Today at the Australian National Championships the Australian senior WAG team and the visiting Japanese team took to the floor for podium training.
As ever in a podium training there were mixed performances. The core group that started on floor and is ostensibly the group Peggy will select her team from for the head-to-head with Japan consisted of Lauren Mitchell, Emily Little, Ashleigh Brennan, Larrissa Miller, Mary-Anne Monckton, Nikki Chung and Georgia Rose Brown.
Floor largely consisted of dance –throughs, with only a handful of passes being thrown. When you see this core group of women performing- and the women in the other rotations too, the first thing that strikes is how elegant and interesting Australia can be on floor. As a general rule the choreography is lovely and at worst it is the best music and dance possible for a gymnast that does not excel in these areas. We are one good-looking team on floor!
Lauren Mitchell looked super-fit and dynamic and much like a former World floor champion two months before the Olympics. Her dance was clean and her whip-double Arabian and double pikes were very strong. She nearly rebounded out of the floor trying to split leap out of her double pike at one stage, but she is certainly not lacking for height! Ashleigh Brennan was rock steady on her dance-through, hitting all her dance elements with seeming ease. Georgia Rose Brown performed excellent leaps, but had trouble connecting her front twisting combo pass and fell out of her Memmel turn. Larrissa Miller performed her stunning new floor set and later worked a couple of double Arabians and double pikes. Her first Arabian was short, but she landed it reasonably well the second time around. Her double pikes were super high, but she was consistently over-rotating them. Nikki Chung has benefitted from her most recent choreography, which makes the most of her strengths. Her dance through was one of the most impressive I have seen from her. Her Cossack turn was perfection and her leaps were lovely. Mary-Anne Monckton attempted her 2.5 twist to punch front during her routine, but nearly sat down her punch front. She absolutely nailed the leg-up double turn, however. Emily Little also missed her punch front on her combo pass. She is still a little short on her splits too, which need work, but looked strong and fit.
There were some very welcome returns on floor too. Angela Donald worked floor, performing a very pretty routine to music that oscillated between balletic piano music and tango. She tumbled a neat double back tuck a couple of times and the switch ring leap of the day- possibly the year! She also trained vault a little, doing Yurchenko timers. She is slowly but very surely bringing herself back. NCAA returnee Olivia Vivian brought some of that college-learned charm to the floor with an upbeat routine. Dasha Joura and her many-hued hair took to the floor for a dance through. Hers is a very effective routine live. I was much more impressed with it than in the videos from Queensland. She connected a stunner of a triple spin to a single turn. Beautiful! Joura also worked vault, though did not do any DTYs. What she did do, however, was, as my companion said “she pulls out a better FTY onto two crash mats than any of the other girls do to the floor”. Never a truer word was spoken- today at least. Nikola Chung struggled a lot, never really producing a convincing DTY. Emily Little also started out struggling, but found her vaulting game and knocked out a couple of good vaults at the end of the rotation. Queensland’s Katie Wurth knocked out a couple of Yurchenko 1.5s at the end of her vaulting session. The first was crashed. She landed the second, although it was very low. Georgia Rose Brown continues to improve one her Yurchenko full, landing with her chest well up. Mary-Anne Monckton’s was quite messy, but she was getting it around. Ashleigh Brennan worked her Tsukahara 1.5, landing it in a low crouch on one occasion, but getting it around.
Nikola Chung’s struggles continued on bars, where she had great difficulties getting through her routine. She has some terrific skills in that routine, though, including the hecht transition that we rarely see these days. Bars were patchy for all, in fact. Larrissa Miller only got through parts of routines for most of her session, but managed to put a routine al together in the last moments. Chloe Sims, who only worked bars today, possibly due to the foot injury, had similar issues, not quite getting through her combinations. Catching her Jaeger was quite an issue, as was the dismount. She seemed to be in some pain, too. After a couple of false starts- a fall on the Tkatchev- Ashleigh Brennan was working fairly well on bars. Emily Little-also not a bars worker is looking a lot cleaner on that event and less laboured than in the past. Georgia Rose Brown was looking very good. There were a couple of scary-close Geingers, but aside from that, all went well. Mary-Anne Monckton missed her piked Tkatchev a couple of times and had form issues with her Pak salto, but all was fairly smooth for her. Georgia Wheeler seems to have recovered her bars fitness and looked quite dynamic. She still has that massive Tkatchev and her Maloney was one of the best transitions of the day. Her DLO dismount was a little too piked, however. Dasha Joura, who many had hoped would be working bars as part of her comeback did not go near that event.
It does seem strange that beam is our least worrisome event at the moment- at least with the main team, but it really is. Between Lauren Mitchell, Ashleigh Brennan and Emily Little there were very few mistakes. Nikki Chung had a few falls and Georgia Rose Brown a couple of broken connections, but generally beam was the most efficient rotation. Lauren Mitchell was looking very secure, only really having small issues in her front tumbling. That connected punch front can get a little low. Hmm. She was working a double tuck off the beam, rather than her usual double pike. Angela Donald, as ever, was the star on beam, performing all her skills with assurance and style. Her Rufolva was terrific and her sheep jump perfect every time.
All in all there were some strong performances today, particularly in the core group. It is hard to see where the comeback queens and the one and two-eventers are going to fit into the picture just yet, or if they can fit into an Olympic picture, but it is certainly giving us an illusion of depth on some events.
Article: Brigid McCarthy
Gymnastics Australia Championships Website
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