Australian nationals - Event finals

Lauren during the AA medal ceremony

Lauren Mitchell had a rough day on Sunday: she missed her opening pirouette on UB, fell on the first tumbling pass on BB and almost sat the first pass on floor. But she still won 3 gold medals (vault, beam and floor). And, except for BB maaaybe, deservedly so. 

Ashleigh Brennan took two silver medals - beam (14.525/ 5.9D) and floor (13.350/ 5.3 D score).

Honestly, I would have been extremely happy for Brennan to take beam gold, because see, they don't have that many people in Australia that are good on beam. So, at least when Lauren falls, they should give it to the girl who stays on the beam (even if she isn't exactly wobblefree either). 

Chloe Sims took uneven bars title with 14,275 (5.8 D) - whereas Mez Monkton finished second (13.875/ 5.8 D). On third place - Larissa Miller, with the highest difficulty of the competition, on bars (6.1) but only 7.05 on execution (counting a fall).

Aside from second place on bars, Mez also won bronze on beam (14.05/ 5.8 D score) and second on floor (13.350/ 5.3 D score)- tie with Brennan.

Thank you Gemeani for all the wonderful videos!

More pictures from the AA meet on Gymnastics Australia website.

Australian nationals - All Around

photo source here

Lauren Mitchell is Australian AA National Champion. Georgia-Rose Brown won silver and Mary Anne Monckton - bronze.

The gymnasts competed twice on all events and the totals of the two days added up for the final results.

In Day one, Mitchell was followed by Georgia-Rose Brown and Chloe Sims. Both Georgia and Chloe have ok FTYs and consistent uneven bars routines and both seem not to be very fond of beam. On floor, Georgia is pretty fantastic, she has long lines and good flexibility - I would love to see her at worlds this year (watch here her routine from Vic championships).

Next day, Mary Anne Monckton did a liiiittle better on floor and beam placing second for the day and moving on third in the final AA rankings. Nevertheless, Mez  seems to have established herself as no. 1 bar worker in Australia (challenged by Chloe Sims maybe).  

 Lauren did better in day two than in day one on floor and beam. But if on these two events she is currently struggling to re-gain the shape, on vault and uneven bars she is definitely doing better than in the previous years. Her DTY is turning out ok-ish and as long as she will be able to almost stick it, she will surely score in the mid-14s with it in international competitions.

 or here

her bars works is also improving slowly but steadily

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Floor seems to have been much better than in Japan (I am referring to day one because I haven't seen a video from day 2 yet) at least for the first minute, until she fell on that third pass, it was nice.

or here

Beam is a lot of work. But this has always been the case for her and undoubtedly she will figure everything out by October, even the turn in tuck stand - by connecting the full turn out of it. Deep down, I always hoped she will drop it, but it seems we will have to live with it.

or here

AA results day one:

AA results day two:

Complete results HERE

Lauren's much anticipated floor routine

Lauren Mitchell's highly anticipated floor routine has managed to bring me out of the cave I've been trying to hide in for the past few weeks. It was THAT big an event. I love it when this happens and I wish people would market  routines like that and launch them en fanfare more often. Ok, ok, maybe it was not Lauren herself who announced it this way...maybe us, crazy fans hungry for some news-scrap related to gymnastics did that. What i meant was that I wish gymnast would give us the opportunity to become animated like that more often.

Now, about the routine: the first time I watched it, I thought it was awkward. Then it became increasingly obvious that it needs some more work. Now after watching it numerous times I think that, with time, as the choreography will be more and more rehearsed, Lauren will be able to discover and accentuate certain nuances of the music. She will learn to use to her advantage the vocal parts that are the element that if speculated correctly can bring the originality factor to the routine. Plus, what we have seen this weekend was a very "choppy" version - the landings were so messy that it was difficult to maintain a unity of the choreography and also interpret the music. 

What did you think about Lauren's routine? Which is your favorite "new" routine of 2011?

Favorite moments of 2010 - Best of Balance Beam

Anna Dementyeva - Worlds qualifications

I had seen Anna Dementyeva a few times before. My impression was that, although she had good difficulty and exquisite lines, she could not hold it together for an entire routine. In the qualifications at the worlds she demonstrated that she can. Maybe next time she will be able to pull it off in the finals as well. 

or watch here 

Aliya Mustafina - Worlds AA

I love uneven bars and beam rotations in team finals and all around competitions. Particularly in Mustafina's case... we all knew that if she had a weaker event, that was the beam. And with so many things going on in this routine, frankly it is difficult not to make mistakes. This is how Aliya showed that she is destined for greatness: 

or here

Ana Porgras Ghent World Cup 

I love this routine for a number of reasons. Although not as difficult as the one she competed at Worlds, this beam set contains virtually no wobbles. The dismount is also nicer.

or here

Gabriela Dragoi - Romanian nationals

The moment I saw this routine was the moment I really believed Gabriela was back and capable of great things:

or watch here

Lauren Mitchell Worlds EF

I remember watching the podium warm-up of the balance beam finalists - an hour before the final. Mitchell was the last one to finish her warm-up. She  had problems with the two footed layout (as she had all week long) but she wouldn't give up on it. I watched her doing it a little better every time: from falls after each one, she corrected it a bit... big wobbles, then smaller wobbles. And then that was it: stuck layout to two feet.

Lauren Mitchell Floor World Champion - Finally!!

or watch here.