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Day 9 highlights

As the third last day of the 2021 Australian Gymnastics Championships came around, we had the pleasure of witnessing our Senior International Men’s and Women’s Artistic gymnasts take to the stage for the final time.

The day kicked off with Level 9 WAG and Level 7 Under and 8 Under MAG.

In Level 7 Under MAG, New South Wales took out a clean sweep in All-Around with Tom Zurcher, Joshua Thompson and Felix Clark earning themselves a Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively. While Queenslander Josef Neumann claimed the Level 8 Under All-Around title with a score of 121.897.

In the middle of the day, we welcomed back our Senior International MAG and WAG gymnasts to the floor, where Queensland superstar and Tokyo-bound, Georgia Godwin took a clean sweep of the medals, taking home the 5 gold medals on offer, nabbing herself her fifth All-Around title.

While on the MAG side of competition, we saw Godwin’s fellow Tokyo-bound gymnast, Tyson Bull take out the title on his favourite apparatus, Horizontal Bar, with a score of 14.366, while Queenslander Mitch Morgans took out the All-Around title.

In the final session of the day, we saw our Junior International WAG gymnast take to the floor alongside MAG Level 9 Under.

Queensland’s Ruby Pass took out the WAG Junior International All-Around crown, ahead of Miella Brown and Ava Costa.

View all the results here.

Day 8 highlights

Day 8 of the 2021 Australian Gymnastics Championships saw the sunshine come out over the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre.

In the morning session we saw our Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) Level 9 Under and Future International gymnasts take to the floor alongside Level 8 Open Men’s Artistic gymnasts.

Western Australia’s Ursula Saldo took out the WAG Future International All-Around title with a score of 71.750 ahead of South Australian Sienna Nesci and Yun Ni Wong from New South Wales.

While in the middle of the day, our Level 10 WAG finals were held alongside MAG Level 9 and 10 Open.

Saxon Glendinning took out the Level 9 Open title with a score of 144.500.

In the final session of the day, our WAG Level 10 gymnasts had the stage to themselves for their finals.

It was here we saw West Australian Emma Morris take out the All-Around title with a combined score of 105.875.

Following a blockbuster Friday night, our Senior International MAG and WAG gymnasts will again take to the floor on Sunday afternoon. This will be the final chance to witness homegrown heroes Georgia Godwin and Tyson Bull as they put the final touches on their preparations ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games in July.

Get your tickets here.

Day 7 highlights

Day 7 of the 2021 Australian Gymnastics Championships saw the highly anticipated Oceania Continental Championships for our top ranked All-Around Men’s and Women’s Artistic gymnasts.

However, the day started with our Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Level 7 Under and Level 8 Under take to the floor. New South Wales took out a clean sweep in All-Around with Tom Zurcher, Felix Clark and Joshua Thompson taking the top three positions.

As the second session of the day came around, we welcomed our Junior International Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) athletes to the competition, alongside Level 9 Under MAG.

In Junior International WAG, we saw Queensland take out the crown ahead of Victoria with a score of 144.225.

While under Friday night lights, we saw the Oceania Continental Championships.

With close competition throughout the night, the standings were too close to call until the final apparatus, where MAG took to the Horizontal Bar and WAG the Floor.

An elegant and impressive Floor routine from Emily Whitehead saw her jump to the-top of the leaderboard, nudging out fellow national squad member Georgia-Rose Brown with just moments to spare, while New Zealand’s Misha Koundinov upstaged hometown heroes, taking out the title following a consistent and tidy Horizontal Bar performance.

MAG

Misha Koundinov (NZ): 82.450

Mitch Morgans: 81.400

Jesse Moore: 81.050

Clay Mason Stephens: 78.750

Michael Tone: 78.150

WAG

Emily Whitehead: 51.900

Georgia-Rose Brown: 51.550

Breanna Scott: 49.550

Macy Pegoli: 48.100

By taking out the Oceania Continental Championship, Misha and Emily are now best placed to earn the named quota spot for Tokyo 2020

To read a full wrap of the Oceania Continental Championships, click here

Day 6 highlights

As week two of the 2021 Australian Gymnastics Championships kicked off, we welcomed Artistic gymnastics to the program.

The first session of Thursday’s schedule saw Level 9 Under and Future International Women’s Artistic gymnasts (WAG) take to the floor for the first time.

Western Australia took out the Team gold medal with a score of 144.625 ahead of New South Wales and Victoria.

It would be session two where the first of our Men’s Artistic gymnasts (MAG) would take to the stage, with Level 8 Open gymnasts vie for the title of Australian Champion.

New South Wales took out the title with a score of 219.849, edging out Victoria and Queensland.

Under the lights, the night session saw our WAG Level 10 Team’s and MAG Level 9 Open and Level 10-battle it out against each-other to earn bragging rights over their state and territory counterparts.

Queensland took out the WAG Level 10 with a score of 153.357 ahead of New South Wales and Western Australia.

While in MAG Level 9 Open, New South Wales took out the crown ahead of Queensland.

Friday night will see our Senior international gymnasts go head-to-head in the Continental Championships, a session that should not be missed.

Get your tickets to Witness the Impossible here.

Week 2 preview

Similarly to week 1, this week we will see our Men’s and Women’s Artistic gymnastics go head-to-head against our trans-Tasmin rivals, New Zealand, to be crowned the Continental Champion and act as the final qualifying event for Tokyo 2020.

Friday night, the first of our two premium sessions for week 2, will see our Senior International Artistic gymnasts perform on the national stage for the first time in nearly 18 months.

Mitch Morgans, Michael Tone, Jesse Moore and Clay Mason Stephens will go head-to-head as they vie for the critical men’s All-Around spot competing against New Zealand’s Mikhail Koudinov.

A team of four Australian Women’s Artistic Gymnasts, including Emily Whitehead, Georgia-Rose Brown, Breanna Scott and Macy Pegoli, will also compete for the All-Around title for Continental Champion with the Australian All-Around title being awarded on Sunday.

Week 2 will also see Tokyo-bound Georgia Godwin and Tyson Bull finalise their preparations on both Friday night and Sunday afternoon, so be sure to get to the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre to witness two of Australia’s best before they jet off to Tokyo.

Tickets are still available for all sessions, including the Continental Championships, so be sure to secure your tickets now and make your way to the 2021 Australian Gymnastics Championships.

You can purchase your tickets here.

Week 1 wrap

After a near 18 month break from any live gymnastics in Australia, we welcomed our sport back at the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre on Thursday13 May.

Much-anticipated day 1 of competition saw the first night of Continental Championships.

On trampoline, Jess Pickering and Blake Rutherford went into Friday evening’s finals session as the two to beat.

Night one also saw the Opening Ceremony, where Dominic Clarke, Senior International Trampoline gymnast and Pearl Rozenberg, Aerobic Judging Coordinator recite the oath on behalf of the athletes and officials.

As day 2 came around, much intrigue was placed on the final sessions of the day, where we would see three Continental Champions be crowned.

With high-stakes on the line, Trampoline stars Jess Pickering and Dom Clarke managed to hold their nerve, after some high-level competition from both Australian and New Zealand gymnasts, to take out the title.

Day 3 saw New South Wales dominate on both the Acrobatic floor and Trampoline.

The New South Wales team also took out the Team Trampoline gold, with an incredible score of 598.64 ahead of Queensland and Victoria.

The first week of competition ended with New South Wales once again dominating Acrobatic gymnastics taking out the State Shield.

At the end of week 1, New South Wales take the lead with 160 medals, ahead of Queensland and Victoria, with 88 and 42 medals respectively. 

As we move onto week 2 where we welcome our Artistic Gymnasts onto the floor, the sense of buzz and excitement will remain throughout as we eagerly await a highly-important Friday night Continental Championships session

Don’t miss your chance to witness the impossible at the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre next week as we cheer on our Artistic gymnasts.

Buy your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/gymnastics-australia-32969313931

Day 5 highlights 

The final day of week 1 competition started with team Victoria taking out the All-Around title in the Pre-Junior Rhythmic Competition.

Continuing the success of previous days, New South Wales again dominated Acrobatic gymnastics , taking out the overall State Shield.

Congratulations to our international athletes who competed well for the first time in a year.

Ending the day as it started, Rhythmic Gymnastics competition concluded with our Level 10 apparatus finals. While our Double Mini and Trampoline athletes finished up a strong five days of competition.

As week 1 comes to an end, we look forward to bringing the buzz, excitement and enjoyment of seeing live gymnastics into week 2.

Day 4 highlights

The Pre Junior division of Rhythmic Gymnastics took to the floor in the first session as they battled their way through to Monday mornings finals.

Following the trend from Saturday, New South Wales again dominated the Acrobatic competition, taking out Level 6 titles in Women’s Pair, Women’s Trio and Mixed Pair.

In Rhythmic Level 10 All-Around, Queensland’s Ainsley Barker whitewashed the field, taking home gold amassing an incredible score of 56.000, nearly 10 points higher than Lucy Auton in second place.

While in Level 10 Team, Queensland took out top honours with a score of 149.850 ahead of New South Wales and South Australia.

With a two-day break on the horizon, it’s almost time for the Men’s and Women’s Artistic teams to take to the floor and battle for the title of Australian Champion. Be sure to get your tickets early to see Australia’s best go head-to-head in what will be a mouthwatering week of competition.

Day 3 highlights

Following the conclusion of day 2, New South Wales again came out on top of the medal tally, with Queensland and Victoria in second and third place respectively. 

With just two sessions in day 3, we saw the arrival of Acrobatic Gymnastics to the program. 

A strong New South Wales team dominated Level 7 Acrobatics through the early stages of the day, making their way through to 
New South Wales dominated Level 7 Acro in session 2, taking out the All-Around title in Women’s Pair, Trio and Mixed Pair. 

Lead by stars Jess Pickering and Dom Clarke, New South Wales dominated the Senior International Trampoline final, taking out the title, amassing a score of 598.64 ahead of Queensland and Victoria.

West Australian, Jack Petrie was crowned Senior International Double-mini Trampoline champion with a score of 74.200.

The Level 10 Rhythmic Gymnasts impressed on the floor ahead of their finals session on Sunday evening. 

In the final session of the day, we saw our Rhythmic Individual Apparatus Finals take to the floor.

Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva took out 3 of 4 Rhythmic Gymnastics individual apparatus finals, with Victorian team-mate Ashari Gill winning Ribbon. 

Again in the final session, the Level 8-10 Acrobatic gymnasts impressed a jam-packed crowd cheering on their state as they finalise their preparations ahead of Monday’s finals. 

Be sure to get your tickets and come Witness the Impossible at the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre, you can get your tickets here

Day 2 highlights

Following the first day of competition, New South Wales came out on top of the medal tally, amassing a whopping 16 gold medals of their 27 total medals.

First up for day 2 saw team NSW take out the sub-junior RG final narrowly edging out Queensland 119.950 to 119.750. Queensland however bounced back and were able to take out the Sub-Junior All-Around competition.

Jack Hemmings and Georgia Beddall took out the Senior International Tumbling crown.

In Level 10 Open Individual Aerobics, Elian Jabbour of New South Wales took out the Australian title with a score of 19.200, edging out Victoria’s Roisin Selvarajoo in second place.

Deborah Greenbaum took out the Senior Individual Female title with a score of 20.700, ahead of Michaela Warren and Carissa Uno.

It was a successful night for Australia’s gymnasts in the Oceania Continental Championships.

In the Senior International Female Trampoline, Jessica Pickering who, after an impressive routine, edged out New Zealand’s Madaline Davidson by 0.08, to earn the title of Continental Champion, followed closely by Kira Ward.

The title was Pickering’s first national title in her career.

Our Men’s Senior International TRP Dominic Clarke and Blake Rutherford, backed up their form of 2019 taking out the gold and silver respectively with scores of 59.895 and 57.790 respectively.

To see all the results from day 2, click here

Day 1 highlights

Following a challenging 18 months, we finally welcomed live gymnastics back – and what a day it was. Spectacular moments aplenty, we saw some of the best Aerobic, Trampoline and Rhythmic Gymnasts take to the floor as they battle for the coveted title of Australian Champion.

The first of our three sessions for the day saw our Aerobic Level 6 Senior Individuals take to the floor. South Australian Asha Lawson took home gold with an impressive score of 18.050, ahead of Victorian pair, Louise Bellia and Amelia Moore taking out silver and bronze. 

While in Level 6 Intermediate Individual, New South Wales gymnast, Emma Brooker was crowned Australian Champion, narrowly edging out Victorian Grace Haslem, second, and Sienna Maze, third.

Our youngest tumblers started the morning off strong with NSW Alexa Kachan and Queensland’s Noah Kerry taking out gold in their respective divisions.

Session one also saw our youngest Rhythmic gymnasts compete freehand and rope.  

In the first of many good news story for the Championships, Tyson Martin-Durrington returned to the floor after tearing his achillies in 2019 to claim the Individual Male AeroDance title. 

Qualifying events for Double Mini Trampoline Junior Under 17 male and Senior Male and Female also took place in the middle of the day. 

Following the Opening Ceremony, which saw Dominic Clarke, Senior International Trampoline gymnast and Pearl Rozenberg, Aerobic Judging Coordinator recite the oath on behalf of the athletes and officials, the bumper crowd witnessed a memorable performance from our Senior AeroDance team. 

Despite a few routine errors that saw some Trampoline athletes crash out, crowd favourites Blake Rutherford and Jessica Pickering didn’t disappoint setting themselves up well for tomorrow night’s Continental Championships.  

 

Trampoline Gymnastics 

Women:

Jessica Pickering: 101.095

Kira Ward: 100.980

Madeline Davidson (NZL): 100.940

Claire Arthur: 99.170

Imogen Florian: 84.490

Men:

Blake Rutherford: 107.520

Dom Clarke: 106.625

Shaun Swadling: 102.970

Aiden Thomas: 62.180

To check out the other scores from today’s competition, click here. 

We look forward to an action-packed day two of the 2021 Australian Gymnastics Championships, with the second of two Continental Championships sessions set to take place tomorrow night.

Gymnastics is back as Australia’s best vie for bragging rights

Following a near two-year hiatus of live gymnastics in Australia, the stage is set to welcome our gymnasts back to the 2021 Australian Gymnastics Championships.

For the first time in the events history, it will be held on the Gold Coast at the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre, a venue used for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The first week of competition will see 13 sessions of spectacular gymnastics, featuring the best Trampoline, Rhythmic, Aerobic and Acrobatic gymnasts perform routines as they battle for the title of Australian Champion.

With reigning Australian Aerobics Champion Olivia Feaver breaking her hand on the weekend, the door is now open for a new Champion to be crowned.

We also welcome a number of new Acrobic groupings competing for the first time as both our Aerobic and Acrobatic athletes compete to gain selection on the National Squad to compete at Worlds in 2022.

The excitement builds around the 2021 Oceania Continental Championships which will see athletes in the four Olympic disciplines vie for highly sought-after quota spots to represent their nation at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

On Thursday 13 and Friday 14 night, we will see our Senior International Trampoline and Rhythmic gymnasts go head-to-head against arch-rivals, New Zealand. To check out who will be competing, click here.

The action doesn’t stop there, our Rhythmic Group will take to the floor on Sunday afternoon to lock in their spot to compete in Tokyo.

One All-Around quota spot will be awarded to the highest ranked individual Australian or New Zealand Rhythmic gymnast, while the winning Rhythmic Group will also earn themselves a spot.

This will be the final chance to see our gymnasts perfect their routines ahead of Tokyo, so be sure to make your way down to the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre to witness the impossible.

Tickets are still available, so get in early before you miss out. Buy tickets here:

See the full schedule here.

2019 Competition Daily Wraps

DAY 12

On Monday 3 June, the final day of the 2019 Australian Gymnastics Championships took place at Melbourne Arena.

The RG Sub Junior athletes had their second day of competition in the first session with Team, All Around and Individual Apparatus medals to be won. A convincing score of 115.200 won the Gold medal for Team VIC. It was WA who followed in the Silver medal position with a score of 108.550 while NSW claimed the Bronze medal with a score of 107.050. In the All Around competition, WA’s Nadyashani Igusti was crowned with the Australian Champion title with a score of 40.400 with VIC’s Dominga Beltran (39.600) and Elodie Lamont (38.850).

In DMT, National 5 Female Final, Willow Head from QLD made sure of her Gold medal with a score of 121.100 while not too far behind her was team mate Rylee Watson and NSW Eleni Fountis. Swapping over to the Male Final, it was a QLD one and two finish again with Loki Nardello and Hamish Wilson ending the competition with scores of 120.300 and 119.900. The final spot on the podium went to VIC’s Daniel Meekin with a score of 119.800.

The first TRP session saw a TAS Gold medal go to Cara Berry in the National 6 Final with a score of 91.700. The Silver medal was won by another TAS athlete in Lucy Chesterman who scored 90.600 and Bronze went to Caitlin Mair from (WA) with a score of 89.400. The National 7 male Final turned out to be a clean sweep for QLD with Thomas Clough (93.00), Edward Clark-Enslow (92.300) and Joel McFarlane (91.000).

In the ACR Level 7 sessions, the Women’s Trio overall Gold medalists was award to Zahra Kumarasinhe, Kate Mander and Annabelle Dietrich from NSW with a score of 50.170. The Mixed Pair stand out was Luke Buckton and Michaela Kostadinov who scored 49.200 to be crowned Australian Champions. In the Women’s Pair, the overall winners were Megan Lyne and Isabelle Tarrant.

The second session welcomed back the RG Pre Junior athletes for their final day of competition. It was VIC who came away with another Team Gold medal after they had a combined score of 125.930. Team QLD and Team NSW followed for the Silver and Bronze medals. There was no stopping VIC’s pocket rocket Miyabi Akiya in the All Around after she claimed the Australian Champion title with a score of 47.630. QLD’s Li-Lou Burns-Gillet became the Silver medalist with a score of 43.300 while team mate Veronika Ushakova scored 41.800 and won Bronze.

The second session was also the final session for TRP and DMT, with a close finish in the TRP National 5 Female Final. Willow Head from QLD was crowned champion with a score of 91.800 who was closely followed by team mate, Harmony Cunningham who scared 91.100. The final medal went to Poppy Davey from VIC with a score of 88.200. The battle for the most Gold medals continued with the TRP National 5 Male and National 7 Female titles going to NSW athletes Kye Costa and Hayley Sepping. While over in the DMT, National 6 Female was won by QLD’s Charmonie Benson-Inglis (123.700) and the Male Finals was also won by a fellow QLD athlete in Joshua De Beer (124.500).

Team QLD has also had a clean sweep for the overall state winners across TRP, SYNC, DMT and TUM which will add some extra baggage to their flights home!

The ACR 11-16 had their final shot on the competition floor with the Mixed Pair from NSW in Siobhan Turner and Daniel Lawther winning the Gold with a score of 46.100.  The Women’s Pair was a sea of blue with NSW claiming all three medals. It was Layla Dimacali and Raimely Bojo (54.400), Lauren McDuie and Danyel Jang (53.850), Alice Eden borough and Jessica Okorom (52.850) who all displayed great routines. In the Women’s Trio, Stella Phipson, Jessica Lee and Grace Turner had two awesome scores in Balance and Dynamic which made their overall score 54.100 to win the Gold medal. Brooke Flanagan, Jasmin Flanagan and Regan Rayner from NSW followed in second while Sophia Alhassan, Samantha Hughes and Sarsha Hughes from VIC came in at third.

In the final session of the day and the final day of the competition, it was time for the Acrobats to take the floor with their combined routines.

The last medal ceremony was jam packed with Gymsport awards, retiring athletes an 80 plus gold medals to be handed out! If you want to check out all the scores and results, make sure you click on our results tab.

The overall Senior Mixed Pair Gold medalists were won by Andrew Nicoll and Whitney Picker from NSW with a score of 77.010. The night also saw a fantastic score of 81.580 in the Senior Women’s Trio category by Maddison Lacey, Caitlin O’Neil and Mikayla Carr from NSW. Ella Treanor, Indigo Conroy and Naomi Gibson from NSW won the Australian Champions title with their overall Junior 13-19 Women’s Trio score of 80.040.

Congratulations to all the athletes, coaches and officials on an amazing competition. Thank you to all our volunteers and staff for making this event happen. Gymnastics Australia looks forward to seeing you next year.

DAY 11

On the 11th day of the Australian Gymnastics Championships, we welcomed RG Sub Junior and Pre Junior and ACR Level 8-10, 12-18, 13-19 and Seniors to compete on their first day of competition.

As it was their first day competing, this means that there scores will be updated after the final day of competition. Both the RG and ACR gymnasts had the crowd intrigued by their performances and after today we know that it will be a fantastic competition again!

The TRP Gymsports and RG Level 10 sessions were the ones with all the medal ceremonies for Day 11.

TRP National 5-7 SYNC Male and TUM National 5-6 Female made their way onto the competition floor in the second session of the day. The SYNC Gold medals for each level were won by a different state which made it exciting. Dylan Thomas and Nathan Lewsam (NSW) claimed the Australian Champion title with a score of 77.730 in National 5. It was VIC’s Guy Rotenburg and Mason Rimmer in National 6 with a score of 81.830 and QLD’s Edward Clark-Enslow and Joel McFarlane with a score of 85.810 in National 7.

The Australian Champion for TUM National 7 was won by Ayla Knappick from NSW with an awesome score of 91.700. It was a super close battle in National 6 with WA’s Lara Mountain winning the Gold with 85.300 closely followed by Brianna Leung (QLD) and Isla Trisic (NSW). Ella Copeland from SA was a clear stand out in the National 5 with a score of 84.500 to claim the Australian Champion title.

In the third session of the evening for TRP, the National 6 male Final was won by WA’s Patrick Friend with a final score of 89.500. Blake Pardey (NSW) and Lachlan Towerton (QLD) placed in the Silver and Bronze positions.

On DMT, both male and female National 7 competed for the Gold medal. Kasey Kilday from WA made sure of his Australian Champion title with a score of 1280.800 ahead of team mate Lachlan Shellbear and QLD’s Edward Clark-Enslow.

In a close one to the very finish in the female competition, Ayla Knappick from NSW snatched the Australian Champion title with a score of 121.800. Which meant the Silver medalist went to Merita Elshani from QLD. To close out the podium, QLD’s Sophie Barber won Bronze with a score of 119.900.

The RG Level 10 athletes competed for the Individual Apparatus Australian Champion titles in the final session. The 2019 All Around Champion, Catherine Lyndon went on to claim another two Gold medals in Ribbon and Ball.

DAY 10

On Day 10 of the Australian Gymnastics Championships, the competition begun in Session 2 with RG Groups, TRP Sync and TUM action and Acrobatics (ACR) finally joined the Championships at Melbourne Arena.

The RG Groups were a fun way to kick off the day, Team NSW were too good in the Junior age with their Gold medal score of 25.250 in All Around. The Pre Junior competition was a close one but it was NSW who came out on top with a team score of 19.950 and VIC was not too far behind with 19.800. With just three Senior Groups competing, it was good to watch them battle it out for All Around and Apparatus. It was QLD 2 that found themselves with the All Around Gold medals with a score of 33.650.

In TRP, it was time to see some of the National Levels compete in the SYN category and there was a nice spread of states for the three levels. In Level 5 it was SA’s Laela Ey and Ruby Insanally named Australian Champions with a score of 81.030. Level 6 saw ACT’s Ashley Bowden and Amelie Heatherington with an awesome score of 83.290 to win Gold.

The National Levels in TUM for men also took place which saw Gold medals for Lucas Dawes from NSW (77.900), Lucca Wheatley from QLD (87.200) and Logan Barker from VIC (88.100).

In the final session of the day and our final Premium Session of the competition, saw our RG Junior and Senior Internationals compete for Individual Apparatus Australian Champion titles. In the Junior level, Saskia Broedelet and Phoebe Learmont were a touch of class above the rest with two of their best scores on Ball. While in the Senior level, Alex Kiroi-Bogatyreva managed two incredible scores above 18.000 on Clubs and Hoop.

The Level 6 ACR Pairs gave it their all with NSW making it a clean sweep across the medals. The overall Women’s Pair was won by Madison Mitchell and Paytience Hesse with a score 47.240. For the overall Mixed Pair it was Lorelai Koller and Rome Uata from NSW with a score of 49.390.

The TRP, DMT and TUM athletes competed in the State Team Finals during the session.

Yet again, there was another clean sweep for Team NSW across each discipline which meant they too won the overall. Their overall score was 597.46 which was a huge team effort from all their athletes. With their standouts being Dominic Clarke (60.610), Jessica Pickering (54.105), Ryan Hatfield (37.600), Carina Hagarty (34.700), Blake Grainger (34.300) and Molly Mamo (34.500). It was WA who claimed the Silver Team medal and QLD took home the Bronze.

The TRP and DMT athletes also competed for the 2019 Trans-Tasman Cup against New Zealand, the full report of the Cup will be released on the Gymnastics Australia website.

