.

Stuff you might have missed at the end - Josh got a huge hug from Prashanth as he left the podium after rings. The boys got in a huddle and did an "Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi". As the final results came in, the boys posed for photos off to the side of the podium (see first photo above). They waved their sign-holder chaperone girls over to get in the shot too! Sam waved at the camera and rattled off a quick list of "thank yous".


The boys were interviewed on Channel Ten's "Good Morning Delhi" earlier this morning (medals and scarves on, very chuffed), it was followed up by an interview with Phil Rizzo who watched the competition in front of Ten's cameras. He certainly didn't indicate he'd be stepping away from the sport just yet.


Top 10 All-Around qualifiers:

1. Joshua Jefferis (AUS) 85.350
2. Reiss Beckford (ENG) 84.550
3. Luke Folwell (ENG) 84.350
4. Samuel Offord (AUS) 84.300


5. Max Whitlock (ENG) 84.300
6. Thomas Pichler (AUS) 82.500
7. Tariq Dowers (CAN) 81.750
8. Ashish Kumar (IND) 81.550
9. Patrick Peng (NZL) 81.000
10. Misha Koudinov (NZL) 80.550


Aussie men have qualified for all 6 apparatus finals!

* Tom and Luke 1-2 though to floor final.
* Prashanth through to pommel final (scraped 4th place, phew!)
* Prashanth and Sam 1-2 through to rings final
* Tom through to the vault final
* Josh and Prashanth to p-bars final
* Luke through to the high bar final in first place, Sam in 4th.