DAY 9

On Day 9 of competition, the first session had RG Level 10 and Level 6 and 7 AER athletes competing with plenty of medals to begin the day.

The RG Level 10 Team was won by SA by quite a large margin with a score of 145.950 and so it made sense that the All Around Australian Champion would be crowned to a South Australian. It was Catherine Lyndon with a score of 50.800 taking home the Gold medal.

In the AER, it was dominated by VIC with three Gold medals, four Silver and one Bronze. Their three stand out scores were Mathilda Grant (17.783), Mikayli Bartleet (17.233) and Chanse Mathers (17.016).

The second session of the day welcomed TRP back into the arena along with the RG Junior Internationals and Trio, Groups and Level 8 to 10 AER athletes.

There was no stopping QLD in the RG Junior International compeititon with a score of 152.300 to claim the Team Gold medal. Saskia Broedelet and Phoebe Learmont from QLD stunned the competition for the Gold and Silver medals.

In the AER competition, there was quite an even spread of competition across the states. The NSW Trio scored an awesome 18.666 and went on to claim the Australian Champion title. Lucy Membrey (VIC), Phoebe Dyson (WA) and Abby Lavin (QLD) were among the athletes to win the Gold medals in their respective divisions.

TRP and DMT were busy as usual in the second session, with a huge ten medal ceremonies to be had. We are lucky enough to have New Zealand in Australia competing and with their athletes winning medals that results in Residential medals for our Australian athletes. Brock Batty from VIC won his Australian Champion title with a score of 51.010 in the TRP Youth U13. Liam Christie (NSW) came out firing in the Senior DMT Final with a final score of 73.400 while Kayla Nel (WA) took the female title.

In the final session of the day and the second Premium Session for Week 2, the RG Senior International athletes had completed their next two apparatus for All Around. Alex Kiroi-Bogatyreva was a clear and incredible Australian Champion in the All Around with a score of 67.000. The RG Victorian Team were also far too good as they claimed the Gold medal with a score of 175.800.

In the AER second and final day of competition, there were two stand outs in the Senior Individual Male and Female and both from VIC. It was Olivia Feaver with a score of 20.366 and Kenji Fujihara with a score of 18.900. Ruby Conti in the Age Group 1 division claimed the Australian Champion title with a score of 18.500.

The TRP competition was moving at a rapid pace in the Finals for TRP Junior U17, Junior U22, Senior, DMT Youth U13 and Youth U15.

It seemed to be a haze of sky blue and never blue on the podium with Team NSW as strong as ever in the TRP competition with them taking home a total of 16 medals for the session.

Ty Swadling (NSW) won the TRP Senior Male Australian Champion title follow closely by Blake Rutherford (NSW) and Blake Gaudry (SA). In the TRP Senior Female division, Claire Arthur went from strength to strength to earn herself the the Gold medal and Australian Champion crown.

To finish off the night, some of the great stand outs on the DMT were Molly Mamo (NSW), Damon Louwen (NSW), Tahlia Geelan (NSW) and Brock Batty (VIC).

DAY 8

Day 8 of the 2019 Australian Gymnastics Championships began at Melbourne Arena on Thursday 30 May bright and early. The Week 2 competition is shaping to be a busy four days with each session filled with incredible athletes across Rhythmic (RG), Trampoline (TRP), Aerobics (AER) and Acrobatics (ACR).

Session 1 saw the Level 10 Rhythmic gymnasts take the floor for both Hoop and Ball.

In the Aerobics Gymnastics first ever time joining five of the other Gymsports; their first session saw some great results across Level 7 through to 10.

In the AER Level 6 Intermediate Individual, it was Jasmine Weeks from NSW who was crowned Australian Champion with a score of 16.58. She was followed closely by team mate, Zoe McNamara who scored 16.53 to win the Silver medal while VIC’s Claudia McNee won the Bronze with a score of 16.02.

In the AER Level 7 Intermediate Individual, it was NSW again with the Gold medal spot and Australian Champion title in MacKenzie Manev with a score of 16.98. WA’s Kaitlyn Holden won herself the Silver medal with a score of 16.33 and finishing the podium was Kiranjit Simon from QLD with a score of 16.72.

Finishing off the Aerobics medals was Level 6 Junior Multiple with VIC’s Allie Guillou and Belle Guillou crowned Australian Champions as the only athletes in the division. Much like Level 6, in the Level 7 Senior Multiple, unopposed Lauren Anderson & Alicia Lee from NSW won the Gold medal.

The first session for Trampoline Gymnastics was busy with Synchronised and Tumbling Qualifications and Finals. This session saw NSW dominate the medal standings racking up 9 Gold, 6 Silver and 6 Bronze.

Joshua Blench and Rylee McKeon in the Tumbling Youth U13 both were titled Australian Champions with scores of 30.000. Thomas Aivazian and Tamia Fonua both followed suit for NSW and claimed Gold in the Tumbling Youth U15. With an awesome display of Tumbling by Ethan McGuinness from NSW, he earnt the Australian Champion title in Senior. In the Sync Youth it was a score of 86.100 which won Gold for Abi Southall and Sophie Johnston. In the Sync Junior, there were no surprises with Liam Christie and Lleyton Pagett winning the Gold medal with a score of 93.435. In the final age division for Sync, it was Team NSW again with Leanne van Rensburg and Imogen Florian with 133.785 while Dominic Clarke and Ty Swadling made sure of their Gold with 142.335.

In session 2 and 3, there were no medals given out as it was only the first night of RG which meant they have only completed two apparatus each and TRP and AER were competing for spots in the Finals.

The RG Juniors, Phoebe Learmont and Saskia Broedelet were the stand outs on Day 1. While in the Seniors first day of competition, Alex Kiroi-Bogatyreva and Lidiia Iakovleva are leading the way into Day 2 with great scores on Hoop and Ball.

The AER sessions saw the International Trios, Groups, Age Group Levels and International Seniors who all made strong strides to the Finals. The crowd saw some awesome routines from Kenji Fujihara, Olivia Feaver and Deborah Greenbaum.

In the TRP competition, the Senior Male Qualification is all NSW with all their athletes in the Top 5, Blake Rutherford and Dominic Clarke sitting in places one and two. In the Senior Female, it is no surprise with the top three being Eva Kierath (WA), Claire Arthur (SA) and Jessica Pickering (NSW).

DMT had a good Qualification round in the Senior competition; here are a couple of names to look out for in Finals: Ryan Hatfield (VIC), Liam Christie (NSW), Damien Axelsen (TAS), Cheyanna Robinson (NSW) and Carina Hagarty (QLD).

DAY 7

The final day of competition for the Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics took place on Sunday 26 May at Melbourne Arena.

In the first session of the day, it was MAG Level 9 Open who was fighting for the Australian Champion title in All Around. It was a clean a sweep for Team VIC as Kynan Whitehead claimed the Australian Champion Gold medal with a score of 145.150 after two really solid days of All Around competition.

Not too far behind Kynan was his brother William Whitehead who became the Silver medalist with a score of 142.900 and in the final podium spot for VIC it was James Dunn who won the Bronze medal with a score of 138.500.

The MAG Level 10 Open athletes were also competing on the final day for Individual Apparatus medals. QLD’s Kyle McCartney scored an awesome 13.050 on Floor while VIC’s Ryan O’Keefe scored 12.750 on Pommel Horse.

The WAG Junior International All Around competition was announced on the second day with combined scores.

Tiana Odessa from QLD found herself in the Gold medal position and was announced the All Around Australian Champion with a combined score of 99.025. Her strongest apparatus across the two days was Vault with scores of 14.150 and 14.050.

In the Silver medal position was Lucy Stewart from NSW who received a combined score of 95.850. She too was very strong on Vault with both her scores being 12.750. The Bronze medal was won by Alice Zhu from QLD with a score of 95.375; she had two beautiful Floor routines.

Congratulations to the athletes that were selected to be a part of the WAG Junior National Squad:
Olena Edmeades – Western Australia
Kiersten Hashimoto-Kougiadis – Victoria
Tiana Odessa – Queensland
Lucy Stewart – New South Wales
Chloe Trisic – New South Wales
Alice Zhu – Queensland

In the final WAG Senior International session, the athletes were competing for combined scores for All Around Australian Champion and Individual Apparatus.

In her competition return, QLD’s Georgia Godwin made a statement. After two awesome days of competition and a combined total score of 106.350, Godwin was announced the All Around Australian Champion. She was also in the top spot on Floor and Vault!

It was the colour maroon again with Georgia-Rose Brown becoming the Silver medalist with a score of 105.650 and made sure of the Gold medal on Uneven Bars. In the final podium spot, the Bronze medal was won by Emma Nedov from NSW with a score of 103.625 who also won the Gold on Beam.

Congratulations to the athletes that were selected to be a part of the WAG Senior National Squad:
Elena Chipizubov – New South Wales
Georgia-Rose Brown – Queensland
Georgia Godwin – Queensland
Kate McDonald – Victoria
Emma Nedov – New South Wales
Emily Whitehead – Victoria

The MAG Senior athletes were competing for the Individual Apparatus Australian Champion titles and for the Cheales/Williamson Shield.

There was no stopping Team QLD, after they were the top team on Floor, Vault, Parallel Bars and Horizontal Bar. Although New Zealand came and gave it a good shot as they were placed first in Pommel Horse and Rings.

With a combined total score of 240.992 The Cheales/Williamson Shield, 2019 State Champion was awarded to Queensland.

The QLD athletes were Scott Costin, Heath Thorpe, Hudson Irwin, Michael Tone, Mitchell Morgans and David Tanner. The competition saw strong routines from Costin on Horizontal Bar (13.200), Morgans on Parallel Bars (13.600), Tone on Rings (13.500) and Thorpe on Floor (14.100).

New Zealand managed the Silver medal with a score of 239.395 which meant NSW were the Residential Silver medalists with a score of 225.397. The final podium spot and Bronze medal went to VIC with a score of 224.428.

Congratulations to the athletes that were selected to be a part of the MAG Senior National Squad:
Tyson Bull – Victoria
Mitchell Morgans – Queensland
Chris Remkes – South Australia
Clay Stephens – South Australia 
Gabriel Swan-McLean – New South Wales

DAY 6

Day 6 of the Men’s & Women’s Artistic Gymnastics competition began the day with a sleep in for all with the first session of the day not starting until 11:30am.

To take the floor first was the WAG Future International athletes, Team VIC came out victorious in the Gold medal position in the Team competition with a score of 252.800. It was Team NSW who followed and placed in the Silver medal spot with a score of 245.500. The final podium spot went to Team WA with a score of 230.725 and earned the Bronze medal.

In The WAG Future International All Around competition, it was a clean sweep for VIC with all three medalists donning the navy blue. Miella Brown was a standout winner with a score of 86.750 and was crowned the Australian Champion for 2019. In the Silver medal position was Charlotte Shin with a score of 82.600 while Asher Bayles became the Bronze medalist with her score of 81.775.

The MAG Level 8 Under competition saw a clear winner in the Team competition with QLD making a stand with their score of 331.150 which won them the Gold medal. Placing in a second was NSW with a score of 325.000 which earned them the Team Silver medal and it was ACT that won the Bronze with their score of 300.750.

In the MAG Level 8 Under All Around competition, there was absolutely no stopping Zachary Simpson-Wylde who dominated across the whole floor. He won the title of Australian Champion with his score of 115.150. It was Daniel Chalabov from NSW who claimed the Silver medal with his combined score of 108.300 while it was maroon again in Bronze with Alistair Hoole claiming the final podium spot with a score of 106.000.

In the final session of the day the MAG Level 9 Under 15 and 17 All Around got under way and was an exciting one to watch.

In the Level 9 Under 15 age group, it was Reilly Flanagan from QLD who became the Australian Champion with the Gold medal around his neck after he scored 142.850. It was all blue after that with Jose Caballero from NSW becoming the Silver medalist with a score of 140.300 and his team mate Logan Owen claimed the Bronze medal with a score of 140.300.

The crowd was loud throughout every rotation for the Level 9 Under 17 division, SA’s Jesse Moore made sure of the top spot with a score of 157.650 which made him the Australian Champion. Not too far behind him was VIC’s Kipp Smith who got a combined score of 152.400. The final spot on the podium was won by James Hardy from QLD who received a score of 150.900.

At the end of the evening, the MAG National Junior Squad was announced. We would like to congratulate all those selected:

Marcus Casamento – Victoria
James Hardy – Queensland
Jesse More – South Australia
Kipp Smith – Victoria
Blair Stewart – ACT
Joshua Walker – Victoria
Reilly Flanagan – Queensland
Nicholas Matthews – South Australia

DAY 5

MAG Level 7 Under got Day 5 underway in the first session in their final day of competition.

The NSW Team claimed the Gold medal as clear winners with a score of 340.032 while not too far behind them was Team QLD claiming another Silver medal to add to their tally with a score of 337.633. To close the Team competition podium it was Team VIC who came away with the Bronze medal with a score of 325.899.

MAG Level 7 Under All Around competition was an exciting one with Tru Hagens from NSW dominating claiming the Australian Champion title with a score of 117.466.

In a close one between Silver and Bronze, it was Dylan Parker from QLD who scored a 113.800 while Xavier Magnanini from VIC finished on 113.416.

In the MAG Level 9 Open Team competition, it was VIC who went home with the Gold medal by a very comfortable margin. They combined for a score of 213.950 with Kynan Whitehead and William Whitehead performing strong throughout all apparatus.

It was a tight finish to the Team Level 9 Open competition, with QLD finished on 203.550 to win the Silver medal and NSW finished on 203.450 to hold up the podium in Bronze.

With only three states competing in the MAG Level 10 Open Team competition, it was always going to be one to watch. No strangers to the podium when QLD was announced the Gold medalists with a score of 212.300. Extremely closely followed by NSW in Silver with a score of 212.250 and this meant that it was Team VIC in Bronze with a score of 208.350.

An awesome competition was had by the MAG Level 10 All Around athletes with NSW gymnast Adam Rusgnach earning the Australian Champion title with a score of 71.900 with his best apparatus being Vault and Horizontal Bar.

The judges couldn’t break Silver and Bronze, so it was a tie for second place. Ryan O’Keefe from Victoria and Simon Constable from QLD both stood on the Silver podium spot with scores of 71.800.

The WAG Junior International Team competition saw a clear standout from Team QLD who claimed the Gold medal with a great score of 146.275. Tiana Odessa performing very well across the board with a fantastic Vault score of 14.150.

Team NSW finished the competition in the Silver medal position with a score of 141.900 and this means that it was Team VIC coming in Bronze position with a score of 139.925.

The first Premium Session of the event got under way in the final session of Day 5. The WAG Senior International competition was as strong as ever with VIC, QLD and NSW leading the way. Team VIC dominated across all apparatus as they placed first in all but Floor. They finished the competition with the Gold medal with their total score of 155.150.

Team QLD made sure of the Silver medal with a score of 152.025. Georgia Godwin made a statement in her first major competition since injury. Team NSW rounded out the podium in the Bronze medal position with their score of 151.850 with Beam being their strongest apparatus finishing on top.

In the MAG Senior Team competition, QLD came out on top as clear Gold medal winners with a score of 240.992. It was a huge team performance across all apparatus with Mitchell Morgans and Heath Thorpe both with scores above 14.000.

With New Zealand competing at the event, it produced an even better Team competition. New Zealand placed in the Silver medal position with a score of 239.395 and which meant that NSW were the Residential Silver medalists with a score of 225.397. This then meant Team VIC won themselves the Bronze medal with a score of 224.428.

In the MAG Senior All Around Competition, it was New Zealand’s Ethan Dick who found himself in the top podium spot in the Gold medal position with a score of 80.799. Mitchell Morgans was QLD’s best performer with a score of 80.398 who became the Residential Gold medalist and Australian Champion for 2019. It was New Zealand again who claimed the Silver medal this time it was Mikhail Koudinov with a score of 78.798 and in the Residential Silver it was Scott Costin for QLD with a score of 77.931. In the final podium position, a somewhat clean sweep for QLD with Michael Tone earning the Bronze medal with a score of 77.931.

The MAG Continental Championships also took place at Melbourne Arena last night, where Australia and New Zealand competed for a spot in Stuttgart at the 2019 World Championships later this year. Read more about the completion on the Gymnastics Australia website.

DAY 4

The MAG Level 7 Open athletes were at Melbourne Arena bright and early to fight for the title of Australian Champion in their age group on Thursday 23.

After a fantastic two days of competition, it was SA’s Tyson Sammells who was crowned the All Around Australian Champion with a combined score of 148.732. He performed at his best on Floor, Rings and Parallel Bars.

It was Team VIC who made sure they had not one but two of the podium spots with Tyrone Llaguno earning the Silver medal with a combined score of 146.515. Llaguno’s team mate Jameson O’Reilly following in the Bronze medal position with a score of 143.831.

The Future International Level had their first touch of the competition floor this morning.

As of Day 1, current standings in the All Around competition is led by Miella Brown from VIC with a score of 35.675. VIC’s Charlotte Shin is not too far behind with a score of 33.600 while NSW Mariana Bonilla Ataid and Ruby Pass are placed in third and fourth.

For Session 2 for the day, the Level 8 Open All Around Australian Champion was won by QLD’s Finlay Jones who scored a combined total of 141.300. His Day 2 of competition was another level as he made big improvements to his scores.

Earning the Silver medal was Todd Brinkworth from WA, who also made improvements to his Day 1 scores. He finished the competition on a score of 140.650. To round out the podium, Ethan Munt from QLD claimed the Bronze medal with a score of 139.550.

The MAG Level 9 Under had their first medal opportunities in the Team competition in the final session of the day. Team VIC came out firing and claimed the Gold with a score of 226.650 with Pommel Horse, Rings and Vault being their strongest apparatus.

Jesse Moore from SA led him and his team to the Silver medal position with a total score of 223.000 while NSW just snuck into Bronze position with a score of 221.550. NSW’s Cooper Wilson scored a massive 14.200 on Vault.

Across all of WAG Level 10 it was a busy night for medals, in the 13 and Under category, it was a clean sweep for VIC. Harriet Wingrove claimed the Australian Champion title with a combined score of 107.675 with her best score of 14.250 on Floor.

Emma Ross from VIC finished her competition in the Silver medal position with a score of 102.950 while team mate Jessica Goh won Bronze with a score of 100.025.

In the WAG Level 10 14-16 division, it was the navy blue in the top spot again with Lisa Nadine Tan winning the Australian Champion Gold medal. She won with a combined score of 104.875 including her incredible Day 1 score of 14.725 on Beam.

ACT’s Rebecca Rainey was right there with her after she finished with a score of 104.000 to claim the Silver medal. While Tiarna Green placed in the Bronze position with a score of 103.975.

In the final All Around competition of the night, WAG Level 10 17 & Over it was WA’s Amanda Edwards who was announced as Australian Champion. She claimed the Gold medal with a score of 108.675. She displayed a beautiful Floor routine that got her a score of 14.300 on Day 1 while she made sure of her Gold medal spot on Day 2 with great routines across the board.  

What’s a podium without QLD, Jayde Beutel came in at second position with a score of 105.625 while team mate Olivia Doherty won Bronze with a score of 103.475.

DAY 3

There was no messing around on the morning of Wednesday 20 as it was time for the WAG Level 9 athletes to compete for Australian Champion.

Madison Elphick from the ACT wowed the crowd with her incredible effort in the All Around competition with a score of 100.939 to earn the title of Australian Champion. Along with this, she was judged best in Vault and Floor.

QLD’s Tammy Vo followed very close behind in the Silver medal position with a score of 100.766 and to complete the podium, Tiesha Arfah scored 99.199 to claim the Bronze.

The WAG Level 9 16 and Over Final also took place in the first session of the day.
To the roar of the crowd and coaches, Chailend Malinowski from NSW was announced the Australian Champion for All Around after she scored 99.458. She performed best on Vault with her score of 14.150.

WA’s Isabel Weir’s strong and steady competition earned her the Silver medal with a combined score of 98.900. While Brooke Hardin from QLD scored 98.315 to hold up the podium in Bronze position.

MAG Level 7 13 Under had their first day of competition, currently holding the top spot is Tru Hagens from NSW with a score of 59.116 while Ethan McGrgeal (NSW), Dylan Parker (QLD) and Xavier Maganini (VIC) are all sittin above 56.000 in second, third and fourth.

In the final session of the day, MAG Level 8 14 and Under competed on a quiet competition floor with just their rotations going on. After Day 1, the current standings are looking like Zachary Simpson-Wylde from QLD is perched on top. While NSW athletes, Daniel Chalabov and Julian Tavares are sitting second and third respectively.

The Level 9 Artistry Award was presented to Bianca Bristow from New South Wales. 

DAY 2

Day 2 at Melbourne Arena got underway in the afternoon on Tuesday 21 May with the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) joining in on the fun.

The MAG Level 7 Open was the first of the MAG athletes to compete and Team VIC made a stand. They claimed the Team Gold medal with the high score of 218.529. With Jameson O’Reilly earning himself the two best scores on Rings and Parallel Bars.

Team QLD didn’t want to miss out on the podium action and scored themselves the Team Silver medal with a score of 214.294. Michael Dobroskok was judged strongest on Floor with a score of 13.366 while as a Team they performed strongest on Vault.

Closing out the podium was SA, not to far behind with a score of 213.863. Their best performing athlete was Tyson Sammells with 13.200 on Floor, 12.833 on Rings and 12.733 on Vault.

While MAG Team was going on, it was the WAG Level 9 Under 13 athletes who were competing for Australian Champion in the Final.

QLD’s Grace Gullo continued to shine on the competition floor and won the All Around Gold medal with an incredible combined score of 105.175 and is now an Australian Champion for 2019. She earned herself the Gold medal in Vault, Beam and Floor and Bronze on the Uneven Bars.

QLD continued to dominate with Grace Webb winning the Silver medal for All Around with a combined score of 99.050. Her strongest apparatus was Vault with both her scores being over 13.000.

The final spot on the All Around podium was won by Ava Costa from VIC, she scored 98.125 to win the Bronze medal. She managed a stronger day of competition with her best apparatus score 12.875 on Beam.

The MAG Level 8 Open Team competition took place in the final session of the day, with QLD taking home the Team Gold medal with a score of 212.650. Finlay Jones scored 12.950 on Floor while the whole Team performed best on Rings and Horizontal Bar.

QLD was closely followed by NSW who claimed the Silver medal with a total score of 211.400. Bora Atli was a stand out for NSW on the Vault with a score of 13.550.

The final podium spot went to VIC as they claimed the Bronze medal with a score of 208.250. As a team they were strongest on Parallel Bars while Matthew Kapp and Dartanyn Gilson got their highest individual scores.

The Australian Champion for WAG Level 8 14 and Under was won by Emily Fotek from QLD who had a combined score of 101.999. She had a solid competition across both days with her strongest apparatus being Vault.

In the Silver medal position was Isabella Wilson from QLD who scored 100.258 and the final spot with Bronze making it a clean sweep for QLD, was Doreen Chiang scored 99.191.

In the Level 8 15 and Over Final, it was again in the colour maroon with QLD’s Chloe Marginov claiming the Australian Champion title with a combined score of 99.698. It was her Vault and Uneven Bars routine that were able to get her over the line.

Hot on her tail was team mate, Maya Sudrikku who scored 98.982 to claim the Silver medal while Ruby Ingle closed out yet another clean sweep for QLD. She scored a 98.715 to earn the Bronze medal.

The Level 8 Artistry Award was award to Akira Van from South Australia. 

DAY 1

The Australian Gymnastics Championships began competition bright and early on Monday 20 May. The WAG Level 8 and 9 Under Teams were the first to get a feel of the competition floor and make their mark.

The early start didn’t stop the athletes at performing at their best with QLD fielding an incredibly good team in Level 8. They claimed the Team Gold medal with a comfortable score of 205.463, with Vault being their strongest apparatus.

Team VIC followed behind them and combined for a score of 198.393 to earn the Silver medal.

To close out the podium, Team WA finished strongly claiming the Bronze medal with a score of 196.595.

The stand out athletes on apparatus were; NSW Jasmine Footit who scored 13.700 on Vault. QLD’s Doreen Chiang and Cali Westmoreland were the only two athletes to score above 13.000 on Uneven Bars.

The Level 9 Under athletes had a close competition, QLD proving too strong again scoring a 152.700 to earn their Team Gold medal.

VIC made certain of their podium finish with a score of 149.075 claiming the Silver medal while closing out the top three was NSW scoring 144.275 for their team Bronze medal.

QLD’s Grace Gullo was a star on the competition floor earning the top scores in three of the four apparatus with her Vault being the strongest scoring 13.700. VIC’s Olina Karatzias was the second strongest performer on Beam with a great score of 13.500.

The second half of Day 1 saw WAG Level 9 Team’s take the floor with QLD taking out the Gold medal with the big score of 201.962.

Team VIC weren’t far behind; they scored 199.431 to get the Silver medal while the NSW Team found themselves on the podium with a Bronze medal and a score of 198.828.

There were solid performances across the board; Chailend Malinowski from NSW scored a very high 13.800 on Vault. While VIC’s Jessica Eland and WA’s Tiesha Arfah were the only two on Uneven Bars to score above 13.000.

The Level 10 Team’s were the last to compete and stepped it up another level, there were some incredible routines on the competition floor.

Team VIC took home the Gold medal with strong performances across their whole team scoring 163.050. Lisa Nadine Tan scored an incredible 14.725 on Beam for VIC.

The Silver medal went to QLD scoring 160.525 and this saw Brigit McMahon score 14.550 on Vault and Jaymee Dillon scored 13.825 on Uneven Bars.

To close out Day 1 of competition, WA finished out the podium and earned the Bronze medal with a score of 156.600. WA’s Amanda Edwards was their best on Floor and scored 14.300.

Daily Wrap Ups – Straight from the Comp Floor

 

2018

Day 12 – Sunday 3 June

Dual Commonwealth Games Bronze Medallist Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva has capped off a golden meet at the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships, taking three out of the four Gold Medals on offer in the Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG) Individual Apparatus Finals in the final day of competition at Hisense Arena.

Fresh off the back of securing the prestigious Senior International Individual All-Around title on the penultimate day of competition in Melbourne, Kiroi-Bogatyreva posted scores of 14.550, 14.000 and 12.550 in the Hoop, Ball and Ribbon Finals respectively, to blitz the competition and repeatedly find herself atop the podium.

An error with the Clubs meant Kiri-Bogatyreva had to settle for the Residential Silver Medal and was denied a clean sweep of the Senior International competition, with her Victorian teammate and training partner at the Prahran Rhythmic Gymnastics centre in Melbourne – Ashari Gill – claiming the Gold with a score of 13.250. New Zealand teenager Stella Ebert – who competed alongside Kiroi-Bogatyreva at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games – claimed outright Silver in Clubs, scoring 12.050.

With the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships serving as the first part of the selection process for the 2018 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships – to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria this coming September – Kiroi-Bogatyreva and Gill will now both be looking towards securing a berth on their first World Championship team, at just 16 years of age.

In the Junior International Apparatus Finals, Queensland’s Lidiia Iakovleva was once again on fire. Off the back of winning her third consecutive Junior International Australian All-Around Title yesterday, Iakovleva put in another day of stunningly consistent competition, making a clean sweep of the Individual Apparatus Finals.

After securing Australia a quota position in the Rhythmic Gymnastics competition at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games this October during the Oceania Continental Championships (held in conjunction with this year’s Australian Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne), Iakovleva has put forward a strong case to be named in this position off the back of her performances at this year’s Championships.

Earlier in the day it was the Pre Juniors and Level 10s in action in the RG competition for their Individual Apparatus Finals. In the Pre Junior division the honours were shared amongst the states, with Queensland’s Jasmine Reichhart winning the Freehand Final, New South Wales’ Sophie Del Popolo winning the Ball Final, and Victorian’s Sophia Dew and Zoey Lin winning the Rope and Hoop Finals respectively. New Zealand’s Da Yeon Lee was also sensational, winning outright Gold in both the Freehand and Rope Finals.

In the Level 10 RG competition, just like in the Team and All-Around events, the top spot on the podium was always filled by a South Australian. Faith Chin won every Final she made – Hoop, Ball and Ribbon – whilst newly-crowned Level 10 All-Around Champion, Yaroslava Leonova, took out the remaining National Title with the Clubs.

In the Acrobatic Gymnastics (ACR) competition, a massive 22 Gold Medals were on offer on the final day of competition, and – continuing on with the theme in the ACR competition at the 2018 Australian Championships – all bar one were won by groups from New South Wales (NSW).

In the morning’s Level 6 Pairs competition, the NSW pairing of Heather Aldridge and Jovana Borovicanin won not only the Overall Gold Medal, but were also crowned National Champions in the Balance competition. Rory Peters and Xander Chavez won the Level 6 Men’s Pair Overall National Title, whilst Nikita Komarov and Angelina Chalabov were victorious in the Level 6 Mixed Pair competition.

In the afternoon session, the Victorian duo of Connor Dwyer and Amelie Pote stood atop the podium in the Level 8 Mixed Pair competition, however the remaining other seven divisions being contested were all won by groups from New South Wales; Level 8 Women’s Pair, Level 8 Women’s Trio, Level 9 Women’s Trio, Level 10 Women’s Trio, Junior 12-18 Mixed Pair, Junior 13-19 Mixed Pair and Junior 13-19 Women’s Trio. Unsurprisingly, this meant that New South Wales was once again crowned the Overall Champion State for Acrobatic Gymnastics.

Over in the Trampoline Gymnastics (TRP) competition, the morning session saw our International athletes compete for National Titles in Synchronised Trampoline. Whilst the medals in the morning session were generally shared between the States, New South Wales were again dominant, with the pairing of Ty Swadling and Aiden Thomas taking out the Senior Men’s Title, whilst NSW’s Kira Ward partnered with West Australian Eva Kierath to win the Senior Women’s Title. New South Wales also secured the Junior Women’s Synchro Title, thanks to the pairing of Imogen Florian and Jessica Pickering.

In the final session of the Championships, it was Team Final time for our Trampoline athletes, in both the Individual and Double Mini Trampoline (DMT) events. Big on numbers and on talent, New South Wales took out three of the four titles on offer – both the Men’s and Women’s Trampoline Team events, as well as the Men’s Double Mini Trampoline Team Event – however the Queensland girls ensured it wouldn’t be a clean sweep, taking out the Women’s DMT Team Final.

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

Despite a late surge up the medal tally from New South Wales – particularly in the Trampoline and Acrobatic Gymnastics competitions – Queensland maintained the position they held atop the medal tally from Day 1 of the Championships, to finish with a total of 223 medals, including 87 Gold. New South Wales were a gallant second (85 Gold, 256 total medals) whilst Victoria were third (60 Gold, 167 total medals).

To conclude the Australian Gymnastics Championships for 2018, our final lot of awards were presented. Congratulations to the National Gymsport Award recipients for Acrobatic Gymnastics:

ACR Australian Levels Gymnasts of the Year – Emily Apostolovski, Caitlin O’Neil & Mikayla Gumm (NSW)

ACR Junior International Gymnasts of the Year – Caitlin Christie, Varnie Raman & Nadia Cunningham (NSW)

ACR Senior International Gymnasts of the Year – Lauren Farquhar, Maja Moore & Taylah Doosey (NSW)

ACR Australian Levels Coach of the Year – Rebecca Buffrey (NSW)

ACR Official of the Year (Judge) – Amy Yeomans (NSW)

ACR Special Recognition Award – Bruce Treble (VIC)

The following Acrobatic Gymnastics athletes also received their Athlete Award of Distinction for their appearance at both the 2016 and 2017 World Championships:

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Tara Wilkie (NSW)

Trampoline Gymnastics

Jack Petrie (WA)

Lauren Sampson (QLD)

Kira Ward (NSW)

Abbie Watts (NSW)

Blake Rutherford (NSW)

Acrobatic Gymnastics

Natalie Lin (NSW)

Hilary Conroy (NSW)

Liam Rousseau (QLD)

Lachlan Nightingale (QLD)

Cassiel Rousseau-Forwood (QLD)

Jake Sergeant (QLD)

In the Australian Championships awards, massive congratulations to Jack Penny (TAS) for competing at an incredible 15 Australian Championships (!) as of his appearance at the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships last year.

Congratulations to the following Trampoline Gymnastics athletes who have competed at 10 Australian Championships as of either 2017 or 2018:

Makonnen Brown (TAS)

Claire Arthur (SA)

Cassandra Hoare (SA)

Latisha Painter (VIC)

Paige Crane (VIC)

Ryan Hatfield (VIC)

Congratulations also to the following athletes, for which 2017 or 2018 marked their fifth appearance at an Australian Gymnastics Championships:

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Brianna Namocatcat (SA)

Faith Chin (SA)

Samara Farrell (SA)

Claudia Foubert (SA)

Yaroslava Leonova (SA)

Danielle Boniface (NSW)

Annelise Harper (NSW)

Amelia Measday (NSW)

Anya Patel (NSW)

Ella Chapman (NSW)

Alisa Gimgina (VIC)

Rashelle Feldman (VIC)

Silvia Valente (VIC)

Tahlia Stewart (VIC)

Chloe Hay (VIC)

Trampoline Gymnastics

Lucy Chesterman (TAS)

Amber French (TAS)

Kayla McFadyen (TAS)

Lachlan Robertson WA)

Lara Reeves (WA)

Joshua Goodwin (WA)

Connor Dique (WA)

Kayla Nel (WA)

Keara Nel (WA)

Jemima Ball (SA)

Mahli Harris (SA)

Mikaela Lange (SA)

Kirstie Larsen (SA)

Rosie Cattrall (SA)

Jake Marinov (VIC)

Phoebe Kakaras (VIC)

Sunday Hollingsworth (VIC)

Charlotte Johnstone (QLD)

Clare Mar Fan (QLD)

Elliose Wogand (QLD)

Hannah Marshall (QLD)

Jacob Hunt (QLD)

Acrobatic Gymnastics

Kayleigh Broadwidth (QLD)

Rhiannon Arkell (QLD)

Nicole Chan (NSW)

Alexandra McWhirter (NSW)

Paige Persijn (NSW)

Cailie Challenor (NSW)

Mikayla Gumm (NSW)

And that’s a wrap on the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships! A massive congratulations to all of the athletes who competed; without you – the stars of the show – an event this spectacular could not be possible! And of course, a huge THANK YOU to all of the coaches, judges, chaperones, team officials, volunteers, contractors and Gymnastics Australia staff – without all of your hard work, an event of this magnitude could simply not be staged. We can’t wait to see you all in 2019!

 

Day 11 – Saturday 2 June

It was the Rhythmic Gymnastics Level 10s that kicked off the penultimate day of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships, competing in the second phase of their Qualifications with their Clubs and Ribbon routines.

It was another dominant performance from South Australia in the Rhythmic Gymnastics competition, taking out the Team Title with a mammoth score of 116.250, but also making a clean sweep of the All-Around podium. Yaroslava Leonova won the prestigious Level 10 Individual All-Around Title with a score of 39.800, followed by her teammates Alisa Buglak in second (37.450) and Faith Chin in third (36.700).

Our Acrobatic Gymnastics athletes were back in action in the afternoon session, and this time it was the Level 6 Trios’ turn to show the judges what they’re made of.

Team New South Wales (NSW) continued their dominance in the Acrobatics competition, taking out seven of the nine medals on offer in the session. Most notable the Sky Blues made a clean sweep of the Overall Podium, with the group of Mikayla Gumm, Abbey Mushet and Indianna Surian placing first (52.310), Madison Mikanovic, Madison Mitchell and Latisha James placing second (50.840), and Zahra Kumarasinhe, Kate Mander and Ruby Harding coming third (50.540).

It was also an exciting afternoon in the Junior International Rhythmic Gymnastics competition, with the conclusion of Qualifications for the Junior athletes. Following on from part one of qualifications yesterday, this round of competition also served as the Oceania Continental Championships and Youth Olympic Games quota spot selection trial. With the best age-eligible athletes from across Australia and New Zealand competing, the top ranked athlete at the end of the competition would earn a spot in the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games for their respective country. It is then up to the country who earns the spot to select at athlete to fill that position for the Buenos Aires meet by whatever selection process they choose.

Queensland’s Lidiia Iakovleva came to the competition floor with a point to prove, and not only walked away with her third consecutive Junior International All-Around Title – and a mammoth total score of 48.500 to boot – but was crowned the 2018 Oceania Continental Champion, in the process earning a place for Australia in the Rhythmic Gymnastics competition in Buenos Aires this October.

No medals were presented following the afternoon’s Trampoline, as the International athletes continued their Qualifications in the lead up to the evening’s Premium Session – and what a session of top-level Trampolining it was! In the blue ribbon event of the Trampoline Gymnastics competition – the Men’s and Women’s Senior Individual Trampoline Final – it was two New South Wales young guns who took out the prestigious titles for the first time in their careers.

In the Men’s event it was a New South Wales clean sweep on the podium, with Dominic Clarke scoring 59.820 to beat out 2017 Australian Champion, Ty Swadling (59.420), and his younger brother, Shaun Swadling (57.765). Meanwhile on the Women’s side of the ledger it was Kira Ward’s turn to supersede the 2017 National Champion, beating out Western Australia’s Eva Kierath for the title; 53.785 points to 52.245. South Australian veteran, Claire Arthur, finished in the Bronze Medal position with a score of 52.125.

In total 12 National Titles were decided for Trampoline Gymnastics in the penultimate Premium Session of the Championships, with New South Wales claiming six of these that were on offer.

Following last night’s Trampoline Qualifications in the Junior age division, Australia’s Jessica Pickering and Liam Christie (both of NSW), were also presented as the Oceania Champions of the Male and Female divisions during tonight’s awards. This means that they too have secured an Australian athlete a spot in both the Men’s and Women’s Individual Trampoline competition at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

In the evening Rhythmic Gymnastics competition, dual Commonwealth Games Bronze Medallist, Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva, added another prize to her trophy cabinet, taking out the coveted Rhythmic Gymnastics Senior International All-Around Title at the Australian Gymnastics Championships.

After experiencing mixed fortunes with the Hoop and Ball on day one of competition, Kiroi-Bogatyreva was near flawless on day two, posting a 14.650 and 13.050 with the Clubs and Ribbon respectively, for a massive All-Around score of 54.350 – 5.8 marks ahead of her nearest competitor.

The 16-year-old – for whom 2018 is her first year competing at the Senior International level – also spearheaded the Victorian team to take out the Senior International Team Title with a score of 140.140, ahead of Queensland (115.700) and New South Wales (110.650).

Another teenager and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games representative – New Zealand’s Stella Ebert – claimed the outright All-Around Silver Medal with a score of 48.550, whilst Kiroi-Bogatyreva’s teammate and training partner, Ashari Gill, claimed Residential Silver with 45.800. New South Wales’ Alexandra Eedle was third (41.600).

Finally, the second last day of the Championships was our first chance to catch the International Groups in action, some of whom represented Australia at the 2018 World Age Group Competition in Belgium earlier this year. Whilst no awards are presented in the 12-18 and 13-19 age divisions until they compete their Combined routines tomorrow, in the 11-16 age division it was groups from NSW who once again took the spoils, with Shennei Barber and Stella Phipson winning the Pairs competition with an Overall score of 54.200, whilst the group of Priya Wheatley, Pheobe Sinclair and Elizabeth Hutton took out the Trio Title (52.750).

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

With the majority of the All-Around medals being decided by the conclusion of Day 11 of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships, it also meant it was time to acknowledge a number of our award recipients for their excellence in their various roles both on and off the competition floor.

Rhythmic Gymnastics

RG Senior International Gymnast of the Year – Tara Wilkie (NSW)

RG Junior International Gymnast of the Year – Lidiia Iakovleva

RG Australian International Coach of the Year – LeRay Gymnastics Academy Coaching Team (NSW)

RG Judging Official of the Year – Delia Halmu (NSW)

RG Special Recognition Award – Sue Patrick (VIC)

RG Retirement Recognition Award – Zoe Ormrod (QLD)

Trampoline Gymnastics

TRP Senior Female Gymnast of the Year – Kira Ward (NSW)

TRP Senior Male Gymnast of the Year – Dominic Clarke (NSW)

TRP Junior Female Gymnast of the Year – Molly Mamo (NSW)

TRP Junior Male Gymnast of the Year – Liam Christie (NSW)

TRP Coaching Team of the Year – Castle Hill RSL Gymnastics (NSW)

TRP Special Recognition Award – Melanie Tonks (QLD)

TRP National Official of the Year (Judge) – Leigh Oswin (TAS)

TRP Retirement Recognition Award – Jack Penny (TAS)

Acrobatic Gymnastics

ACR International Coach of the Year – Agnes Sajgal (NSW)

The following athletes who have made a significant contribution to Gymnastics in Australia throughout their career were also formally recognised following their official retirement from the sport in 2017:

Tara Wilkie (NSW)

Jack Penny (TAS)

Jarrod Spear (QLD)

Finally, the Rhythmic Gymnastics athletes and officials who represented Australia at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games were recognised in front of their peers and fans for their successful performance on the Gold Coast in April:

Athletes

Danielle Prince (NSW)

Enid Sung (NSW)

Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva (VIC)

Officials

Dani LeRay (Coach)

Tomorrow marks the 12th and final day of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships. Competition kicks off at Hisense Arena from 9am.

 

Day 10 – Friday 1 June

Day 10 kicked off a big day of Qualifications in the Rhythmic Gymnastics competition, with the Level 10s, Junior and Senior Internationals all competing both their Hoop and Ball routines for part one of their Team and All-Around competition. All three levels will conclude their Qualifications tomorrow when they perform their Clubs and Ribbon routines.

In the evening Premium Session – the first for week 2 of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships – dual Commonwealth Games Bronze Medallist, 16-year-old Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva, was the star of the show. Kiroi-Bogatyreva kicked off her campaign to take out the coveted Australian All-Around Title in just her first year competing at the Senior International level, with a stunning performance with the ball – the same routine that earnt her individual Bronze at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in April – scoring a massive 14.400.

Despite an error-riddled performance with the hoop – her second and final routine of the night – which saw Kiroi-Bogatyreva have to retrieve the spare apparatus when a missed catch meant her hoop ended up out of area – superior difficulty led her to still post one of the highest scores of the night; a 12.250. A combined total of 26.650 places her well atop the overnight leader board heading into Day 2 of competition.

Another 16-year-old and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games representative – New Zealand’s Stella Ebert – currently sits in second position in the All-Around standings, with a score of 23.950, whilst Australian Commonwealth Games reserve, Michaela Whitehouse, is third (23.500).

In the Trampoline Gymnastics competition, the afternoon’s Session 28 was the last session of competition for the Age Group athletes. It was a session dominated by New South Wales, who not only took out an incredible 11 medals from the session – including three Gold – but also took out the Age Group Team Titles for Synchronised Trampoline, Individual Trampoline and Tumbling, as well as the overall Age Group Champion Trophy. Queensland took out the remaining Age Group Team Title in the Double Mini Trampoline division.

In the evening’s Premium Session it was the International Trampolinists turn to take to the competition arena for the first time for the Championships. Whilst in the Individual Trampoline and Double Mini Trampoline divisions it was the Qualification rounds, in the Tumbling division the crowd was treated to not only some of the best Tumbling in the country, but also in the world. It was another session of Trampoline Gymnastics which saw a lot of sky blue on the podium at the conclusion of the session, with New South Wales’ Tumblers incredibly taking out the National Titles in all bar one of the divisions on offer; Youth Male and Female, Junior Male and Female, Senior Male, and Men’s and Women’s Teams. Victoria’s Latisha Painter was the point of difference during the presentations, being crowned the National Champion in the Senior Women’s division.

June 1 also marked the start of the Acrobatic Gymnastics competition at the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships, with the Level 7s kicking off proceedings in the afternoon session. Taking the lead of their Trampoline colleagues, it was the New South Wales athletes who dominated the competition, winning 16 of the 19 medals on offer during the session, including six Gold. Isabella Yeomans and Ingrid Norton won the Level 7 Women’s Pair Overall National Title, as well as picking up a Gold for their Balance and Silver for their Dynamic routines, whilst their New South Wales teammates, Millie Mardon and Luke Buckton, won the Overall Level 7 Mixed Pair division. In the Level 7 Women’s Trio competition it was a clean sweep for the New South Wales’ grouping of Indigo Conray, Kelsie O’Neill and Annabelle Gibson, who not only won the Overall Gold Medal, but also Gold in both their Balance and Dynamic routines.

In the evening session the Level 8 to 10 Acrobatic groups were in action, performing both their Balance and Dynamic routines. Final results for these divisions will be released following the performance of their Combined routines on Sunday.

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

The penultimate day of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships commences at 9am tomorrow, with part two of the Rhythmic Gymnastics Level 10 Qualifications.

 

Day 9 – Thursday 31 May

It was a jam-packed day of competition on Day 9 of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships at Hisense Arena, with some of the littlest Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG) athletes kicking off proceedings.

In the first session of the day it was the RG Pre Juniors that took to the competition floor, for their Team and All-Around competition. It was a dominate performance from Victoria, who not only took out the Team Title with a total score of 107.950 – just 0.35 ahead of the team from New South Wales – but with Sophia Dew also winning the All-Around Title, with a combined score of 38.600. New South Wales’ Sophie Del Popolo took the individual Silver Medal (36.700), whilst Dew’s teammate, Zoey Lin, was third (36.450).

In the afternoon session of the Rhythmic Gymnastics competition, we saw even tinier gymnasts take to the floor, with an even more dominant performance from the Victorians. Spearheaded by pocket rocket Miyabi Akiya, Victoria won the team event with a massive score of 107.065 (their nearest rival was New South Wales with a score of 92.245), whilst Akiya took out the All-Around Title with a score of 41.056, ahead of NSW’s Emmanoula Frokou (35.745) and Victorian teammate, Eva Gordienko (34.600). Incredibly, Akiya also won all four Individual Apparatus National Titles for Freehand, Rope, Hoop and Ball.

The Trampoline Gymnastics athletes were also back in action in the afternoon’s Session 25, in a session which was dominated by Queensland. Kyle Hall took out the Men’s Tumbling title in the Under 15 age division, whilst Anyela Rogan completed the same feat for Queensland in the Women’s Double Mini Trampoline (DMT) Under 17 division, in what was a clean sweep for the maroons, with Eliza Peart and Brydie McKee joining Rogan on the podium. Raffael Wullschleger (QLD) was also crowned residential Australian Champion in the 17+ Men’s Individual Trampoline event, with New Zealand’s Kieran Growcott taking out the outright Gold Medal.

The final session of the day saw more Rhythmic Gymnastics action, this time for the Level 9 athletes. South Australia dominated this event, taking out the team competition – with a score of 106.150 – as well as the All-Around title, thanks to Scarlett Evans, who scored a dominant 37.900. Together the South Aussies also took out three of the four Individual Apparatus Gold Medals on offer, with Evans winning Clubs and Ribbon whilst her teammate – Brianna Namocatcat – won Ball. The Hoop Final was won by Arina Dimintevskaya of Queensland.

For the penultimate session of competition in the Age Group Trampolining at this year’s National Championships, Session 26 was dominated by New South Wales, who took home a total of 11 medals from the evening, including four Gold. Zachary Torbay and Tahlia Geelan took out twin titles for NSW in the Under 13 Individual Trampoline competition, whilst Brighton Stokes won the Women’s Under 15 DMT title. In the Men’s 17+ DMT event, Adrian Gaunt was crowned Residential Australian Champion, after a strong performance in this session saw New Zealand’s Samuel Hall win the outright Gold.

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

Day 10 of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships commences at Hisense Arena with part one of the RG Level 10 competition tomorrow morning. The action kicks off from 9am.

 

Day 8 – Wednesday 30 May

The 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships resumed today at Hisense Arena with Day 8 of competition.

Week 2 of the Championships sees Australia’s best Rhythmic, Trampoline and Acrobatic Gymnastics athletes take to the floor at Hisense Arena in the fight for the title of National Champion.

It was the Trampoline Gymnastics athletes that got proceedings underway during the afternoon session, with athletes competing in Synchronised Trampoline in the Under 11, Under 13 and 17+ age divisions, whilst the Under 17 and 17+ Tumblers also took to the floor.

Queensland continued their dominance from week 1 of the Championships, to kick off week 2 with a total of seven medals in Session 23A, including three gold. Raffael Wullschleger and Thomas Clough sat atop the podium at the conclusion of the 17+ Men’s Synchronised Trampoline competition, whilst Madeline Dack and Emmeline Shrier completed the same feat for in the Under 11 Women’s division. Riley Jones also achieved golden glory for the Sunshine State in the Men’s Under 17 division.

The evening saw the Rhythmic Gymnastics competition kick off with the Sub Junior, Junior and Senior Groups dazzle on the floor. Once again there was a lot of maroon and white on the podium at the conclusion of competition, with Queensland taking out the National Titles in both the Junior and Senior Group competitions, along with four minor medals. New South Wales took the remaining title from the session, winning the Sub Junior Group Australian Title.

The Trampolinists were back in action again in the evening session, again in Synchronised Trampoline (this time in the Under 15 and Under 17 divisions) and Tumbling (for the Under 11s and Under 13s). New South Wales and Western Australia shared the spoils in the final Trampoline session of the day, coming away with three Gold Medals apiece, as well as a swag of minor medals. New South Wales tasted twin success in the Under 13s Tumbling, with Joshua De Beer and Ayla Knappick winning the Men’s and Women’s titles successfully, with NSW also completing a clean sweep on the Women’s Under 13 podium. Harper Adams and Sophie Johnston also stood atop the podium for NSW, this time in the Under 15 Women’s Synchronised Trampoline event.

Western Australia had similar across the board success in the evening’s Synchronised Trampoline events, this time with Lauren Griffiths and Jacinta Flynn, and Roman Kirby and Joshua Goodwin tasting success in the Men’s and Women’s Under 17 Synchronised Trampoline events. WA’s Lachlan Goodwin also partnered with South Australia’s Luka Danilovic to take out residential Gold in the Men’s Under 15 Synchronised event, behind New Zealand duo; Jack West and Ryan Jefferson.

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

At the conclusion of today’s final session of competition the first of our National Gymsport Awards for week 2 were also presented, for excellence in Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG).

Congratulations to:

RG Australian Levels Gymnast of the Year – Tiah McLaren (QLD)

RG Australian Levels Coach of the Year – Kerrie Mancini (QLD)

Competition resumes in both the Rhythmic and Trampoline Gymnastics at Hisense Arena tomorrow. The Rhythmic Pre Juniors will commence proceedings with competition commencing at 8am.

 

Day 7 – Sunday 27 May

The final day of Artistic Gymnastics competition at the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships was always going to be a big one, and proceedings got underway with the littlest athletes of the week taking to the floor for their second day of competition, in both the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) Future International and Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Level 7 Under 13 divisions.

On the Women’s side of the draw Victoria took the lion’s share of the glory, winning both the Team event, and with Miella Brown securing the All-Around title with the score of 81.000. In an extremely tight race to the top of the All-Around podium, Brown edged out Western Australia’s Olena Edmeades by just 0.825 for Gold, however the two girls shared the medals in the Individual Apparatus Finals, with Edmeades winning Vault and Bars, whilst Brown took the spoils on Beam and Floor.

In the morning’s MAG competition it was New South Wales who spent a lot of time atop the podium winning the Team Title ahead of the ACT and Queensland, and with Julian Tavares winning the All-Around Title with a combined score of 113.950. Tavares proceeded to win four Bronze Medals in the Individual Apparatus Finals – on Floor, Pommel Horse, Rings and Horizontal Bar – whilst his New South Wales teammates took out three Individual Apparatus Titles; Max Langdon on Pommel Horse, Connor Owen on Parallel Bars and Zachery Brotherton on Horizontal Bar.

The afternoon session was always going to be a big one, not just because it was the penultimate session and final Premium Session for the MAG and WAG competition at the 2018 Australian Championships, but because for the first time EVER Australian gymnastics was broadcast live on FOX Sports Australia.

With the MAG and WAG Senior International athletes in action during Session 21, it was also a chance to catch Australia’s gymnastics heroes from the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in action.

Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist on Vault – South Australia’s Chris Remkes – didn’t disappoint the crowd who turned out to see Australia’s own gymnastics cult hero in action, sticking both of his vaults – just as he did on the Gold Coast in April – to secure the Gold Medal and Australian Title on his pet apparatus. Remkes posted an average score of 14.700; 0.099 less that the Finals score he posted at Coomera Indoor Sports Centre, and 0.584 ahead of his closest rival here in Melbourne.

However Remkes was out to prove he was no one-trick pony, medalling on the two other apparatus he competed at this year’s Championships. Remkes secured Gold on Pommel – an apparatus which he also reached the Finals in on the Gold Coast – with a score of 14.766, and Silver on Floor (13.900), behind exciting first-year Senior from Queensland, Heath Thorpe, who scored 14.133.

“Coming back from all of the excitement from the Gold Coast, I was really happy to go out there and put up some more good performances,” Remkes said.

“Now it’s back to training and looking towards Worlds,” Remkes continued.

Queensland’s Georgia Godwin was also in blistering form in Melbourne today, picking up four of the five individual Gold Medal’s on offer in the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Senior International competition.

Godwin was a dominant winner in the Individual All-Around competition, scoring 112.225, ahead of her Commonwealth Games teammates Emily Whitehead (106.625) and Rianna Mizzen (106.550). It was sweet relief for Godwin, who was leading the All-Around competition after Day 1 of the 2017 Australian Championships, only to be forced to withdraw due to injury and not be able to complete the competition.

Godwin also picked up Gold Medals on Floor (28.650), Beam (26.650) and Bars (29.000), as well as the Silver on Vault, where she finished behind Commonwealth Games Bronze Medallist on the same apparatus, Victoria’s Emily Whitehead.

“My aim today was to come out again and hit four from four routines, and I did that so I’m really happy,” Godwin said.

“I haven’t had a break since Comm[onwealth] Games,” she continued, “so I’m having 10 days off when I get home, and then it’s back into training ahead of Worlds.”

The final session of the day – and week 1 of the Championships – featured the WAG Junior International and MAG Level 9 Under 15s and 17s second day of competition.

In the Women’s competition, Queensland’s Kate Sayer continued her consistent form, backing up from winning the Oceania Championship Title on Day 1 of competition, to take out the Australian All-Around Title with a combined score of 102.550, ahead of fellow Queenslander Isla Ross (100.825) and New South Wales’ Elena Chipizubov (99.525). Sayer also secured the Individual Apparatus Titles on Vault (27.224) and Bars (26.525).

In the Under 15 division on the MAG Level 9 competition, South Australia’s Jesse Moore was a clear standout, not only winning the Individual All-Around Title with a score of 152.463 (an incredible 8.503 points ahead of his nearest competitor), but also winning the National Titles on five out of the six Individual Apparatus; Floor, Pommel, Vault, Parallel Bars and Horizontal Bar. Victoria’s William Haines snapped up the remaining title on Rings, with a score of 11.200. Moore tied for third with New South Wales’ Ewan McConville with 11.066.

Fresh of clinching the Oceania Championship and securing the Youth Olympic Games quota place for his country on Friday, New Zealand’s Sam Dick continued his fine form across the Tasman, winning the Level 9 Under 17 All-Around Title with a score of 154.596. New South Wales’ Jack Hall was crowned Residential Australian All-Around Champion, scoring 148.230. Dick also secured the Floor, Rings, Vault and Parallel Bars Gold Medals.

With the MAG competition officially wrapped up for the 2018 Championships, Queensland were once again confirmed as the winners of the Cheales / Williamson Shield, with 309 points.

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

Following the conclusion of the final Premium Session of week 1 of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships, further award presentations were made to athletes and officials who have demonstrated excellence in their respective Gymsport in 2017.

The following athletes received an Athlete Award of Distinction, which is presented to an athlete upon their first appearance at a Benchmark Event (World Championships, Olympic or Commonwealth Games):

Men’s Artistic Gymnastics

Mitchell Morgans (QLD)

Clay Stephens (SA)

Tyson Bull (VIC)

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics

Rianna Mizzen (QLD)

Talia Folino (VIC)

The remaining Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) National Gymsport Awards for 2017 were also presented:

WAG Senior International Gymnast of the Year – Emily Little (WA)

WAG Junior International Gymnast of the Year – Isla Ross (QLD)

WAG International Levels Coach or Coaching Team of the Year – Coral King, Joshua Fabian and Nikolai Lachpine (WA)

The following athletes who have made a significant contribution to Gymnastics in Australia throughout their career were also formally recognised following their official retirement from the sport in both 2016 and 2017:

Lauren Mitchell (WA)

Olivia Vivian (WA)

Larrissa Miller (VIC)

Finally, the athletes and officials who represented Australia at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games were recognised in front of their peers and fans for their successful performance on the Gold Coast in April:

Adrienne Glancy – Team Manager

Men’s Artistic Gymnastics

Athletes

Chris Remkes (SA)

Mitchell Morgans (QLD)

Luke Wadsworth (VIC)

Michael Tone (QLD)

Mike Mercieca (QLD)

Officials

Vladimir Vatkin (Coach)

Sean Wilson (Coach)

Phil Cossens (Physio)

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics

Athletes

Alexandra Eade (VIC)

Emily Whitehead (VIC)

Georgia Godwin (QLD)

Rianna Mizzen (QLD)

Georgia-Rose Brown (QLD)

Officials

Mihai Brestyan (Coach)

Michelle De Highden (Coach)

Kate McGillivray (Physio)

Competition resumes in the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships on Wednesday. Week 2 of competition will see Australia’s best Rhythmic, Trampoline and Acrobatic Gymnastics athletes take to the floor at Hisense Arena.

 

Day 6 – Saturday 26 May

Today marked Day 6 of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships, and – with the exception of Podium Training for the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Future Internationals – it’s was a ‘boys only’ day at Hisense Arena.

Kicking off proceedings for the day were the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Level 8 Under 14s, who took to the floor at Hisense Arena for their second day of competition.

It was another dominant performance by Queensland in the MAG competition, taking out the Team Title (with a score of 328.200), as well as the Individual Apparatus Titles on four of the six events on offer; Floor, Rings, Vault and Horizontal Bar.

In the Individual All-Around competition it’s was West Australian Matthew Roberts who reigned supreme, taking out the All-Around Title with a score of 113.650, as well as three individual apparatus medals; Silver on both Floor and Pommel Horse, and Gold on the Parallel Bars.

Rounding out the All-Around podium was Queensland’s Harrison Williams in second (111.650) and Alan Osman from New South Wales in third (110.050).

In the afternoon session it was time for the MAG Level 8 Open athletes to return to the competition arena. Off the back of their success on Day 1 of competition, Queensland’s Ken Gunawan ensured the glory continued for his state, talking out the Individual All-Around crown with a score of 143.681, along with Individual Apparatus Medals on Parallel Bars (Silver), Horizontal Bar (Bronze) and Pommel Horse (Gold). On Pommel Gunawan tied for the National Title with Western Australia’s Todd Brinkworth, with both boys scoring 11.650.

With New Zealand bringing a team to contest the MAG Level 8 Open competition at the 2018 Australian Championships, an Australian team was selected from Day 1 of competition to contest the Tran-Tasman Challenge, which would occur on Day 2 of competition. Ken Gunawan (QLD), Geordie McColl (NSW), Ben Venue (SA) and Max Chapman (WA) were selected to represent Australia, and took out the Gold Medal in the MAG Level 8 Open Trans-Tasman Challenge, ahead of the Kiwi line-up of Dylan Biggs, Mathew Wilkins and Aaron Van Eikck, who claimed Silver.

The evening session – Session 19 – saw more great Men’s Artistic Gymnastics action, with the MAG Level 9 Open athletes lining up for Day 2 of competition. Queensland’s Samuel Favillia was simply awesome, not only winning the All-Around Title with a comprehensive score of 145.496, but also a medal in every single Individual Apparatus Final – the first athlete to complete this feat so far at the Championships. Favilla won Gold on Rings, Parallel Bar and Floor – a title which he shared with the ACT’s Simon Bewick – as well as a Bronze on the Pommel Horse and Vault, and a Silver (to complete the set!) on the Horizontal Bar.

In the MAG Level 9 Open Trans-Tasman Challenge the Australian team of Favilla, Jonathan Harry (NSW), Bewick and William Whitehead (VIC) combined to take out the Gold Medal, ahead of the New Zealand line-up of Peter Nicolls, Patrick Smith, Thomas Dew and Zayne Coffey.

A shadow squad for the both the MAG Level 8 and Level 9 Open teams that will represent Australia at the 2018 New Zealand Gymnastics Championships this October was also announced based on the results from National 2018, however the final team will not be selected until following the conclusion of the Australian Championships.

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

Competition continues tomorrow at Hisense Arena, kicking off from 8.30am. Day 7 of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships will also mark the final day of competition for Artistic Gymnastics at this year’s event.

 

Day 5 – Friday 25 May

Day 5 of the 2018 Australian International Gymnastics Championships was always going to be a big one, with it playing host to the first Premium Session of this year’s Nationals. However first off it was time for some of Australia’s youngest elite gymnasts to take to the floor in the morning’s Session 14.

The Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) Future Internationals were in action first up, performing their compulsory routines for Day 1 of competition. Although no awards will be presented until the conclusion of Day 2 of competition, Western Australia’s Olena Edmeades currently leads the competition with a total score of 32.475, followed by Victoria’s Miella Brown (32.400) and New South Wales’ Selena Saitannis (30.675).

On the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) side of the ledger, it was the Level 7 Under 13s in action. Whilst again no awards are presented on Day 1 of competition in this age division, the Day 1 standings see New South Wales teammates Max Langdon and Julian Tavares incredibly tied for the lead with a score of 56.200.

The day’s afternoon session not only saw the MAG and WAG Junior International athletes take to the competition floor for the first time at this year’s National Championships, but the session also doubled as the Oceania Continental Championships and Youth Olympic Games quota place selection trial. Age-eligible athletes from both Australia and New Zealand competed in two competitions simultaneously whilst still only performing each routine once, with two judging panels present to judge the groups with age-eligible athletes; one for the Australian Championships, and one for the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG)-endorsed Continental Championships.

In the Oceania Continental Championships, the All-Around Champion at the end of the competition earns a quota place for their country for Buenos Aires 2018, which they can elect to fill by any selection process they choose.

In the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics competition, it was a clean sweep for Australia on the All-Around podium, with Queensland’s Kate Sayer being crowned Oceania Junior International All-Around Champion, scoring 51.400 and guaranteeing Australia a place in the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics competition in Argentina this October. Another Queenslander – Isla Ross – took the Silver Medal, with a score of 49.775, whilst New South Wales’ Elena Chipizubov was third (49.350).

However in the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) competition unfortunately the news was not as good for Australia. Despite gallant Silver and Bronze Medal-winning All-Around performances from Jack Hall (NSW) and Kipp Smith (VIC) respectively, they weren’t enough to knock off New Zealand’s Sam Dick from top spot on the podium. Dick recorded the highest score for the competition on four out of the six apparatus on offer, for a massive All-Around total of 77.132, the Oceania All-Around crown, and the MAG quota positon for his country at the Youth Olympic Games.

Team awards for both MAG and WAG were also presented following the conclusion of Day 1 of competition for the Junior Internationals, with Queensland taking out the WAG title, whilst Victoria signified a ‘changing of the guard’ in securing the MAG Level 9 Under 17/15 Combined Team Title.

After a week of build-up, the final session of the day seemed to be what everyone had been waiting for – for the Senior International athletes to take to the competition floor in the first Premium Session of this year’s Championships.

Off the back of his break-out international meet at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, Queensland’s Michael Tone has continued his rise on the Australian Gymnastics scene, being crowned the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Australian All-Around Champion for 2018.

Tone – who made the most Finals of any Australian male gymnast at the Commonwealth Games in April – scored a comprehensive 76.798, to finish ahead of Victorian duo Lachlan Smith and Scott Brooks, who scored 74.565 and 73.764 respectively. Despite some errors on one of his strongest apparatus; the Still Rings, Tone posted big scores on both Vault and his pet apparatus – the Pommel Horse – to secure the prestigious title.

With the MAG Level 10s competing alongside the Seniors, the Level 10 All-Around and Combined Team Titles were also awarded.

In the MAG Level 10 competition incredibly there was a tie for the Title of All-Around Champion, with New South Wales’ Adam Rusgnach and Victoria’s Ethan McCormack both scoring 71.331. In the team event, the Victorian Senior following by the lead of their Junior, securing the Gold Medal with a combined team score of 229.426.

On the Women’s side of the ledger another Commonwealth Games hero – Queensland’s Georgia Godwin – was a convincing leader at the conclusion of Day 1 of competition, with an All-Around score of 56.325. Godwin’s fellow Queensland and GC2018 teammate, Rianna Mizzen, currently sits second (53.650), whilst narrowly behind her is Victoria’s Emily Whitehead in third (53.150). Full results for the women will be known following Day 2 of competition on Sunday.

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

At the conclusion of today’s final session of competition the first of our Board Awards for 2017 were presented by Gymnastics Australia’s CEO, Kitty Chiller.

Congratulations to Desiree Jones (WA) who was presented with an Award of Merit for her service to Women’s Artistic Gymnastics.

Congratulations also to Andrew Cordery (SA), Trent Lawrie (QLD) and Alex Hunt (NSW) who received Special Recognition Awards for their service to Men’s Artistic Gymnastics, as nominated by the National Technical Commission.

The final Board Awards presented for the evening were Gymnastics Australia Life Memberships. There are only 31 Life Members of Gymnastics Australia, who are awarded for distinguished and meritorious service to Gymnastics in Australia for 12 continuous years, or 15 years of broken service. Therefore it is without any surprise that Peggy Liddick (VIC) and Kathleen Graham (QLD) were awarded Life Membership of Gymnastics Australia, for their services to Women’s and Men’s Artistic Gymnastics respectively.

National Gymsport Awards were also presented, for excellence in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG).

Congratulations to the following recipients:

MAG Senior International Gymnast of the Year – Chris Remkes (SA)

MAG Junior International Gymnast of the Year – Indigo Dragon (QLD)

MAG National Levels Gymnast of the Year – Adam Rusgnach (NSW)

MAG International Coach of the Year – Sean Wilson (QLD)

MAG Development Coach of the Year – Paul Szyjko (SA)

MAG National Levels Coach of the Year – Robert (Yi Jun) Hong (NSW)

Finally, the following MAG athletes were recognised for competing at an incredible 10 Australian Championships as of 2018!

Congratulations to:

Michael Tone (QLD)

Stephen Moulds (SA)

Cameron Malone (NSW)

Jae Nagel (NSW)

Kent Pieterse (VIC)

Congratulations also to the following Artistic Gymnastics athletes, for which 2018 marks their fifth appearance at an Australian Gymnastics Championships:

Men’s Artistic Gymnastics

Adam Parker (QLD)

Hugo Veerman (QLD)

James Hardy (QLD)

Jean Nick (QLD)

Josh Chambers (QLD)

Simon Constable (QLD)

Timothy Kite (SA)

Corey Dehn (NSW)

Joseph D’Souza Bullman (NSW)

Robert Fassone (NSW)

Billy McLean (VIC)

Andreas Lepore (VIC)

Conor McGillivray (VIC)

James Dunn (VIC)

Jordan Fitzsimons (VIC)

Joshua Walker (VIC)

Kipp Smith (VIC)

Kynan Whitehead (VIC)

Ruben Chitters (VIC)

Adam Falzarano (ACT)

Alex McDonald (ACT)

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics

Gracy Gaby (TAS)

Sophie Delany (TAS)

Kayla Nel (WA)

Keara Nel (WA)

Savannah Crompton (SA)

Jade Cockrell (nee Slater) (SA)

Amie Martin (VIC)

Macy Pegoli (VIC)

Rachel Laval (VIC)

Rebecca McConnell (VIC)

Romi Brown (VIC)

Chloe Jackson-Brown (NSW)

Competition in the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships continues tomorrow at Hisense Arena from 8.30am.

 

Day 4 – Thursday 24 May

The 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships continued at Hisense Arena in Melbourne today, with the schedule once again returning to a back-to-back day of competition.

To kick off proceedings in Session 11 the Level 9 Under 13 Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) athletes took to the floor for their Finals, whilst the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Level 7 Open athletes also returned to the main stage in Hisense Arena for their second day of competition.

In the WAG Level 9 Under competition it was the tiniest competitor – Queensland’s Grace Gullo – who was the star of the show, not only taking out the Individual All-Around Title with a convincing score of 99.075, but also winning National Titles on three out of the four Individual Apparatus on offer; Vault, Bars and Floor. Victoria’s Harriet Wingrove snagged the remaining title on Beam, with a score of 13.375.

In the MAG Level 7 Open competition, Finlay Jones continued on Queensland’s Gold Medal-winning form from Day 1 of competition, taking out the Individual All-Around Title with a score of 144.796. In the Individual Apparatus events there were an incredible three sets of ties on the Podium. Ethan Carlile (NSW), Jayden Sarich (WA) and Minato Thomas (NSW) all registered a score of 13.200 on Floor to tie for second place, Josiah Hunter (WA) and Tyrone Llaguano (VIC) scored 11.466 to tie for the Bronze Medal and Pommel, and incredibly James Ogilvie (NSW), Jayden Sarich (WA) and Ethan Carlile (NSW) shared the Australian Title on Vault, with a score of 12.633.

In the afternoon session it was the MAG Level 8 Opens’ turn to take to the floor for their first day of competition; Qualifications and Team Final. Queensland continued on their good form from the morning session, taking out the Level 8 Open Team Title with a score of 213.494, narrowly ahead of New South Wales, who scored 212.696. An excited Western Australian line-up took the Bronze with 204.261.

It was also time for the WAG Level 10s to return to the floor for their Finals during the afternoon session, however they would have to wait for the second part of their division to compete in the evening before their results would be known.

Following both parts 1 and 2 of the WAG Level 10 Finals, it was time for the individual awards. Victoria’s Rebekah Chen dominated the 16 years and under age division, winning the All-Around Title with a mammoth score of 111.875, as well as taking out the National Titles on Uneven Bars, Beam and Floor.

In the 17 years and over age division, Queensland’s Madison Thompson made it back-to-back Level 10 All-Around titles, with a score of 109.600, ahead of Victoria’s Lauren Pengelly (107.200), and fellow Queenslander, Karleigh Fraser (105.650).

In the final session on Day 4 of the Championships, the MAG Level 9 Open athletes also kicked off their 2018 Australian Championships campaign. With only team awards presented at the end of day 1 of competition, Queensland continued their dominance in the MAG team events, taking out the National Title with a score of 212.927, ahead of New South Wales (210.894) and Victoria (197.796).

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

At the conclusion of today’s final session of competition more of our National Gymsport Awards were also presented, for excellence in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG).

Congratulations to the following recipients:

WAG National Levels Gymnast of the Year – Madison Thompson (QLD)

WAG National Levels Coach or Coaching Team of the Year – Valeriy Shuster (ACT)

Carol Sussman Award (for Floor Artistry, awarded to a National Levels Gymnast competing at the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships) – Emily Rampoldi (NSW)

Competition resumes tomorrow with Day 5 of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships. The action kicks off at Hisense Arena from 8.30am.

 

Day 3 – Wednesday 23 May

Day 3 of the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships was a special day at Hisense Arena, with it being Gymnastics Australia’s ‘Community Day’. Instead of purchasing a ticket, Gymnastics Australia simply asked spectators to make a gold coin donation to their charity of choice; Bravehearts.

On the competition floor we welcomed out Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) National Level 9 athletes back to the arena for their Finals performance. Split into two age divisions, it was the Australian Capital Territory’s Michaela Smith who was victorious not only in the Level 9 Under 15 All-Around competition (scoring 100.900), but also scored three Individual Apparatus Medals; a Silver on Vault, and a pair of Gold’s on both Beam and Floor.

In the Level 9 16 and Over age division, Queensland’s Aymie Hartland continued on her good form from Level 8 in 2017, taking out the Individual All-Around title with a combined score of 102.800. Hartland also took out the Bars and Beam Individual Apparatus Titles, whilst her Queensland teammate Jayde Beutel took out the Vault National Title (26.600), and Victoria’s Matilda Gavaghan won the Floor event (25.875).

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

The Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) competition also continued at Hisense Arena today, with the Level 8 Under 14s taking part in their first day of competition. No awards are presented at the end of Day 1 of competition in MAG Level 8 Under, so we’ll have to wait until the return to the main stage of Hisense Arena on Saturday morning!

In more exciting news on Community Day, Gymnastics Australia formally announced an ongoing partnership with Bravehearts, of the back off the release of our Child Safety Commitment Statement last month.

READ MORE: http://bit.ly/GApartnerwithBravehearts

Whilst there is only one session of competition, our International level MAG and WAG athletes will take to the floor at Hisense Arena this afternoon for Podium Training, ahead of their competition beginning on Friday.

Competition in the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships resumes tomorrow at Hisense Arena from 8.30am.

 

Day 2 – Tuesday 22 May

Competition continued in the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena today, with the Women’s Artistic Gymnastic (WAG) once again dominating the majority of the day’s sessions.

First up, the WAG Level 9 Under 13 athletes took to the floor for their first day of competition; Team Final and Qualifications. With the Level 9 Under 13s being a new level added to the program in 2018, it was fantastic to see such high-quality gymnastics performed by these young, elite gymnasts.

In the Team Event it was Victoria who reigned supreme at the end of the session, finishing atop the podium with a score of 144.950. New South Wales took the Silver medal with a score of 141.675, whilst Queensland was third (138.575).

The afternoon saw the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships officially get underway for our Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) athletes. First up it was the Level 7 Open athletes in action for their first day of competition. It was a convincing performance by Queensland to take out the Team Title – and the first MAG Gold Medal for the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships – with a grand total score of 219.526. Victoria was second with 212.028, whilst New South Wales claimed Bronze (211.661).

Session 6 also saw the Level 7 WAG athletes return to the competition floor for their Finals. It was the smallest competitor who stood atop the tallest podium in the Level 7 Under 13 division, with Victoria’s Olina Karatzias taking out the All-Around title with a combined score of 97.200. Karatzias also took out the Individual Uneven Bars and Beam titles, as well as scored a Bronze Medal in the Floor Final, tying with Victorian teammate, Amber Ward.

In the Level 7 Over 14 division it was Queensland’s Maya Sudrikku who stood atop the All-Around dais, with a combined score of 94.825, just edging out her teammate – Ruby Ingle – who scored 94.725. Victoria’s Hanano Sakamoto took the Bronze (93.525).

The final session of the day saw the WAG Level 8s take to the floor for day 2 of their Individual All-Around competition and Individual Apparatus Finals.

In the Level 8 Under 14 division it was Queensland’s Tammy Vo who was the star of the show, not only winning the All-Around title with a score of 99.600, but also winning a medal in every single Individual Apparatus Final; Bronze on Vault, Silver on Bars, and Gold on both Beam and Floor.

When it came to the Level 8 Over 15 presentations it was New South Wales’ Chailend Malinowski’s turn to shine. Malinowski took out the All-Around Title with a combined score of 97.050, and also scored a Silver Medal on Vault, and twin Golds on Beam and Floor.

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

At the conclusion of today’s final session of competition the first of our National Gymsport Awards was also presented, for excellence in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG).

Congratulations to:

WAG National Levels Development Coach of the Year – Linda Taylor (NSW)

Competitions resumes tomorrow at Hisense Arena in both the Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. Competition commences at 8.30am.

 

Day 1 – Monday 21 May

The 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships kicked off at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena today, in what promises to be a jam-packed two weeks of gymnastics.

Despite what has been a gymnastics-heavy start to 2018 – with Australia hosting the 2018 World Cup Gymnastics Melbourne (also at Hisense Arena) in February, following by the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast – this year’s Championships represents the biggest one yet, with 1,494 athletes competing in five Gymsports across 12 days of competition.

It all kicked off today with four back-to-back sessions of Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) competition.

Up first were the National Level 7 and 8 competitors, who took to the floor for their first day of competition, where both team medals and individual finalists were decided.

Queensland started off the day in style, sweeping the pool to stand atop the podium in both the Level 7 and 8 team events. The team from the sunshine state scored a total of 194.225 in the Level 7 competition, just edging out the young Victorian line-up, who had to settle for Silver with 193.550. New South Wales (190.700) were third.

In the Level 8 team event, the maroons scored 196.725 to secure top spot on the podium; however the battle for Silver was a tight one. Trading places on the podium from the Level 7 results, New South Wales edged out Victoria for the Silver Medal by just 0.2, with a score of 192.325. Victoria scored 192.125.

In the afternoon and evening sessions it was the National Level 9 and 10 athletes’ turn to take to the floor in their first day of competition. The Queensland Level 9s continued on the gold rush from the earlier sessions, topping the podium and being crowned Level 9 Open Team Champions with a score of 208.175. Victoria finished in the Silver Medal-position with 200.625, whilst a very exciting West Australian line-up took the Bronze (198.525).

There was a change of pattern in the Level 10 Team Final, with an extremely strong Victorian line-up being crowned National Champions with an impressive score of 164.100. Queensland had to settle for Silver (158.225) whilst Western Australia was once again very excited to finish on the podium with a Bronze (154.150).

FULL RESULTS: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

Competition continues tomorrow at Hisense Arena in the WAG competition, but we’ll also get to see our Men’s Artistic Gymnastics athletes take to the competition floor for the first time at this year’s Championships. Competition commences at 8.30am.

 

2017

Day 12 – Sunday 4 June

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The final day of the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships ended spectacularly at Hisense Arena, wrapping up 34 sessions of fabulous Gymnastics across 12 days featuring five Gymsports.

The morning begun with Qualifications and Finals for Tumbling and Syncronised Trampoline in the Youth, Junior and Senior International divisions, as well as Level 7 Acrobatic Gymnastics.

Starting off the day was Acro, featuring Level 7 Women’s Pairs, Mixed Pairs, and Women’s Trios. Tahlia Crighton and Jacinta Anger from Queensland took the gold for Balance, Dynamic and the Overall title for the Women’s Pairs, meanwhile Victorians Daniel Zenkis and Lauren Andonovski took home gold for all three categories in the Mixed Pair competition, just in front of Dylan Findley and Mikki Clegg also from Victoria. The outstanding fight for first for the Level 7 Women’s trio was taken by Natalie Lin, Jennifer Lim, and Emily McHale from NSW, who also took the Gold Medal across all three categories.

The medals were well and truly shared around in Acrobatic Gymnastics with New South Wales (NSW), Queensland and Victoria all taking home three gold medals each.  NSW lead the pack taking home 12 medals, Victoria nine, and Queensland six. The superb, clean routines made it clear how hard each and every gymnast had worked to get to an Australian Championships.

Tumbling was another event not to miss in this morning’s session. Junior tumblers Georgia Beddal (SA) and Blake Grainger (NSW) took home the Gold in the Female and Male categories respectively. NSW dominated the Youth tumbling, taking four of the five medals on offer. Breanah Cauchi (Female) and Damon Louwen (Male) took the Gold in the Youth division, whilst Jack Hemmings of NSW smashed the Senior Male tumbling with a score of 67.700. Connor Jones of South Australia took the Senior Male Silver (47.600). Shannon Usher took Gold for NSW in the Senior Female Tumbling Final, with Natasha Giles of SA was second. NSW took home the gold for the International Team final with a team score of 88.400, only just in front of SA, who scored 87.200.

Spectacular Syncronised Trampoline ended with Samuel Durkin (QLD) and Tristan Raymond (TAS) pairing up to take Gold in the Youth Male division with a score of 85.795, well ahead of Dylan Nolan and Dylan Scanlon from Western Australia (WA), with 64.850. However, it was a tough fight for Gold for the Youth Female division, with Ella Mar Fan (QLD) and Amber French (TAS) taking Gold with 84.970, ahead of Victorian’s Sunday Hollingsworth and Lia Sterns, who took Silver with 84.205.  NSW took out the National Titles for all four remaining Synchronised Trampoline categories; Junior Male and Female, and Senior Male and Female.

The final session for competition at the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships starred Rhythmic Gymnastics Junior and Senior Groups, Acrobatic Gymnastics Combined routines, and Trampoline Team Finals.

The stunning Rhythmic Group competition starred teams from both Queensland and NSW. The Queensland Senior Group took Gold and along with it the Australian Title, with a score of 25.650, and whilst the Group from NSW claimed the Silver Medal with 19.700. Queensland also took Gold and Silver for the Junior Group competition.

Acrobatic Gymnastics finished on a high with the Combined routine competition. Competitors from Levels 8, 9, 10, as well as Junior International 12-18, 13-19 and Senior took to the stage to complete their competition. Stand out performances were from the Senior Mixed Pair of Aaron Mavro and Alicia Livolti from Victoria, as well was from the Senior Women’s Trio of Lauren Farquhar, Taylah Doosey and Maja Moore from NSW.

The Junior International 13-19 Women’s Trio was an outstanding competition, with three groups fighting for first position. Emily Cuddy, Holly Loquet and Sue Seki from Victoria outshone the pack, receiving Gold for all four divisions; Balance, Dynamic, Combined and Overall, with all three competing groups fabulous to watch! NSW and Victoria had outstanding results through all of session, dominating the Podium across every level.

The Trampoline concluded with the International Team Finals.  NSW received Gold for both the Male and Female Team in the Double Mini Trampoline Team events, whilst WA took out the Gold in the Female Trampoline Team Final, with a outstanding score of 148.765, just on top of Queenslanbd, who scored 147.785, and NSW on 126.800. In the Men’s Trampoline  Team Final, NSW’s strong final finish lead them to the top spot with 174.165, leaving Queensland (161.456) and Tasmania (159.860) to take the minor medals on the podium.

Once again NSW took the trophy as the Overall International Team Champions, with a massive score of 585.24, with Queensland second on 351.30, and WA in third with 344.87. An outstanding result for NSW after a long week of competition!

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

That’s a wrap for 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships – thanks to all the athletes, coaches, judges, chaperones, team managers, officials, staff, volunteers and spectators who made the event another spectacular success!  We can’t wait to see you all again in 2018!

 

Day 11 – Saturday 3 June

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Session 30 started the penultimate day of competition at the 2017 Australian Gymastics Championships, with the Level 9 and 10 Rhythmic Gymnasts lighting up the floor as they fought it out for the Individual Apparatus titles. Victoria’s Jessica Mackenzie was the stand out performer in Level 9, taking Gold in Hoop and Ball to go with her Bronze in Ribbon.

In the Level 10s it was Annelise Harper from New South Wales who had the most consistent morning, claiming Silver in three Apparatus before winning Ribbon Gold.

A busy schedule of Trampoline and Acrobatic occupied an eventful Session 31 in the middle of the day, which was marred by couple of falls on Trampoline and Double Mini Trampoline Qualifications. We wish speedy recoveries to both injured athletes.

In the Acro action during the session, Junior 11-16 Women’s Pairs and Trio’s fought it out with Fleur Coolen and Teagon Garland from New South Wales (NSW) taking out the Pairs Overall Gold with a score of 52.350. Another NSW team took out the Trio division, with Zarie Dawson, Mikaela Dennis and Ellie Campbell finishing on top with a score of 52.900.

The last title of the session went to Daniel Lawther and Rafael Velasco in the Junior 11-16 Men’s Pairs.

Danielle Prince continued the New South Wales domination of Rhythmic Gymnastics at this year’s Australia Gymnastics Championships, claiming three Gold and one Silver Medal in tonight’s Senior International Apparatus Finals at Hisense Arena.

In front of an enthralled crowd, Prince’s experience shone through as she consistently out classed the field winning Ribbon, Clubs and Hoop, only being bested on one apparatus by fellow New South Wales team mate, Enid Sung, who put together a commanding Ball routine to start the night.

Newly-crowned 2017 Senior International All-Around Australian Champion, Tara Wilkie, unfortunately had to withdraw from tonight’s finals due to a knee complaint that she picked during her title win last night. Prince reflected on becoming New Wales teammates with Wilkie and Sung, after the five-time All-Around Australian Champion moved states from Queensland to New South Wales after her Olympic campaign in Rio last year.

“We are all pushing each other at the moment, and that’s the best place to be in,” Prince said.

“But that competitiveness between us is left out on the floor, and we’re excellent teammates out the back,” she continued.

Prince’s previous national record sets a high water mark, with dominant results throughout her career, and although she almost pulled off a clean sweep of the Apparatus Finals tonight, she said her performance was a little down on previous years.

“This National Championship definitely wasn’t my best, but for me it was a stepping stone onto the World Championships and the 2018 Commonwealth Games,” Prince explained.

“Coming back after Olympics, and having about four months off, I feel like it’s all a work in progress at the moment.”

On the other side of Hisense Arena, the Senior International Trampoline finals were decided with New South Welshman, Ty Swadling, claiming his second National title, with a score of 58.255, ahead of his brother and Silver Medallist, Shaun Swadling (56.530), with fellow statesman, Aiden Thomas (55.955), rounding out the placings with Bronze.

Rio Olympian – New Zealand’s Dylan Schmidt – took outright Gold with a score of 60.625, but wasn’t eligible for the Australian Title.

After Swadling’s first individual National Title win in 2011, the now two-time Australian Champion credited his relaxed approach in the lead up to this event with giving him the edge ahead of a strong field.

“I’ve been trying to keep things pretty happy and relaxed of late…I’ve been enjoying my family time, my work life, and keeping everything balanced,” Swadling said.

“I think I found the right formula to all that leading in so I felt great…it’s a very talented group of people [competing], so to come out with the win is always a great feeling.”

The Female Senior Individual Trampoline competiton was another clean sweep of the dais for New South Wales, with Kira Ward taking our the Gold Medal with a score 52.760, ahead of Leanne Van Rensburg on 48.790, and Amy Lewis on 48.205. New Zealand’s Rachel Schmidt finished second overall with 51.280, but like her brother, Dylan, she ineligible to win the Australian Title.

This evening’s Premium Session also featured our Rhythmic Gymnastics Junior International athletes in action, who put on a stunning display of flexibility and intricate apparatus work, showing that the future is bright for Australian Rhythmic Gymnastics.

In the Individual Apparatus Finals, the medals were predominantly shared around between Queensland’s Lidiia Iakovleva, and Victoria’s Alexandra Kiroi and Ashari Gill, who as well as finishing first, second and third respectively on the All-Around podium yesterday, collected 11 of the 12 Apparatus Medals on offer this afternoon. Iakovleva’s teammate, Saskia Broedelet chimed in with a Bronze Medal in the Ribbon final, scoring 10.850 to finish behind Iakovleva and Gill, whilst New South Wales’ Audrey Freeman tied with Kiroi for the Bronze Medal in Hoop.

Australia’s best up-and-coming Trampoline athletes were also in action this evening, in the Junior and Youth Individual Trampoline Finals. The Australian Titles were shared around between the states in these divisions, with Queensland’s Charlotte Johnstone taking out the Youth Female Title, and Western Australia’s Lachlan Robertson winning the Male equivalent, whilst South Australia’s Cassandra Hoare won the Junior Female Individual Trampoline Australian Title, and NSW’s Daniel Hancock was named Australian Champion in the Junior Men’s division.

International stream Double Mini Trampoline titles were also up for grabs in Session 32, and it was again NSW taking control of proceedings winning four of the six Gold Medals up for grabs, and nine medals all together.

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

The 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships wraps up at Hisense Arena tomorrow, with the final day of competition in Rhythmic, Trampoline and Acrobatic Gymnastics. Competition kicks off at 9am.

 

Day 10 – Friday 2 June

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Day 10 of the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships our Acrobatic Gymnasts get their first taste of action, with the Level 6 Women’s and Mixed Pairs kicking off the Acro competition as well as this morning’s session.

The New South Wales pairing of Ingrid Norton and Isabella Yeomans took out the overall Gold Medal with a final score of 49.600, after finishing first in both the Balance and Dynamic exercises. Izabeya Jones and Emma Tiboni from Queensland claimed Silver, with an Overall score of 48.250, while the Victorian duo of Madlen Mikhaylichenko and Anastasia Teravska secured Bronze, scoring 47.730.

In the Level 6 Mixed Pairs, the pairing of Vitto Arellano and Rachel Eagleton from New South Wales claimed Overall Gold, with a score of 47.300, with Patrick Morgan and Charlise Rizzo from Victoria taking home Silver, finishing with a score of 44.880.

The afternoon session was a busy one, featuring part two of Qualifications for the Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG) Junior Internationals, the final session of competition for our Age Group Trampolinists, and the Acrobatics Level 6 Trio competition.

It was a tight race in the RG Junior All-Around competition, with Queensland’s Lidiia Iakovleva prevailing over the Victorian pair of Alexandra Kiroi and Ashari Gill, to defent her 2016 National Title, and take home the Junior All-Around crown with a score of 52.350.  However Victoria dominated the Junior Team event, taking home the Gold Medal with a total score of 147.250, ahead of Queensland (135.500) and New South Wales (134.400).

In the afternoon Acrobatics competition, it was the Victorian trio of Emily Massara, Emily Maiorana and Kathy Le that took out the Overall Title, after consistent placings in their Balance (third) and Dynamic (routines), saw them take the Overall Gold with a total score of 48.870.

In the afternoon’s Trampoline session, as well as a further nine divisions of competition being decided, the Overall Champions in the Age Team Competition were decided.  Victoria took out the Double-Mini Trampoline Trophy, with a total score of 497.4, however it was the sky blue team from New South Wales that dominated the rest of the events, taking out the Synchronised Trampoline (328.8), Individual Trampoline (479.6) and Tumbling (451.4) awards, as well as the Overall Age Team Competition Trophy, with a total score of 398.51.

New South Wales’ Tara Wilkie threw caution to the wind to break through for her first Senior International Rhythmic Gymnastics All-Around Title, in a near-faultless display at Hisense Arena during the evening session.

On the comeback from surgery late last year, Wilkie started strong in her first routine with clubs and never looked back, absorbing the pressure and performing with supreme confidence to score a winning All-Around total of 61.050.

“It’s tough once you do a good routine, to get in the right mindset of not being too happy too soon,” Wilkie said.

It was Wilkie’s new New South Wales teammate and five-time All-Around Australian Champion, Danielle Prince, applying the majority of the pressure on Wilkie, in a reversal of role from years the previous two years. After a consistent night’s work Prince came away with All-Around Silver, and Wilkie humbly pointed out the influence that the 2016 Olympian has had on her.

“She [Prince] is an amazing gymnast; she’s achieved so much in her career…I look up to her, and since she moved down to New South Wales I think that gave me a bit of a push as well,” Wilkie said.

“I now know that I have to keep training really hard, even through tough times, so being able to take this win – finally – I’m over the moon.”

Enid Sung claimed Bronze to make it a clean sweep on the All-Around podium for New South Wales, to go with the Team Gold that the Sky Blues won with a score of 174.550, ahead of Queensland (144.700) and Victoria (132.900).

The Qualifiers for the Senior Individual Trampoline competition also took place at Hisense Arena tonight, with New Zealand’s Dylan Schmidt finishing as the top Male qualifier to lead a strong field – including the Swadling brothers from New South Wales and Tasmania’s Jack Penny – into tomorrow’s final.

The notable out from tomorrow’s final is two-time Olympian Blake Gaudry, who was on track to make it through after his first flight, but uncharacteristically fell off the Trampoline during his second flight. To the crowd’s relief he was uninjured in the fall, but unfortunately his score couldn’t recover in quite the same way.

Another Kiwi – Rachel Schmidt – will lead the girls into tomorrow’s final Female Individual Trampoline Final, which will kick off at Hisense Arena from 6pm, alongside the Senior and Junior International Rhythmic Apparatus Finals.

Junior Trampoline and Youth Double Mini Trampoline Qualifications were also held tonight.  New South Wales’ Benjamin Carroll topped the Male Junior Trampoline rankings, whilst Queensland’s Carina

Our Acrobatic Gymnasts were also in action again tonight, with the Level 8, 9 and 10 groups performing their Balance and Dynamic routines.  Their competition will conclude on Sunday when their perform their combined routines in the final session of the Championships.

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

 

Day 9 – Thursday 1 June

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As we start to move through week two of the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships, the action has began to intensify, and Session 24 was no exception, where we saw our Junior International Rhythmic Gymnasts getting their first hit out on the floor for the qualifications.

The girls only did two apparatus this morning, with the other two to follow tomorrow, as such we won’t see any results until all apparatus have been completed.

We weren’t starved of Rhythmic results during the session though, as the Sub-Junior Groups medals were awarded with two groups from New South Wales taking home the Gold and Silver medals, whilst a group from Queensland rounded out the podium with a Bronze.

Session 25 was again a busy one,with both Rhythmic and Trampoline on the go throughout. We got the first look at Double Mini Trampoline (DMT) for the year with, the  Under 15 and 17 Males and Females fighting it out in the middle of Hisense Arena, as the Under 11 Individual Trampoline boys and girls competed beside them.

In the end, DMT Under 15 titles were won by Victorians Sunday Hollingsworth and Will McInerney, and the Under 17s were taken out by the ACT’s Benjamin Brown and South Australia’s Rosie Cattrall. The Under 11 Individual Trampoline champions were Joel Stafford and Kayla Germyn, both from NSW.

The Rhythmic Sub and Pre Junior finals were also on during Session 25 and upon completion there was a bit of catching up to do for Rhythmic presentations at the end of the session, as the result of technical problems that impeded awards being handed out yesterday.

NSW took out the Sub Junior Team titl,e with their best performer Emmanoula Frokou also claiming the All-Around title. In Pre Junior Teams it was the Victorians edging out NSW by just .150, but the margin was anything but thin in the All-Around competition, with Queensland’s Phoebe Learmont winning every apparatus on top of the All-Around crown in a dominant Gold Medal-winning performance.

The Rhythmic Level 10 Team and All-Around title swere the first to be decided in Session 26, and NSW continued their strong Rhythmic form, taking both the Team Title and the minor All-Around medals, but it was Tiah McLaren, another Queenslander, with consistent routines on all apparatus to steal the Gold away from the NSW girls.

To round out the day we had finals for both Male and Female Under 13 Individual Tramponline, Under 11 DMT and 17+ DMT. With a pile of medals on offer – and as though to follow on from the theme of the Rhythmic presentations – it was NSW with the lion’s share of the time on the podium, with five medals, closely followed by Victoria with four.

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

 

Day 8 – Wednesday 31 May

Level 9 Team

Week two of the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships officially got underway at Hisense Arena today, with competition in the Rhythmic and Trampoline Gymnastics kicking off in Melbourne.

The Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG) Sub Juniors kicked off proceedings in the morning session, followed by the Pre Juniors in the afternoon. Both divisions will receive their Team and Individual All-Around awards following the Individual Apparatus Finals on Thursday afternoon.

The afternoon session saw a plethora of Trampoline athletes take to the competition arena for the first time at this year’s Championships, contesting the Under 11, 13 and 15 divisions in the Synchronised Trampoline, and the Under 17 and 17+ divisions in Tumbling.

In the afternoon’s Synchronised Trampoline competition New South Wales dominated proceedings, taking home four of the six Gold Medals on offer, as well as Silver and a Bronze. South Australia’s Cameron Tidd and Luka Danilovic and Victoria’s Jack O’Neil and Will McInerney were the exceptions to the rule, securing the Australian titles in the Under 13 Male and Under 15 Male categories respectively.

The Australian titles were shared around in the afternoon’s tumbling session, with athletes from four separate States taking out the titles on offer. Darcey Ridhalgh (NSW) won the Under 17 Female division, whilst Victoria’s Kyren Allison took out the equivalent Male age category. Meanwhile in the 17+ divisions, Mikaela Lange (SA) and Thomas Clough (QLD) took out the Female and Male titles respectively.

All Trampoline age groups were back in action in the evening session, with the Under 17 and 17+ Synchronised Trampoline competition, and the Under 11, 13 and 15 Tumbling competition. New South Wales once again featured heaving on the podium, collecting a total of 14 medals from the session – four of them Gold – but it was fantastic to see Tasmania win their first Gold Medal of the Championships across any Gymsport, with Dylan Hill and James Sonneveld taking out the 17+ Male Synchronised Trampoline event, with a total score of 88.800.

Our RG athletes were back in action in the evening, in the Level 9 Team and All-Around competition. It was another golden session for New South Wales, taking out the team event with a score of 120.050, ahead of Victoria (117.050) and Queensland (115.250), and with Olivia Owens winning the All-Around title with a score of 41.950. Victoria’s Jessica Mackenzie took the Silver Medal behind Owens (41.350), with her New South Wales teammate, Ella Chapman, securing Bronze (40.700).

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

 

Day 7 – Sunday 28 May

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Day 7 at Australian Gymnastics Championships started with a bang with the MAG Level 7 Under boys taking to the floor at Hisense Arena in their final hurrah. Every gymnast worked extremely hard to demonstrate their routines outstandingly. Queensland topped the Team results with 354.559, followed by New South Wales (352.227) and Western Australia (338.024).

The All Around results were outstanding, with Zachary Simpson-Wylde (QLD) receiving Gold and the All-Around title with a score 123.380, Tom Brunker (NSW) receiving Silver with 118.047, and Matthew Davies (QLD) following with Bronze with a score of 114.847.  Zachary Simpson-Wylde has an exceptional performance, taking home the Gold Medal in five out of the six apparatus contested! Queensland won all eight Gold Medals on offer for the MAG Level 7 Under boys in the morning session.

Our Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) Junior 14 and 15s were back in action in the afternoon session, contesting their Vault and Uneven Bars Apparatus Finals.

Victoria’s Romi Brown continued her great form from day one of Finals, taking out both titles on Vault and Uneven Bars, with scores of 12.350 and 11.600 respectively.

Meanwhile in the Junior 14 division, NSW pocket rocket Zoe McNamara took out the Vault title with a score of 12.612, beating out teammate Danielle Latter and Queensland’s Kate Sayer, who tied for second on 12.375.  Junior 14 All-Around Champion, Isla Ross, added another title to her name in the Uneven Bars Final, taking home the Gold with a score of 12.125 ahead of fellow Queenslander, Kate Sayer (11.675) and Western Australia’s Sophie Prince (11.375).

Competition for the Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnasts at the 2017 Australian Championships concluded with part two of the Senior International Individual Apparatus Finals; Vault, Parallel Bars and Horizontal Bar for the Men, and Beam and Floor for the Women.

Victorian Georgia-Rose Brown was outstanding this afternoon on both Beam and Floor, claiming the Gold Medals on both Apparatus, with scored of 12.500 and 12.975 respectively. On Floor, Jade Vella-Wright closely followed Brown with a score of 12.425, with a three way tie for Bronze between Elly Bayes (VIC), Erin Modaro (VIC), and Queensland’s Rianna Mizzen, with 12.375.

Georgia-Rose Brown said that it was her consistency that got her over the line.

“I was really happy…my goal was to go out there and be as consistent as possible and hit my routines…they’re not the most difficult at the moment, but it’s a work in progress.”

Unfortunately, Western Australia’s Emily Little had an uncharacteristic stumble on Beam, as well as a sickening fall from her first tumbling pass on Floor, which left her unable to complete her routine, but thankfully physically okay.

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

In the Men’s competition, the states shared around the Gold Medals in part two of the Apparatus Finals, with South Australia, Queensland and Victoria taking out the top sports on Vault, Parallel Bars and Horizontal Bar respectively.

Christopher Remkes from South Australia took out top spot for Vault with a massive score of 15.000, followed closely by his teammate and training partner, Clay Stephens, and Gabriel Swan-McLean from New South Wales.

Mitchell Morgans from Queensland won the Parallel Bars Australian Title with a score of 13.850, whilst also claiming Silver on Horizontal Bar with 13.800.  Tyson Bull from Victoria took home the Gold Medal on Horizontal Bar, with a crowd pleasing that scored 14.500.

Morgans said he was much happier with his Finals results, after a disappointing performance in qualifications.

“[I was] much better today…better than the other days…[I] was pretty happy with finals. Tyson is a good competitor, and we like to battle it out each year so it’s good to have him here.”

Following on from his success at the Australian Gymnastics Championships, Morgans is looking towards representing Australia World University Games and World Championships later in the year.

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

The 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships will continue at Hisense Arena this Wednesday, with competition commencing in the Rhythmic, Trampoline and Acrobatic Gymnastics divisions.

 

Day 6 – Saturday 27 May

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Day 6 of the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships kicked off with an all-boys affair this morning, with Session 16 featuring the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Level 8 Open Finals.

The session was dominated by New South Wales, Adam Rusgnach, Jarrod Buick and Joseph D’Souza-Bullman making a clean-sweep of the podium, finishing in first, second and third All-Around respectively. The boys in blue continued their dominance on the apparatus podium, with New South Wales taking home a total of 13 medals from the session; six of them gold.

It was day two of competition for the MAG Level 8 Unders and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) International Level 10s (IL10s) and Junior 13s in the afternoon session, with medals-galore given out in the subsequent presentations.

Team New South Wales once again topped the podium in the IL10 division, led by Lucy Stewart who took out the All-Around title with a combined score of 102.200, as well as leading the team to victory (296.700). Stewart also took home four individual apparatus medals – two gold and two silver – confirming her position as a star on the rise in elite Women’s Artistic Gymnastics.

Western Australia took out the Junior 13 Team Title with a total score of 267.350, but it was the sole Queensland representative – Samantha Olivier – who took out the All-Around Title with a combined score of 90.575.

In the MAG Level 8 Under competition New South Wales took out the Team event with a total score of 347.858, ahead of Queensland (343.391) and Victoria (338.009). However it was Queenslander Joshua Swanepoel who took the All-Around Gold for the maroons, with a combined total of 117.131, ahead of New South Wales’ Ewen McConville (116.313) and Alan Osman (115.581).

The evening Premium Session saw part one of the MAG and WAG Senior International Apparatus Finals, as well as the WAG Junior 14 and 15s contest their Beam and Floor Finals.

It was Queensland proving once again that they are the strongest state in the Senior Men’s competition, with three different athletes from the Sunshine state collecting each of the Individual Apparatus Titles on offer tonight.

Making up for an inconsistent performance in the All-Around Final, Victoria’s Romi Brown was consistent in both of tonight’s finals, winning the Junior 15 National Titles on both Beam (11.025) and Floor (12.200).

Meanwhile the medals were shared around in the Junior 14 Finals, with Elena Chipizubov of New South Wales taking Gold on Beam (12.700) and Bronze on Floor (12.000). Meanwhile Western Australia’s Sophie Prince took out the Floor Title with a stirring performance, which earned her a winning score of 12.175.

The Emily Little show rolled on inside Hisense Arena in the WAG Senior International finals, as the diminutive West Australian continued to sweep the medals at the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships.

Women’s and Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Individual Apparatus titles were decided throughout the evening, with Little claiming an emphatic victory on Vault to kick start her night. She also tied for second on Uneven Bars with Victoria’s Kate McDonald, with last year’s All-Around National Champion, Rianna Mizzen (QLD), taking Gold after a spectacular routine.

It was Mizzen’s third Uneven Bars title in a row, a title that she was relieved to claim after struggling with her two previous attempts on this apparatus during the qualifications and All-Around Final earlier this week.

“Missing it [the release] two times over the first few days was tough so hitting it tonight to win feels amazing,” Mizzen said. “I’m now feeling confident for the rest of my routines tomorrow.”

It was Queensland proving once again that they are the strongest state in the Men’s competition, with three different athletes from the Sunshine state collecting each of the Individual Apparatus Titles on offer tonight.

In the Senior International MAG Finals, this year’s All-Around Champion, Michael Mercieca, continued his run of form, taking out the Rings Gold, with Scott Costin beating a strong field to win Gold on Floor, and Michael Tone edging out one of the pre-event favourites, Chris Remkes, on Pommel, to add a Gold to the Silver he won on Rings.

“All the guys are really competitive [on Pommel], Chris especially,” Tone said. “I’ve been against Chris a few times this year already and we’ve been neck and neck, so it’s good to come out on top tonight.

“But I know he will be right with me next time too, so I’ve got to keep watching my back.”

You can catch the final session of competition in the Senior International Women’s and Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Individual Apparatus Finals when they kick off from 1.30pm at Hisense Arena tomorrow afternoon. Gymnastics Australia will also be announcing the 2017-18 Women’s Artistic Gymnastics National Squad following the conclusion of tomorrow’s session.

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

 

Day 5 – Friday 26 May

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Day 5 of the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships at Hisense Arena saw the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) International Level 10s (IL10) and Junior 13s, and Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Level 7 Open finalistrs take to the competition floor in the morning session.

Session 13 saw Lucy Stewart from New South Wales (NSW) take the All Around lead in IL10 with a score of 50.900, ranking first in her Beam and Floor routines. Rose Blackhall from Victoria is narrowly behind Stewart in second place, with 50.100, including taking out top spot in Vault. Ella Perry, also from NSW sits in third place with a score 47.450.

The MAG Level 7 Under competition in the morning belonged to Queensland, with Zachary Wilson (61.364), and Matthew Davies (57.531) ranking in first and third place overall after day one of competition, with Tom Brunker from NSW (59.098) in second.

In the afternoon session the WAG Junior 14 and 15 Combined Team and All-Around Champions were crowned, with Victoria winning the Team Gold. Isla Ross from Queensland claimed the Junior 14 All-Around title, whilst we had two winners in the Junior 15s, with Stella Ashcroft claiming the first Gold (and first medal) for New Zealand at this year’s Australian Championships, and Victoria’s Romi Brown winning the residential title.

The MAG Level 7 Open All-Around and Apparatus Champions were also decided in Session 14 with Ben Venus from South Australia taking out the All-Around Gold. Additionally, Todd Brinkworth finished on top of the Pommel rankings to register Western Australia’s (WA) first Gold Medal of this year’s Championships.

Session 15 saw Emily Little (WA) and Michael Mercieca (QLD) claim the Senior All0-Around Artistic Gymnastics titles in front of a vocal crowd.

The best in the business lit up the floor at Hisense Arena tonight as Western Australia’s (WA) Emily Little and Queensland’s Michael Mercieca claimed the Senior All-Around Artistic Gymnastics Titles in front of a vocal crowd.

Little prevailed with a score of total 106.750, holding off the competition to claim her first nation,al title by just .350 of a point. Unfortunately Queensland’s Georgia Godwin, the leader after qualifications on Wednesday, had to pull out of the final due to injury, so it was left to Victoria’s Georgia-Rose Brown and last year’s champion Rianna Mizzen (also of Queensland) to fight it out with Little.

Mizzen fell away through inconsistent routines on Floor, Beam and Uneven Bars, ending her night in third on 104.200, but Brown was on top of her game and pushed Little right to the wire to claim silver on 106.400, a fact that wasn’t lost on the eventual champion.

“Georgia-Rose is looking really good at the moment, you can tell she’s put in a lot of hard work so to finish just above her is great,” Little said humbly.

“I was coming second after the qualifiers – after a mistake on Beam – and I was pretty confident if I just stuck all my performances in the final I was a good chance to finally win Gold.”

Brown did manage to win a Gold of her own though, as Victoria took out the Senior Woman’s Team event with a total score 312.850, ahead of WA on 293.050, and New South Wales on 277.950.

Men’s Champion, Mercieca, was focused and consistent across both days of competition to comfortably be crowned All-Around Champion with a score of 159.933. It was only last year that Mercieca was one of the favourites to win, but succumbed to an injury in qualifiers that ruled him out of the finals.

“Last year was quite disappointing to come away with an injury in qualifiers, but it all came together this year, which feels so good,” Mercieca said.

For the Men’s minor medals steady, performances from South Australia’s Clay Stephens saw him score 155.448 to narrowly edge out Mitchell Jones (QLD) to take the silver, with Jones taking bronze on 155.366.

Both champions are looking to the future, with Mercieca getting ready for World University Games in August this year as well as World Championship Trials in September.  Little will go back to plan with her Head Coach before deciding on her next move, but is full of confidence going forward.

“I know Mihai (Brestyan) has a couple of plans up his sleeve, and I’m ready for anytham.ing…I really just want to get out there, increase my difficulty and keep pushing it as a world-class gymnast.”

Hisense Arena will click back into competition mode tomorrow morning, with Session 16 starting from 8.30am.

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

 

Day 4 – Thursday 25 May

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Day Four of competition at Hisense Arena showcased the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) Level 8 Under and Over finals, and Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Level 8 Open qualifications.

Queensland continue their excellent championship form, claiming Gold and Silver medals in the Level 8 Over finals, with Aymie Hartland winning gold on three out of the four apparatus.

Furthermore, the Level 8 Under Final session saw NSW win Gold, with the ACT getting on the board for a silver medal, while Queensland would finish with bronze. Nikoletta Stadnik from NSW, and Michaela Smith from the ACT were the most consistent performers across the four apparatus.

The morning also saw Tasmania win their first medal for the Championships, whilst South Australia took home their first Gold and medal in WAG to boot.

In Session 11 we had the WAG Level 9 finals, plus the MAG Level 9 Under finals. A plethora of medals were up for grabs with All-Around and Apparatus titles across all age divisions.

The session ended with Queensland and South Australia splitting the four All-Around Gold Medals on offer; with Jesse Moore (SA) winning the MAG Level 9 Under 15s, Savannah Crompton (SA) the WAG Level 9 16 & Over, Olivia Doherty (QLD) WAG Level 9 15 & Under and Indigo Dragon (QLD) taking the MAG Level 9 Under 17 title.

It was another medal-fest in final session of the day for the WAG level 10s and MAG Level 9 Open finals. Victoria crowned two All-Around Champions with Ryan O’Keefe taking out the MAG Level 9 Open Gold Medal and Lauren Pengelly snatching the title in the WAG Level 10 17 & Over division.

Queensland were again the dominate state of the session though, collecting seven of the 17 national titles contested, with Madison Thompson claiming the WAG Level 10 16 & Under All-Around title.

At the end of the day’s action Queensland had amassed a staggering haul with 19 Gold and 36 medals in total to add to their medal tally, all in just three sessions.

Additionally, during presentations for the final session of the day, the official WAG team and MAG shortlisted athletes were announced for the Open Levels Tour to the New Zealand National Championships later this year.

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team

Madison Thompson (QLD)

Lauren Pengelly (VIC)

Georgia Keane (ACT)

Karleigh Fraser (QLD)

Chloe Jackson-Brown (NSW)

Tiana Odessa (QLD)

Rachel Laval (VIC)

Rachel Graham (QLD)

Reserves:

Christine Cross (QLD)

Jaid Otrupcek (NSW)

Shortlisted Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Athletes

Brodie Chaffey (QLD)

Mitchell Harding (QLD)

Nicolas Koops (QLD)

Kipngetich Kemei (QLD)

Patrick Rudd (QLD)

Taylor Moss (QLD)

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

 

Day 3 – Wednesday 24 May

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We rolled into day three of action at Hisense Arena with Woman’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) Level 7 finals and Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Level 7 Open qualifications. With lots of medals on up for grabs we saw New South Wales (NSW) picking up where Queensland left off last night, sweeping the majority of the medals on offer, with nine gold, five silver and five bronze.

NSW weren’t the only ones celebrating though, with both Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) collecting their first gold medals of the Championships. Western Australia also opened their account in this morning’s session, picking up their first medal in the WAG Level 7 finals.

Session 8 saw WAG Junior 14 & 15 and MAG Level 8 Open qualification. NSW’s MAG boys weren’t to be outdone by the girls and picked up another gold medal in the team event, scoring 227.560, ahead of Queensland with 216.263, and Victoria, who finished in third with 203.027. The WAG Junior 14 & 15 WAG finals will take part on day 2 of competition this Friday during Session 14.

An excited crowd were fixed to their seats as Australia’s best Men’s Artistic and Woman’s Artistic Gymnasts broke out the chalk and put on a gravity-defying show.

Queensland was the story of the night collecting the MAG Team Gold with a score of 237.298, ahead of Victoria on 229.932, and South Australia with 227.713; a great result for the South Australians, who fielded the first Senior MAG team at an Australian Championships in almost 20 years.

It was also two Queenslanders leading in both the MAG and WAG All Around qualifications, with commanding performances from Georgia Godwin and Michael Mercieca. The latter tasted victory tonight as a vital part of the Queensland MAG team, but is firmly focused on the All-Around finals which is already a tight affair with teammate Mitchell Jones and South Australia’s Clay Stephens snapping at Mercieca’s heels.

“It’s a great environment with the Queensland guys,” Mercieca said. “The last two years we’ve come away with second place, so the team is really happy that we’ve got the gold.

“I’m feeling positive with the lead heading into the finals on Friday, but there are obviously some improvements I can make as well, especially on Vault as I had a bit of a shocker [on Vault] tonight to be honest.”

“I’ll just going to focus on myself for the next couple of days and hope to have another consistent day for finals.”

Consistency was the same approach from Godwin who put up solid scores across the podium to hold a narrow lead over Western Australia’s Emily Little and Victoria’s Georgia-Rose Brown.

Little was satisfied with how her night ended, and was excited to be back competing at Hisense  Arena, after already competing at the World Cup here in February.

“It’s great to be back at Hisense; this arena is awesome and all the equipment is always so good…there is always such a good crowd here in Melbourne, so I just love competing here,” Little said.

“I think I started well on Floor, I had an explosive routine and tried to really show of my dance so that was fun,” she added.

Western Australia is currently sitting in third position in the WAG team rankings – behind Victoria and Queensland – and Little said that the team performance can really help spur you on.

“It’s a positive feeling when the team is doing well, so we’ll just keep cheering each other on.”

Competition will resume back at Hisense from 7pm on Friday 26 May, with both the MAG and WAG All-Around Final, as well as the WAG Team Final.

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

 

Day 2 – Tuesday 23 May

MAG Level 9 Under Team

Day two of the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships kicked off with another jam-packed Podium Training session for our International Men’s and Women’s Artistic athletes, before the first competition session for the day kicked off just after lunch.

In action in Session 5 were a total of 85 athletes, competing across the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Level 9 Under and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) Level 9 divisions.

In the first session of MAG competition for the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships, Queensland took home the first Gold Medal on offer in the Level 9 Under Team event, with a score of 225.227, ahead of Victoria (217.196) and New South Wales (215.458)

In the WAG Level 9 Team competition, Queensland stood atop the podium at the end of the session, scoring 206.400 to beat out New South Wales (203.375) and Victoria (199.725) for the Gold Medal.

The evening session saw the MAG Level 9 Open and WAG Level 10 athletes take to the floor at Hisense Arena. Queensland was again the story of the night, collecting gold medals in both WAG level 10 team scoring 207.896 and MAG level 9 Open teams with 164.800, to continue their dominate form. They have now won all bar one of the gold medals that have been decided thus far.

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

Unfortunately during Session 5 today promising Victorian MAG athlete Billy McLean landed awkwardly in the first pass of his floor routine and sustained a serious leg injury having to be stretchered off the podium.  Gymnastics Australia wishes Billy all the best for a speedy recovery.

 

Day 1 – Monday 22 May

Level 7 Team Level 8 Team

The wait is finally over, with Australia’s premier national gymnastics event kicking off at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena this afternoon.

The 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships will be the biggest National Championships held to date, with 1,447 athletes 769 officials taking part in a jam-packed 34 sessions of gymnastics over 12 days of competition.

Athletes will compete in five different Gymsports from May 22 to June 4 – Men’s Artistic, Women’s Artistic, Rhythmic, Trampoline and Acrobatic Gymnastics – vying for the title of Australian Champion, with the Senior International athletes also looking ahead to selection for the 2017 World Championships and 2018 Commonwealth Games teams.

Australian World Cup heroes Emily Little (WA), Chris Remkes (SA), Mitchell Morgans (QLD), Rianna Mizzen (QLD) and Georgia-Rose Brown (VIC) will all be in action throughout the Championships, along with 2016 Olympians Danielle Prince (NSW) and Blake Gaudry (SA).

Following a morning Podium Training session to test out the competition arena for this year’s Championships, competition kicked off this afternoon with the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) National Level 7 and 8 competition.

Following part one of competition in the afternoon session, the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships was officially launched, with the Opening Ceremony presided over by Gymnastics Australia’s CEO, Mark Rendell. The night one crowd were treated to a display by Glen Iris Gymnastics – who have several gymnasts competing in week two of this year’s Australian Gymnastics Championships – before Australian World Cup medallists Emily Little and Chris Remkes – both who tasted success at Hisense Arena earlier in 2017 – were selected to read the Athletes’ Oath and carry the Australian Flag respectively. Western Australia’s Allana Slater was selected to read the Officials’ Oath.

The WAG National Level 7 and 8 competition continued in the evening session, along with the first group of WAG Level 10 individual athletes, many of whom took to the competition floor for the first time at an Australian Championships.

Queensland took home the first Gold Medal of the Championships, winning the National Level 8 Team event with a score of 200.775, beating New South Wales (199.400) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) (198.175) to the top of the podium. New South Wales were crowned Australian Champions in the Level 7 Team competition, scoring 195.450 ahead of Victoria (193.900) and the ACT (192.400).

The WAG competition will continue in the National Levels divisions on Day 2 of the 2017 Australian Gymnastics Championships, whilst we will also see some of our Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) competition take to the competition floor for the first time.

For full results please go to ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results.

 

Day 12 – 4 June 2016

The 2016 Australian Championships has wrapped up with a jam-packed final day of action at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena.

To kick off the morning session we got to see our Rhythmic Level 9 athletes in action for the first time of the week. South Australia dominated the session, taking out the Team Title, Yaroslava Leonova, Faith Chin and Alisa Buglak sweeping the All-Around podium, and South Australian gymnasts taking home all four individual apparatus titles.

Our Acrobatic Gymnastic Level 6 Trios were also in action this morning. The medals were shared around for the Balance and Dynamic routine awards, but in the end Teisha Jang, Cassie Palombo and Clara De Asis of New South Wales were crowned National Champions.

In the afternoon session our Trampoline athletes were back in action, contesting the Senior, Junior and Youth Synchronised Trampoline and Tumbling Finals. New South Wales continued their dominance of the 2016 National competition, taking out five of the nine National Titles on offer during the session. Most notably Newcastle brothers, Ty and Shaun Swadling, overcame their disappointment of the Individual qualification event, by winning the Synchronised Trampoline National Title.

Rhythmic Level 9 Junior and Level 10 athletes were once again in action during the afternoon session as they contested their apparatus finals. It was once again a successful session for the Queensland Rhythmic Gymnastics team, with Saskia Broedelet taking out three of the four finals contested in Level 9 Junior, whilst Queensland athletes shared the spoils to take home all four apparatus titles in the Level 10 competition. Thu Luu of Victoria (Level 9 Junior) was the only athlete to stand atop the dias not from Queensland during the middle Rhythmic session.

Level 6 ACR athletes were once again in action during the afternoon, this time in the form of the pairs competition. Victoria’s Tori Singleton and Sandra Ngo took out the Level 6 Women’s Pair National Title, whilst Vitto Arellano and Katie Rose of NSW won the Level 6 Mixed Pairs category.

The evening session culminated in a fabulous session of group and team competitions. The Rhythmic Open, Junior and Senior groups were on display, in what proved to once again be a successful session for Queensland, with their groups taking home five of the eight medals on offer, including all three National Titles.

Session 33 also saw our Trampoline athletes band together to contest the Tumbling, Trampoline, DMT and Overall finals. New South Wales continued their dominance across all age and elite categories being contested during the Championships by winning all Team Finals they contested, and taking home the Overall Aggregate Trophy for both the Age and Elite divisions.

Finally the Level 8 to 10 and International Acrobats were back in action performing their Combined routines to contribute to their overall scores after competing their Balance and Dynamic routines yesterday. In the International divisions Sue Seki, Emily Cuddy and Holly Loquet of Victoria took out the Junior 12-18 Women’s Trio category, whist NSW’s Sarah Hemmings, Lauren Cosgrove and Jillian Connor took out the 13-19 division.

Full results: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

Our final presentation of National Gymsport Awards, Athlete Awards and Board Awards were also presented following the conclusion of competition this evening. Congratulations to all who received awards throughout week 2 of the Championships:

2015 National Gymsport Awards

Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG)

Teresa Evans QLD RG (Official of the Year)

Sarah Bewley WA RG (Aus Levels Coach of the Year)

Alexandra Eedle QLD RG (Junior Athlete of the Year)

Elizabeth Inaba-hill QLD RG (Aus Levels Athlete of the Year)

Danielle Prince QLD RG (Senior Athlete of the Year)

Gina Peluso QLD RG (International Coach of the Year)

Trampoline Gymnastics (TRP)

Belinda Cox NSW TRP (Coach of the Year)

Darren Gillis QLD TRP (Special Recognition)

Bond Larkin TAS TRP (Official of the Year)

Jo Penny TAS (Special Recognition)

Daniel Hancock NSW TRP (Junior Male Athlete)

Kira Ward NSW TRP (Junior Female Athlete)

Dominic Clarke NSW TRP (Senior Male Athlete)

Eva Kierath WA TRP (Senior Female Athlete)

Acrobatic Gymnastics (ACR)

Michelle Mason NSW ACR (Special Recognition)

Shelby Lacey NSW ACR (Levels Coach of the Year)

Wendy Treble VIC ACR (Official of the Year)

Hillary Conroy and Natalie Lin NSW ACR (International Senior Athletes of the Year)

Kim Lacey NSW ACR (International Coach of the Year)

Perry Drakopoulos and Tara Sahagian NSW ACR (International Junior Athletes of the Year)

Aaron Mavro and Siubhan McBain VIC ACR (Australian Levels Athlete of the Year)

5 Year Participation Awards – Australian Gymnastics Championships

Lauren Vienet VIC ACR

10 Year Participation Awards – Australian Gymnastics Championships

Amy Behan NSW RG

Matthew Weal NSW TRP

Dominic Clarke NSW TRP

Olivia Morris VIC TRP

FIG World Class

Shaun Swadling NSW TRP (FIG World Class – For 2014 Worlds)

Christine Hall NSW TRP (FIG World Class – For 2014 Worlds)

Amy Lang QLD ACR (FIG World Class – For 2014 Worlds)

Elizabeth Jacobs QLD ACR (FIG World Class – For 2014 Worlds)

Elodie Rosseau-Forwood QLD ACR (FIG World Class – For 2014 Worlds)

Retirement

Christine Hall NSW

Award of Distinction 2015

Amy Lewis NSW TRP (World Championships)

Dominic Clarke NSW TRP (World Championships)

Braida Thomas QLD TRP (World Championships)

Claire Arthur SA TRP (World Championships)

Abbie Watts WA TRP (World Championships)

Eva Kierath WA TRP (World Championships)

Roll of Honour

Danielle Prince QLD RG (Represented Australia in 5 World Championships)

Christine Hall NSW TRP (Represented Australia in 5 World Championships)

Ty Swadling NSW TRP (Represented Australia in 5 World Championships)

Blake Gaudry SA TRP (Represented Australia in 5 World Championships)

Jack Penny TAS TRP (Representec Australia in 5 World Championships)

Matthew Weal NSW TRP (Representec Australia in 5 World Championships)

Board Award

Bruce Treble VIC ACR

Jo Penny TAS TRP

Day 11 – 3 June 2015

Blake 7 time National Champ

Blake Gaudry won his 7th Individual Australian Trampoline Title in Melbourne tonight, cementing his case with selectors to get the nod for the one position available on the Australian Olympic Team.

After a shaky start to his title defense on day one of competition, Gaudry (57.590) overcame the highest qualifier for the final, Tasmania’s Jack Penny, who finished 0.880 points behind the South Australian on day 2. Dominic Clarke of New South Wales rounded out the podium by finishing third.

“Yesterday wasn’t exactly how I was hoping to go unfortunately,” Gaudry reflected after the competition, “but I went in today and I was feeling pretty good. My preparation’s been fantastic so I just knew if I got in there and did what I’ve been doing in training it would come.

“I think it will put me in a pretty good position,” he added, speaking of the pending selection for Rio, for which this year’s National Championships were the final qualifying event. “The past six months have been going pretty well in terms of competition; I did well at Worlds last year, at the Test Event as well, and then this one [Nationals]…I did all I could do so I’m feeling pretty confident.”

Western Australia took out a quinella in the Women’s Senior Trampoline competition, with Eva Kierath (50.400) dominating proceedings to win by 3.385 points from Naomie Ding. Emily O’Connor rounded out the podium with a score of 46.860, just 0.155 off silver.

In the Youth Men’s Double Mini Trampoline competition, New South Welshman Liam Christie (67.300) took out a comfortable victory, with both of his runs the best in the field. Christie won the national title by 2.500 points from Western Australian Liam Jeans. New Zealand’s Blake Costley rounded out the podium, missing out on silver by just 0.300 points.

It was a New South Wales double in the Youth Double Mini Trampoline competitions, with Holly Kerslake taking out the women’s title in a very hotly contested competition. Kerslake (61.800) took the title from Queensland’s Ella Mar Fan by 0.200 points, with fellow Queenslander Charlotte Johnstone just a further 0.400 points behind in third. Kerslake’s second pass, which proved to be 1.000 points better than Fan’s second pass, proved to be crucial in deciding the title.

The Junior Double Mini Trampoline saw Daniel Hancock (68.800) take out the men’s title for New South Wales, winning the title over Queensland’s Jacob Hunt by 2.100 points. Tasmanian Matthew French rounded out the podium, finishing a further 1.500 points behind Hunt.

New South Welshman Kira Ward (68.700) took out the Junior DMT title with a convincing 4.500 points victory over Cleo Thornett from Western Australia, with Megan Adams narrowly edging out fellow New South Welshman Samantha Pace by 0.100 for bronze.

In the Senior DMT men competition, Matthew Weal’s outstanding second pass saw him secure the title from Tasmania’s Damian Axelsen. Weal’s 37.500 second run allowed him to take the title with 73.600 points, 1.600 in front of Axelsen. New South Welshman Dominic Clarke rounded the podium, a further 1.400 points behind.

In the women’s Senior DMT, Bronwyn Dibb edged out Emily O’Connor in a thriller, with the Kiwi’s score of 68.500 just enough to edge out O’Connor by 0.100 points. Braida Thomas rounded out the podium with a score of 67.100.

The Youth Trampoline competition in the women’s competition saw a Kiwi quinella, with Amelia Greet (46.035) edging Perrie Macdonald by just 0.575 points. Holly Kerslake backed up her Double Mini Trampoline result by finishing third, a further 0.435 points off.

It was a New South Wales dominated title in the Junior Trampoline competition, with Kira Ward (51.655) taking the title from Georgia Rayment (49.225) and Samantha Pace (47.675). Furthermore, Megan Adams was able to place fourth for the New South Welshmen, missing out on a media by just 0.330.

Western Australia took out a quinella in the women’s senior trampoline competition, with Eva Kierath (50.400) dominating proceedings to win by 3.385 points from Naomie Ding. Emily O’Connor rounded out the podium with a score of 46.860, just 0.155 off silver.

In the men’s youth trampoline competition, Liam Christie (48.700) took out the title for New South Wales, with Blake Costley finishing in second for New Zealand, and Avi Margolis rounding out the podium for Western Australia.

And it was another gold medal for New South Wales in the junior trampoline competition, with Daniel Hancock (52.585) taking out gold for Kiwi Reegan Laidlaw and Tasmania’s Makonnen Brown

In the other Gymsports that competed at Hisense Arena this evening, Danielle Prince once again showed her status as Australia’s number one Rhythmic Gymnast, clean sweeping all four Apparatus Finals. Prince fought off quality competition from Tara Wilkie, winning the Hoop discipline by 0.550, the Ball discipline by 0.100, the Clubs discipline by 0.150, and the Ribbon discipline by 0.350. Emma Chan (Ball), Himeka Onoda (Hoop and Clubs) and Zoe Ormrod (Ribbon) were also beneficiaries of bronze medals on the night.

Lidiia Iakovleva and Alexandra Eedle dominated the Junior International Apparatus Finals, with both gymnasts finishing in the top two in every discipline. Iakovleva took out the national title for Clubs, Rope and Hoop, while Eedle took out the Ball title. Ashari Gill took two bronze medals in the Rope and Clubs competitions, while Laura Gosling (Ball) and Audrey Freeman (Hoop) were able to score bronze as well.

Crowds also got their first glimpse at Australia’s best Acrobatic athletes in action at Hisense Arena tonight. In the Junior 11-16 Women’s Pair, Antonia Maher and Nicole Chan defeated Emma Highfield and Madlen Mikhaylichenko to take home the National Title, whilst Millicent Hulst, Katie Laithwaite and Alexandra Heap took out the 11-16 Trio competition.

Earlier in afternoon session, Team New South Wales edged out Victoria to win the Level 9 Junior Team Title. However Victoria’s Thu Luu did her best to propel her state to the top, as she was crowned the All-Around Level 9 Junior champion.

Friday’s Morning Session marked the start of the Acrobatic Gymnastics; the last Gymsport to get their competition underway at the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships. Continuing New South Wales’ late surge to unseat Victoria at the top of the medal tally were Jasmine Flanagan, Tyla Veney and Emily Loe as they received gold for the Level Seven Women’s Trio balance, dynamic and overall disciplines.

For the Level Seven Mixed Pair group Katelyn Dullard and Cade Pettie (VIC) top scored to become the overall gold medallists.

In the Level Seven Women’s Pair first place honours went to Belinda Bertram and Namoi Gibson (NSW).

For the RG Level 10 entrants who also competed in the Mporning Session, Queensland provided a strong showing. They won the team competition ahead of NSW and had Heather Blakeway (gold) and Felicity White (silver) place All-Around as the best two gymnasts in the field.

Full results: ausgymnasticschamps/results

 

Day 10 – 2 June 2015

Photo by Brandon Tam

Danielle Prince has won the Rhythmic Gymnastics Senior International All-Around title for the fourth consecutive year, at the same time as leading Queensland to Team gold at Hisense Arena earlier this evening.

The Queensland team clinched victory over New South Wales by just 0.3, in what was an unusually tight affair, but the same couldn’t be said for the All-Around (AA) competition, with Prince clinching her fifth Senior AA title with a score of 62.250.

The 23-year-old from Brisbane topped the dias ahead of NSW youngsters Tara Wilkie (57.450) and Maya Bennett (54.500).

Despite missing the apparatus at the end of the final routine, Prince said she was pleased with her competition, and looking forward to having the opportunity to rectify some of her mistakes in tomorrow night’s Apparatus Finals.

“It was really nice to get out there. My main goal for today was to actually enjoy it; to enjoy the experience and enjoy performing, so…I think I did that. I had a great time out there. I’m pleased with my performances and, yes, there was a little bit of pressure…but I managed to pull through and I was happy.

“Finals have always been a bonus,” she continued, “so I’m really excited to get out there and fix some of those little mistakes that I had today.”

There were more Rio hopefuls in action tonight at Hisense Arena, with the qualification competition for the Men’s Individual Trampoline event taking place. With Australia having qualified one Individual Male to the Trampoline event at the 2016 Olympic Games, Tasmania’s Jack Penny let the selectors know his intentions, by topping the rankings heading into tomorrow night’s final with a combined score of 102.530. Close behind him was 2012 Olympian, Blake Gaudry (102.245), and New South Wales’ Dominic Clarke (99.105).

In the Women’s Individual Trampoline event, Western Australia’s Eva Kierath topped the rankings after the qualification round, with a combined score of 97.705.

Earlier in the day, the afternoon session we saw the Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG) Junior International Team and All-Around competition. New South Wales added to their gold total by taking out the team honours, whilst Queensland’s Lidia Iakovleva just ousted Alexandra Eedle (NSW) for the All-Around title.

In the U17 Men’s Trampoline (TRP) event, Jack Allen continued the success of NSW, claiming gold. New Zealand’s Natasha Adam was the U17 TRO Women’s Champion, whilt and Maya Freeman (NSW) was awarded the title of Residential Australian Champion.

The U15 Men’s TRP saw Blake Boswell (NZ) land another gold medal for the Kiwi’s with Sebastian Lawson of South Australia becoming the National Champion. Two winners were awarded in the U15 Women’s TRP event, with Holly Fisher (NZ) and Keeley Fahey (SA) claiming gold.

NSW had some of the best athletes in the U13 Double Mini-Trampoline (DMT) competition, sweeping the podium places from first through sixth, with the Champion being Molly Mamo. In the U13 Men’s DMT event, Samuel Durkin (QLD) was awarded the gold medal.

In the morning session the 17+ competitors also contested the DMT event. Olivia Morris from Victoria and Brendan Carroll (NSW) were crowned Champions of the respective Women’s and Men’s events.

Also in the morning, contesting the Individual Trampoline, were the U13 Men and Women. Isla Barr (NSW) completed a dominant win, whilst Samuel Durkin (QLD) won his state’s only gold in the session.

Also competing on the DMT were the U11s, with Tamia Fonua winning New South Wales’ third gold medal from this session’s trampoline fields. Cameron Tidd (SA) led the Men’s field and earned gold for his efforts.

In the RG morning competition we saw the first of our groups hit the floor for the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships. The NSW team claimed the single gold medal on offer, slightly edging out Queensland and South Australia for the remaining podium medals.

There was also a re-award of the RG Level 7 Junior All-Around medals from yesterday’s competition. In a score correction, both Lavinia Rajan (WA) and Sophia Dew (VIC) tied for third with a score of 39.400.

Full results: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

Day 9 – 1 June 2016

GA RG-01-06-16-10534_Ali Mayes

Day 9 of the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships at Hisense Arena saw our Trampoline athletes join our Rhythmic gymnasts in action for week 2 of competition.

On day one of competition for our Trampoline athletes, National Titles were up for grabs in 14 categories.  It was also the first time our visiting athletes from New Zealand had the chance to even the score with the Aussies on the medal tally, with the first medals up for grabs for the RG and Trampoline athletes visiting us from across the ditch.

It was a golden morning for the Tassie team in the Under 17 Tumbling competition, with Matthew French and Kayla McFadyen winning the Men’s and Women’s titles respectively.

In the morning Individual Trampoline events, the honours were shared across the states, with Kayla Germyn (NSW) and Cameron Tidd (SA) winning the U11 Men’s and Women’s titles, whilst in the 17+ division, the honours went to Natalie Steen (QLD) and Jordan Twigge (NZ).  Spencer Mason (SA) was crowned as the Residential Australian Champion for the Men’s 17+ Individual Trampoline category.

The Double-Mini Trampoline (DMT) also got its first work out of the competition today, with the U15 and U17 events taking place this morning.  Congratulations to the respective U15 Champions, Luisa Birkenhake (NZ) and Ethan Strickland (NZ).  Their Residential counterparts were Anyela Rogan (QLD) and Alex Luyckx (VIC).  In the U17 event Makenzie Wilson (NSW) took the Women’s Title, whilst her teammate, Justin Fokes, was victorius in the Men’s

The afternoon Trampoline competition saw the first of our Synchronised (Synchro) events for the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships.  Congratulations to our U11 Champions; Alannah Boseley and Meg Langridge of Western Australia (Women) and Billy French and Oliver Otten of Tasmania (Men).  In the U13 event, Isla and Mali Barr (NSW) won the Women’s event, whilst Harry Hiscock and Sigge Ahlgren (SA) won the Men’s.

Meanwhile in the afternoon Tumbling Session, Lucy Tibbs (VIC) and Joshua Blench (NSW) took the U11 honours, whilst Lauren Sampson (QLD) and Ivan Jarvis (NSW) were victorious in the 17+ category.

The evening session saw more Synchro action, with our U15 and U17 pairs in action.  Holly Fisher and Jorja Kellett-Reardon (NZ) won the Women’s U15 division, with Isabella Milajew and Zoe Cooksey (NSW) taking the Residential Title.  In the Men’s U15 division Rasmus Ahlgren (SA) and Alex Ibrahim (NSW) to share the title for their states.

In the U17 Synchro competition the Kiwi women once again prevailed, with Hannah Richards and Olivia Cook taking the gold medal, and the Residential titles being awarded to Holli Phillips and Rona Hunter (NSW).  Jack Allen and Michael Heffernan (NSW) won the Men’s Division.

Tumbling was also on the agenda in the evening, with Breanah Cauchi (NSW) and Damon Louwen (NSW) taking the U13 titles, whilst Darcey Ridlalgh (NSW) and Roman Kirby (WA) were victorious in the U15 events.

In the Rhythmic competition in the morning, Victoria continued their dominance in the international stream junior levels, winning the Level 7 Junior Team Title, and with Francesca Poi being crowned All-Around National Champion.

In the Level 7 and 8 events, part 2 of competition took place, with athletes adding to their All-Around score from the first two routines competed yesterday.

In Level 7, athletes competed their Clubs and Ribbon routines, and in the end it was South Australia that took the top of the dias in both the team event, and with Scarlett Evans winning the All-Around title.

In the Level 8 competition athletes competed their Ball and Clubs routines to round out their competition.  Once again it was Victoria experiencing considerable success on the podium, talking the Team Title, and with Jessica Mackenzie being crowned All-Around Champion.

Full results: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

 

Day 8 – 31 May 2016

Tahlia Stewart

Week 2 of the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships is officially underway, with the first day of the Rhythmic Gymnastics action kicking off at Hisense Arena.

The morning session featured part one of the Level 7 competition, where athletes competed their Rope and Hoop routines.

In Level 7 Rope, Mae-Shuen Ng from South Australia (SA) claimed gold, Ella Chapman from New South Wales (NSW) silver and Hana Wager from Western Australia bronze. Meanwhile in Hoop, Scarlett Evans from SA got the gold, and Chapman secured another second place finish, tied with New Zealand’s Anna Hooker.

In Level 8 competition during Session 20, athletes once again competed their Rope and Hoop routines in part one of the competition. Rope was won by SA’s Brooke Archbold, followed by Olivia Owens from NSW and Alexis Lane of Queensland, who tied for second place. Elise Kargiotis from Victoria won gold for Hoop, ahead of Laura Trapnell of Western Australia, and SA’s Brianna Namocatcat in third.

Both the Level 7 and 8 Team and All-Around competitions will conclude tomorrow, when athletes perform their Clubs and Ribbon and Ball and Clubs routines respectively.

In the evening session we got a glimpse of some of the best up-and-coming athletes in Australia, when the Level 8 Junior Team and All-Around competition took place. In what was a strong section bursting with talent the Victorian team dominated, being crowned the Champion Team, and with Tahlia Stewart taking out the All-Around title. She was joined on the podium by teammate, Madeleine Pham, in third position, with Kaylee Kua from NSW clinching All-Around silver.

Full results: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

Day 7 – 29 May 2016

In her first competition back since a full knee reconstruction, Lauren Mitchell has shown why she is Australia’s most decorated gymnast, winning gold on Beam.

Mitchell is making a bid for her third Olympic Games and has come along way from not being able to even walk 10 months ago.

The 24-year-old who competed at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, scored 14.025 for her Beam routine to take the gold and national title.

All-Around and Vault specialist Emily Little was the surprise packet of the Beam final, earning the silver medal after her routine score her 13.925. Twenty-year-old Emma Nedov from Sydney took bronze on 13.800.

Larrissa Miller recovered from her disappointment on the Uneven Bars last night, to put together a sensational routine to win gold on the Floor.

Miller performed a Double Arabian, a challenging skill with a half turn and two front flips in the air before landing, which contributed to her final score of 14.175.

Mitchell, the 2010 World Champion on Floor made a couple of errors in her Floor routine that cost her the win, taking bronze on 13.875. It was again Little who stepped up to the mark, winning silver with her performance of 14.000.

With just one woman to be given the nod for Rio, selectors now face an extremely difficult task of deciding who will be the nation’s best chance of making an Olympic final and ultimately winning a medal.

After winning two of last night’s finals, Luke Wadsworth added another gold to his swag tonight on Parallel Bars. Wadsworth edged out his Victorian teammate Luke Wiwatwoski who took silver but went one better to take gold on High Bar.

Chris Remkes gave a Vault masterclass in the men’s senior finals, winning gold with 14.862. Luke Wadsworth took silver on 13.262 while WA’s Jake Thompson took bronze on 12.600.

The junior women had their last two apparatus finals, with Talia Folino taking the Australian title on Vault with a score of 14.062. Cassidy Ercole of NSW was second on 12.850 and Shannon Farrell was third on 12.262.

Earlier in the day, the pocket rocket MAG Level 7 12 and Under athletes were in action. NSW took team gold with QLD taking silver and WA grabbing bronze. Harrison Williams dominated competition with the young Queenslander winning gold in the All-Around, Vault, Parallel Bars and High Bar as well as silver on Pommel and Rings. Seth Williams from NSW took gold on Floor, Alan Osman from NSW took gold on Pommel and Charlie Kay from SA took gold on rings.

Janis Grommen was crowned the WAG IL9 All-Around Champion with a score of 116.875. The Queenslander also took gold on Bars, silver on Beam and bronze on Floor. Tylah Otrupcek from NSW was the other big winner, with gold on both Floor and Beam and silver in All-Around and on vault. Victoria’s Elyssia Kenshole was the gold medallist on vault. Victoria took the team gold.

At the conclusion of the session, a number of awards were given out and in a moving ceremony, Naoya Tsukahara announced his retirement from Men’s Artistic Gymnastics.

AWARDS

Senior MAG International Gymnast of the Year – Nagoya Tsukahara

Senior WAG International Gymnast of the Year – Larrissa Miller

Junior WAG International Gymnast of the Year – Talia Folino

Judge of the Year – Alexander Hunt

International Coach Award – Yu Bo

Development Coach Award – Sean Wilson

International Development Coach of the Year – Jeb Salisbury, Nadiya Koryakina & Jessica Mason

International Coaching Team of the Year – John Hart & Shao Yi Jiang

The Cheales-Williamson Shield was retained by Queensland.

Profile: Dr Kathy Yu, GA Medical Officer

We speak to Kathy Yu to find out more about her role as Gymnastic Australia’s Chief Medical Officer.

With over 20 years of experience working in Sports Medicine, Dr Kathy Yu is without a doubt one of the most highly regarded sports doctors in the field, providing Australian gymnasts with the top medical care and attention they deserve.

She was recently appointed as Chief Medical Officer at Gymnastics Australia, but she is no newbie to the sport and its intricacies. Dr Yu has always been deeply embedded in the world of gymnastics, having been a gymnast as a child and then later coached while at University.

Holding a Masters of Public Health in Occupational Medicine and a Graduate Diploma in Sports Medicine, her progression into sports medicine was a natural one.

When asked what drew her specifically to the practice of sports medicine she put it simply – “I like healthy people.”

“I like biomechanics and how the body moves,” she added.

“My own experiences as a gymnast have shaped my practice and enable me to better understand the needs of the athletes I help.”

At the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships, Dr Yu is a familiar face behind the scenes helping to relieve sore backs, wrists and ankles from the hard-working gymnasts.

Dr Yu scuttles back and forth from gymnast to gymnast, enquiring after them. A diminutive figure, what she lacks in physical stature, she makes up for with her big, warm personality.

No two days of competition are the same for Dr Yu. The only constant according to her is the lack of sleep which she attributes to the long competition days.

“I am here from the moment athletes enter the arena to the time they leave,” she said. “I am caring not just for competitors but also attend to the medical needs of everyone present.”

The demands of the job may be high, but Dr Yu said she gains great job satisfaction from helping the athletes perform at their peak safely.

“That in itself is a reward for me. I am here for them.”

Where gymnastics is concerned, Dr Yu feels there is still a lack of expertise when it comes to managing athletes at the highest level of their sport in gymnastics, citing it to be a “very specialised field.”

“These athletes require very specific care, and because there is the perception that gymnastics is not a ‘professional’ sport, it is hard to attract doctors to become more involved.”

A strong advocate for greater education and awareness of gymnastics within the medical community, she identifies many fantastic learning opportunities for young doctors to help facilitate the best performance of athletes.

With a glint in her eye, Dr Yu admits that as a gymnast, her favourite apparatus was bars, but as a spectator she enjoys watching High Bar and Floor.

Apart from gymnastics, Dr Yu has previously also been involved with the Australian Paralympic Team and sailing teams.

 

Daily Wrap Ups – Straight from the Comp Floor

Day 6 – 28 May 2016

Emily Little

Olympian Emily Little shone in the first night of Women’s Artistic apparatus finals at the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne.

Western Australia’s Little put together two strong vaults to win gold with a final score of 15.012. The 2012 Olympian withdrew from the Bars final to focus on her favoured apparatus and the gold medal Vault performance was worthy of her efforts.

“I was really happy that I could just show that I can get my vaults out consistently in the three days that I have competed so far,” 22-year-old Little said.

“I was particularly happy with my second vault – with the stick – I don’t think I’ve done that in competition before so that was a good surprise,” she said.

“It was a Tsuk Full and is a little bit lower value than my first vault – the Yurchenko Double – so I’m actually working on upping the value of my second vault so I am just happy that I could perfect it in order to upgrade it. I would add another half-twist in there. I’ve been training it at home with a softer landing so I am really just trying to get that up to standard at the moment.”

Kiara Munteanu (VIC) was second with 13.912, whilst ACT’s Naomi Lee was third scoring 13.612.

The Uneven Bars favourite Larrissa Miller was unfortunate not to hit her routine, with a couple of crucial errors costing her a podium finish.

All-around champion Rianna Mizzen added Bars gold to her swag, winning with an impressive score of 14.350. Emily Whitehead took silver with a score of 13.775, whilst Georgia Godwin scored 13.625 to take the bronze.

The final two Women’s apparatus finals – Beam and Floor – will take place on Sunday from 1.30pm.

In the Men’s finals, Victoria’s Luke Wadsworth took gold on Pommel with a score of 14.075. Scott Costin from Queensland was the silver medallist on 13.250, and Joshua Di Nucci took bronze on 13.200.

Wadsworth was back on top of the podium after a strong performance on Rings saw him win on 14.375. His fellow Victorian Luke Wiwatowski was second on 14.100 with ACT’s Adam Falzarano third on 13.950.

Chris Remkes’ double layout triple twist in his Floor final brought the house down and the level of difficulty of his routine and execution saw him take home the gold medal with a score of 14.450. Wiwatowski took another silver on 14.425 and Costin picked up bronze on 14.200.

The Junior women’s finals were dominated by Jade Vella-Wright, with the Victorian taking both golds on offer on Beam and Floor. Rising star and Junior AA Champion Talia Folino grabbed silver on floor and bronze on beam whilst Shannon Farrell (NSW) took silver on beam and Eadie Rawson (VIC) took bronze on floor.

At the start of the day, the podium for the Men’s Level 7 Open had Timothy Hawken of New South Wales first (150.231), Ken Gunawan (147.795) and Connor De Campo (147.262) from Queensland placed second and third respectively.

Both Hawken and De Campo showed individual brilliance across a variety of apparatus. For Hawken, his performance earned him three gold (Floor, High Bar and All-Around) and one silver medal (Pommel).

De Campo achieved one gold (Vault), one tie for silver (Parallel Bars) with state teammate Kyle Condell and two bronze (Floor and All-Around).

During the same session, the WAG International Level 9 qualifying took place. Their finals will run throughout Session 17 tomorrow morning.

There was more finals action on Saturday afternoon with the MAG Level 8 Open and WAG International Level 8 divisions.

For the Men’s competition, Queensland again had two athletes on the All-Around podium. Gold went to Oliver Stack (150.196), silver to Patrick Rudd (148.663) and bronze to Benjamin Dempsey of NSW (147.73). Stack also took gold on the High Bar with the other apparatus medals being spread across many gymnasts.

For the Women’s IL8 Team competition, Victoria (114) and NSW (107.225) finished one-two.  The All-Around title went to WA’s Olena Edmeades (58.175). Rose Blackhall of VIC (114.175) and Olivia Heckman (113.8) from NSW were runners up. Edmeades won two of the four available gold medals in the apparatus (Floor and Beam).

 

Mitchell inducted into Hall of Fame

Australia’s most decorated gymnast, Lauren Mitchell, was inducted into Gymnastics Australia’s Hall of Fame last night, in an awards ceremony at the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships at Hisense Arena.

Just moments after finishing the second day of Qualification in the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) Senior International competition – where she and her Western Australian teammates clinched the team silver medal – Mitchell was honoured in front of an appreciative Victorian crowd.

The two-time Olympian and two-time Commonwealth Games team member’s most notable achievements include being Australia’s first individual female to medal at a World Championships, when she won silver on both Beam and Floor at the 2009 World Championships in London. A year later she went one better, being crowned World Champion on Floor at the 2010 World Championships in Rotterdam.  This made Lauren Australia’s first female gymnastics World Champion.

Competitors and spectators alike would agree it’s a joy to once again see Lauren competing at Nationals in 2016, and we wish here all the best on her Road to Rio!

A number of other awards were presented following the conclusion of competition last night – congratulations to all recipients:

2015 MAG Junior International Gymnast of the Year – Jack Reik (QLD)

Athlete Award of Distinction – Georgia Godwin (QLD) and Madelaine Leydin (VIC), 2015 World Championship Team Members

10 Years Competing at the Australian Gymnastics Championships – Emily Little (WA) and Olivia Vivian (WA)

FIG World Class Award – Georgia-Rose Brown (VIC)

Represented Australia at 5 World Championships – Larrissa Miller (VIC)

Retrospective Roll of Honour Awards – Karen Stewart, Susan Turnbull and Belinda Archer

Board Award – Mark Moncur (TAS)

Hall of Fame – Lauren Mitchell (WA)

 

Meet the Volunteers behind the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships

No event, especially one of the Australian Gymnastics Championships magnitude, can run without the assistance of volunteers. The amazing volunteer crew at Hisense Arena are doing a wonderful job ensuring the event’s success.

True to the nature of Melbourne’s multicultural melting pot, the volunteers have backgrounds from around the globe.

Lariche

IMG_9742

After only two weeks living in Melbourne and Australia, there could be no better introduction to the sporting capital of the world than by volunteering at the Australian Gymnastics Championships.

Originally from South Africa, Lariche has been involved with sports her whole life having played hockey, netball and springboard diving.

“My mother was a gymnast, so I understand the focus and dedication gymnastics demands,” she said.

Lariche is currently studying a teaching degree and her previous sports coaching experience allows for a finer understanding of the special coach/athlete relationship.

With a pleasant demeanour and beaming smile, there’s no doubt she enjoys working with the passionate spectators who’ve come to show their support.

Alejandra

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No stranger to gymnastics, Alejandra was involved as a child and says volunteering at the National Championships makes her want to rekindle a relationship with gymnastics.

Now a Melbournian but originally from Mexico, she sees the opportunity to volunteer at the event as a fantastic platform to gain and expand on professional skills.

As she works around the floor throughout the competition, Alejandra said she gets to witness how invested each and every competitor is.

“From the coaches to the athletes, I am very impressed with their attitudes,” she said “It’s almost as if they live for the sport!”

She believes gymnastics in Australia deserves more support and wishes for its profile to grow even bigger in the future.

Aarthi

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Arathi’s first day as a volunteer also marks her first foray into the world of gymnastics.

A business IT analyst by day, Aarthi admits to always harbouring a fascination with gymnastics.

When the opportunity to be a part of the championships came up, she seized the chance to see the nation’s finest gymnasts in action.

Shuttling back and forth between India and Melbourne over the last eight years, she says gymnastics is not a huge sport in her homeland compared to what she’s seen Down Under.

“There is still a stigma attached to gymnastics as being part of the circus,” she said of the sport in her home country

“However perceptions are changing, especially with India having qualified to enter its first female gymnast for the Olympics!”

Daily Wrap Ups – Straight from the Comp Floor

 

Day 5 – 27 May 2016

Larrissa Miller has headlined a strong Victorian crew to the team gold medal in the senior women’s artistic competition on night 5 of the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships.

The 23-year-old who is originally from Mackay but now calls Melbourne home put together the competition’s strongest floor and bars routines to put her in a good position for the weekend’s apparatus finals.

“I think we went really well,” Miller said. “We went out there and did the job as a team. I know Kiara [Munteanu] hit eight routines over two days so that’s really good and I did my double Arabian on floor tonight so I’m really happy with that.

“I feel good about finals, it’s onwards and upwards from here. I am starting to get through more and more routines and that’s buoying my confidence.”

The team from Western Australia took silver with Lauren Mitchell and Emily Little the strongest performers.

Dual Olympian Mitchell stuck a good beam routine for an improved score of 13.625 and was consistent on floor for 13.450. With both beam and floor apparatus finals on Sunday, Mitchell will have a day off to prepare to put everything on the line for a final shot at Olympic nomination.

Little showed she is still in the mix for the Rio spot after taking bronze in the individual All-Around driven by her scoring the two best vault scores in both qualifying and finals as well as strong floor routines.

The individual All-Around title was taken out by Queensland’s Rianna Mizzen with a combined total of 111.000. Mizzen was consistent across all four apparatus in both preliminaries and finals, with her strongest results being on bars and vault.

In the senior men’s individual All-Around, Luke Wadsworth was the crowned champion after winning on 167.295 points. His fellow Victorian Luke Wiwatowski was second on 166.430 whilst Queensland’s Scott Costin was third on 159.730.

In the men’s Level 10 Queensland’s Jack Riek dominated the apparatus finals, winning four of the six gold medals on offer – floor, pommel, rings and parallel bars. Jake Thompson of WA took gold in the vault whilst Hayden Greenough of Queensland took gold on the high bar. The individual all-around title went to Jack Norman of Queensland on 152.163. Riek took silver on 150.962 whilst Greenhough took bronze on 145.995.

In session 12, the WAG Junior, International Level 10 finals and the MAG Level 8 and over qualifying were run.

For the WAG Junior final hot favourite Talia Folino of Victoria was first in the All-Around with 103.075. Her state teammate Jade Vella-Wright scored 99.375 to place second and bronze was secured by Cassidy Ercole (97.825) of New South Wales.

Victoria claimed the Junior Team International Competition gold as they scored 304.08. NSW were runner up with 286.38.

In IDP 10 Sidney Stephens of Western Australia was awarded with two of the four available gold medals, winning on bars and floor while Queensland’s Kate Sayer took gold for the vault and Victoria’s Rebekah Chen won gold for beam.

The men’s Level 8 team gold medal went to Queensland again (226.762), silver to NSW (225.1217) and bronze to Victoria (222.225).

In the Junior International Level 10 Team Championship, Western Australia won gold with a score of 302.93. Victoria were able to place again as a 279.53 earning silver.

Earlier in the day in Session 11 the MAG L7U and WAG IL8 both had qualifying, with finals to be held tomorrow.

Day 4 – 26 May 2016

There were just two competition sessions on Day 4 of the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships, with podium training taking place in the middle of the day.

The evening was highlighted by the women’s Level 10 individual apparatus finals. Chloe Jackson-Brown from New South Wales was the All-Around Champion in the U16s and also took gold in bars and beam to round out a great competition. In the Over 17 event, it was Teliah Farren-Price who shone. The Victorian took the All-Around title as well as beam and floor.

In the men’s Level 9 Under 15, David Tanner from Queensland topped the podium as the All-Around champion. Tanner also took the title for pommel, rings, floor and high bar.

The Under 17s saw Hudson Irwin victorious in the All-Around competition whilst Heath Thorpe (VIC), Billy McLean (VIC) and Indigo Dragon (QLD) shared in a number of apparatus podium finishes.

In the Level 9 Open competition, Rasmus Breth-Petersen was the All-Around Champion after finishing with a combined total of 148.148 ahead of Jack Glendenning and Tristan Collins of Queensland who were second and third respectively. Glendenning also took gold on the parallel bars and floor.

The evening session also saw the first of the National Gymsport Awards presented for the Championships.  Congratulations to the winners:

Carol Sussman Award – Neilina Bailey (QLD)

2015 WAG National Levels Gymnast of the Year – Melanie O’Mara (ACT)

2015 WAG National Levels Development Coach of the Year – Lauren Park (QLD)

2015 WAG National Levels Coaching Team of the Year – Amanda Deurleroo and Kathryn Rogers (WA)

2015 MAG Open Levels Gymnast of the Year – Rasmus Breth-Petersen (NSW)

2015 MAG Open Levels Coach of the Year – Jack Coates (QLD)

Following the medal presentations, a team of eight WAG gymnasts was named to represent Australia in the Open Levels Tour to New Zealand later in the year, whilst a squad of six shortlisted MAG athletes were named, pending selection for the MAG Open Levels Tour to the USA in January 2017.

In the morning session Queensland were triumphant in the men’s level 7 open competition in the first session on Day 4, winning on 225.728 points. It was their dominant results on floor and pommel that saw them take the top spot ahead of New South Wales who were second on 224.628 and Victoria who were third on 213.960.

In the qualifying round of the women’s junior event, Victorian Talia Folino was outstanding. The talented teen had the highest qualifying scores on vault, bars and floor as well as the All-Around. Her fellow Victorian Jade Vella-Wright had the equal highest score on floor and the highest on beam, proving she too is one to watch for the finals and the future.

The International Level 10 women were also in action, with Romi Brown from Victoria leading the way in the All-Around qualifying on 48.750 points. Top apparatus qualifiers were Kate Sayer (QLD) on vault, Sidney Stephens (WA) on bars and floor and Elena Chipizubov (NSW) on beam.

Day 3 – 25 May 2016

Day 3 was highlighted by the senior men’s and women’s athletes taking centre stage for qualifying.

With Rio Olympic qualification on the line and just one women’s place on the team up for grabs, the athletes put everything on the line to impress in this qualification event.

Two-time Olympian Lauren Mitchell was impressive on the floor in her first competition back after a knee injury sidelined her last year. Focusing on her favoured apparatus, Mitchell scored 13.725 and will be looking to improve on her beam results in the second round of apparatus qualifying. The star-studded WA team also featured 2012 Olympian Emily Little who is seeking the Rio berth as well as 2008 Olympic veteran Olivia Vivian.

Hometown favourite Larrissa Miller showed she is a serious contender to make her second Olympic Team, with her score of 14.650 on the uneven bars taking Victoria to the lead. She was also the second strongest performer on the floor with a score of 13.625.

They’ll be back in action on Friday night when the team medals and individual All-Around medals will be decided and the athletes making the apparatus finals will be known.

In the men’s event, Victoria took team gold with a score of 245.828, led by Luke Wiwatowski who put together an outstanding performance on the floor.

Queensland were second on 237.861 however their standout athlete Michael Mercieca was unlucky to sustain a hand injury on the parallel bars, the fifth rotation of the night. Team NSW were third on 212.562.

Earlier in the day QLD were on top of the team podium for the WAG Level 9, finishing first on 203.88. NSW and VIC tied for second on 202.60.

QLD took out the women’s Level 8 final just a fraction ahead of NSW with WA third. Jorgie Hills dominated the U14 apparatus finals whilst her NSW teammate Olivia Wills took four individual titles in the 15 and over.

It was a tight finish for the WAG Level 7 team medals with NSW victorious over QLD with ACT third – just 2.55 points separating gold from bronze.

In the MAG Level 8 and under, SA took out the team title ahead of Victoria on second and NSW on bronze. There was an even spread of individual apparatus medals with Jesse Moore (SA) and Blair Ray Stewart (ACT) taking two golds each.

Day 2 – 24 May 2016

It was a bright and early start at Hisense Arena on Day 2 of the Australian Gymnastics Championships, with Gymnastics Australia hosting Sam Mac and the Sunrise weather team for some early morning crosses.

While providing Samantha Armytage, Kochie and the rest of Australia the national weather, Sam had some fun with a few of Australia’s best gymnasts. Before he began reading the weather, Sam was inquisitively hovering around the pommel horse and the rings as gymnasts were providing demonstrations while on air. He also had a chat with Australia’s most decorated gymnast, Lauren Mitchell, and Australia’s top-ranked MAG athlete, Mike Mercieca. Thanks to all who came down and got involved!

We’re now four sessions down at the 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships after running the first full three-session day at Hisense Arena today. With both parts of WAG National Level 7 and 8 Team and Qualifying competition complete, the finals will be contested during session six on Wednesday from 2 to 4.30pm. Congratulations to New South Wales and Queensland, who took home the WAG Level 7 and 8 Team Titles respectively.

Day 2 also saw 34 National Level 10 WAG athletes in competition, an impressive representation from six of the eight States and Territories. Congratulations to Victoria who was crowned National Level 10 Team Champions, in what was yet another tight encounter.

Our Level 9 Open and Under MAG athletes also took to the floor on Day 2 of the Championships for their Team and Qualification competition. Congratulations to Victoria once again who took out the MAG Level 9 Under Team, and Queensland who were crowned the MAG Level 9 Open Team Champions.

 

Day 1 –  23  May 2016

Championships starts with a bang at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena

The 2016 Australian Gymnastics Championships are well underway with two jam-packed days of action!

On Day 1 it was great to see our State Teams back at the world-class Hisense Arena to kick of 12 days of spectacular competition, which is sure to be extra exciting in 2016 with it being the year of the XXXI Olympiad.

To kick off week one of competition our Men’s and Women’s Artistic athletes are in town, and once again it’s fantastic to have all Australian States and Territories represented across both of these Gymsports.

Following a jam-packed day of podium training in the main arena, the Championships were officially opened by Gymnastics Australia President, Jacqui Briggs-Weatherill. She was accompanied by Australian Flag Bearer, Chris Remkes representing South Australia, Victoria’s Larrissa Miller who read the Athletes’ Oath, and Queensland’s Tricia Hade who read the Judges’ Oath.

Day 1 of the Australian Gymnastics Championships was once again our Community Day, where entry was free for spectators and instead of an entry fee we asked for a gold coin donation to our charity of choice, Bravehearts. Bravehearts raises funds and awareness to help to educate, empower and protect children, and the sport of gymnastics is lucky to have current WAG athlete and 2012 Olympian, Larrissa Miller, as a Bravehearts Ambassador.

Thanks to the generous donations of our spectators, we raised $717.70 towards this worthy cause, with Gymnastics Australia announced they would add an additional $1,000 towards this donation.

A magnificent Day 1 in Melbourne was capped off with Session One of competition, which saw our Level 8 Under MAG and National Level 9 WAG athletes contest the Team and All-Around competition. Congratulations to Queensland who took home the first gold medal of the Championships, winning the WAG Level 9 Team Title. Incredibly Victoria and New South Wales tied on 202.6 to take home the silver medal.

 

Full results can be found here: ausgymnasticschamps.com.au/results

 

29 May 2015

Prince Australia’s rhythmic queen, as Kiwi Schmidt fires warning shot

 

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Queensland’s Danielle Prince (QLD) has been rewarded for a leap of faith that has seen her based in the United Kingdom for the past six months, training with elite coaches and gymnasts in Great Britain.

The 23-year-old performing a masterclass every time she took to Melbourne’s Hisense Arena, as part of the 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships.

Prince swept all comers across all four apparatus in routines of precision, emotion and elegance.

“I’m finally starting to see the results of all that hard work I’ve put in over there [UK] earlier this year, and I’m really hoping to step up in the world cup and world championships,” said Prince.

“To be training with someone who is at the same level or even better than you is that constant daily reminder to keep pushing yourself as hard as you can.”

Two scores of 12.400 with ball and clubs, a 14.450 with ribbon and 13.900 with hoop only strengthening the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist’s case for what would be her first Olympic berth at Rio 2016.

“I’ve gone through the Olympic selection before and haven’t been so fortunate, so this time round I’m just enjoying the time I have as a gymnast out on the floor and making the most of that experience,” she said.

“So far, so good.”

Returning to competition for the first time in more than a year, Enid Sung (NSW) showed no signs of the severe shoulder injury that had her sidelined, but was not immune to the odd mistake across her four routines.

The 23-year-old her harshest critic.

“Coming back after a year’s break was an achievement in itself, but performance wise I could have done a bit better,” she admitted.

“For me it’s such an internal thing.”

“I’m a very emotive person and sometimes it’s a good thing because it can come through in my routine and the way I move, but when things go wrong it can definitely affect me and that’s what I need to address.”

The final event of the night was certainly worth waiting for, as New Zealand’s Dylan Schmidt (NZ) claimed trans-Tasman bragging rights in the men’s senior trampoline final.

Unable to claim the Australian title, the last man to step onto the tramp still fired a shot across the bow of any Australian hoping to qualify for Rio via this year’s world championships in Glasgow.

“There’s always a friendly rivalry between Australia and New Zealand,” said Schmidt.

”This is only my second senior event and I’ve managed a personal best so I couldn’t have really asked for it to go any better.”

Blake Gaudry (SA) the best of the rest and crowned national champion due to Schmidt’s ineligibility.

A humble winner, the 23-year-old full of praise for his Kiwi rival, wishing him well on the road to Rio.

“Dylan’s come a long way and he’s proven himself as a competitor at last year’s world championships, and now here,” he said.

“I know the direction myself and my coaches are going in, and we’ve got a plan set out to get us to the Rio games.”

“I’m confident that that’s going to work, and it’s going to be good if both Australia and New Zealand could get there.”

In acrobatics, mixed pair Aiden Lerch and Mackenzie Levin (NSW) posted scores of 21.620 in dynamic and 23.910 in balance to earn gold.

The 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships conclude tomorrow (Saturday 30th May), as Australia’s best gymnasts take centre stage on Melbourne’s Hisense Arena one last time.

Experience the finale to two weeks of superhuman feats, as the top gymnasts from each state and territory compete for the title of Australian Champion, and commence their journey on the Road to Rio.

 

24 May 2015

Lauren Mitchell completes comeback dream

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Australia’s best ever gymnast has claimed gold on the last day of women’s artistic competition at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena, Lauren Mitchell (WAIS) crowned national floor champion in a vintage performance.

The 2010 world floor champion and two-time Olympian has been working towards her best throughout the week, and finally delivered with a 13.900 thanks to a near-perfectly executed routine.

Returning to competition for the first time since injuring both ankles before last year’s world championships, the win is no doubt a confidence booster in the short term, though more importantly validates the 23-year-old’s decision to push on for her third Olympics in Rio 2016, with further difficulty to be added to her routines.

“I came into nationals without any expectations and basically just to see where I’m at,” said Mitchell.

“I need to clean it up a lot more and I have one more upgrade to put in once my body allows and once I’m fit enough again.”

“It’s nice to know I’ve still got something.”

Mitchell pipped team mate and close friend Emily Little (WAIS) by the smallest of margins, with 0.1 deducted by the judges for stepping outside the floor.

She was anything but bitter though, confident in her own performance and thrilled to see Mitchell back to her best.

“We’ve been together for ten years and we feel so comfortable with each other, we train together and room together, and it’s nice to just have that support and friendship every day,” Little said.

“Lauren is a world champion on floor for a reason, and I couldn’t be happier for her.”

It has been a successful championships for Little too nonetheless, claiming gold on vault and silver in the women’s all-around title.

The ACT claimed its first major prize of the week with 20-year-old James Bacueti (ACT) taking out the men’s vault final.

A former champion at junior level, it’s been a rocky road for Bacueti, overcoming injury and more-favoured gymnasts to clinch victory on his specialty apparatus.

“I honestly didn’t think I was going to win,” he admitted.

“Preparation hasn’t been the best due to a couple of injuries; last year at nationals I ruptured my syndesmosis, so that was about six months out,”

“And then because of that I had some stress reactions in my shin and couldn’t train until three weeks before these championships.”

“I’m really surprised but proud all the same.”

A Victorian rising star put aside her own adversity to win the women’s junior vault competition, Talia Folino (Vic) not making the initial cut through qualifying due to a technicality.

But her coaches took up the fight and ensured she got her chance, their efforts rewarded with a 14.000 and gold for the 14-year-old.

“I was a bit stressed and quite upset that I wasn’t going to make the final, because I’ve put in so much effort,” she said.

“But my coaches fought for me and I came out strong today and forgot about what had happened; I just wanted to get back on it.”

In state competition, Queensland was named men’s artistic champions for the sixth consecutive year, and awarded the Ken Williams & Jeff Cheales Shield.

The full list of results from today’s apparatus finals –

WAG senior floor final:

  1. Lauren Mitchell (WA) 2. Emily Little (WA) 3. Madelaine Leydin (VIC)

WAG senior beam final:

  1. Georgia Godwin (QLD) 2. Madelaine Leydin (VIC) 3. Emily Little (WA)

WAG junior vault final:

  1. Talia Folino (VIC) 2. Yasmin Collier (WA) 3. Emily Whitehead (VIC)

MAG senior high bar final:

  1. Tyson Bull (VIC) 2. Mitchell Morgans (QLD) 3. Declan Stacey (VIC)

WAG junior uneven bars final:

  1. Emily Whitehead (VIC) 2. Talia Folino (VIC) 3. Yasmin Collier (WA)

MAG senior parallel bars final:

  1. Luke Wadsworth (VIC) 2T. Michael Mercieca (QLD) 2T. Naoya Tsukahara (QLD)

MAG senior vault final:

  1. James Bacueti (ACT) 2. Clay Stephens (SA) 3. Chris Remkes (SA)

For further results, click here.

Competition continues on Tuesday with a week of rhythmic, trampoline and acrobatic events, highlighted by Friday night’s finals across all three disciplines, as the top gymnasts from each state and territory compete for the title of Australian Champion, and commence their journey on the Road to Rio.

Tickets are now available for general public purchase via www.ausgymnasticschamps.com.au.

The 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships are supported by the Victorian State Government under the Significant Sporting Events Program.

 

23 May 2015

Little to prove for Emily, as rising stars steal the show

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After coming agonisingly close to the all-around title on Friday, Emily Little (WAIS) showed Hisense Arena the star power that makes her one of Australia’s best.

The 21-year-old’s experience came to the fore after a long delay before her first attempt on the vault, as judges scored the previous athlete.

Nerves nowhere to be seen though for the Commonwealth Games gold medallist, nailing her two vaults in clean fashion and tasting success for the first time these championships.

“That’s what we come here to do, we come to do our best and you’re in the gym every day to win,” she said.

“It’s always nice to come to nationals and get recognised for all that hard work you put in.”

“Now I’m looking to upgrade both vaults and hopefully make a final at the world championships.”

Little was the star of the show on the first day of apparatus finals, where the growing talent of Australian gymnastics was on show.

A winning result on the pommel horse has made the plane ticket home well worth it for 22-year-old Tyson Bull (Vic), who has just completed his freshman year at the University of Illinois.

The United States proving a good move for the Victorian and obvious crowd favourite, a sweeter homecoming you will not see as Bull pounced on what could well be the only mistake made by freshly crowned all-around champion Naoya Tsukahara (QLD) all championships.

Tsukahara did walk away with the national rings title, but it was Bull who was the centre of attention with his 13.375.

“Coming from that college environment has just really hammered home that consistency is the key,” said Bull.

“A single fall is one whole mark, so staying on the horse is almost everything and I was able to do that today.”

“Sometimes your mind races ahead of you, but if you keep your mind in check you will have a good result, so I think that’s what I do best.”

In what is easily the most inspirational moment of the championships so far, Queensland’s Rianna Mizzen (QLD) claimed the senior women’s bars title in just her first competition since making the jump from juniors, and merely months after a freak training accident.

Preparing for a competition in Italy, the 15-year-old hyperextended and fractured her knee in March this year, but has defeated both the odds and more experienced gymnasts with an impressive 14.075.

“It’s been very hard to come back, and there have been a few times when I’ve been a bit scared,” she admitted.

“But now I’m out there competing against Olympians and I just can’t believe it.”

The score and surprise of the night came from the women’s junior artistic competition and one Emily Whitehead (Vic), an amazing 16.125 on floor.

The 14-year-old’s dynamic choreography a solid foundation, but it was the increased difficulty that saw her net three bonus points to clinch the title, as she now dreams of something bigger.

“It’s not likely for people to get 16’s so it’s good because trying something hard has really paid off,” she said.

“Definitely the Olympics would be my number one goal next, and I hope I’m good enough to achieve that.”

For full results from day 6, click here.

The competition continues tomorrow afternoon with the remaining apparatus finals, including two-time world champion Lauren Mitchell (WAIS) on beam and floor, as the top gymnasts from each state and territory compete for the title of Australian Champion, and commence their journey on the Road to Rio.

Tickets are now available for general public purchase via www.ausgymnasticschamps.com.au.

The 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships are supported by the Victorian State Government under the Significant Sporting Events Program.

 

22 May 2015 

Youth and experience: Godwin joins Tsukahara in successful title defence

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Queensland teen sensation Georgia Godwin (QLD) has shown experience beyond her years to successfully defend her women’s artistic all-around title at the 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne.

The 17-year-old more than deserving of the title, never headed across the two days of all-around competition, as a multitude of high quality gymnasts took their turns in snapping at her heels.

A picture of concentration throughout, there were no signs of emotion upon completing her final routine, Godwin leaving the floor a two-time national champion with a score of 108.750, Perth’s Emily Little (WAIS) second on 108.750 and Madelaine Leydin (VIC) third with 107.400.

“Once I’m in focus, nothing really distracts me; I don’t hear much going on and I don’t let emotions take effect,” she said.

“Now I want to help Australia at the world championships, and move towards Rio.”

“It is my ultimate goal to represent Australia at the Olympics.”

Before a point had even been scored, veteran Naoya Tsukahara (QLD) was the man to beat in the men’s competition, and the 37-year-old simply proved too strong.

Flawless, clinical, it was all we’ve come to expect from the Olympic gold medallist, the crowd appreciating every minute movement the Japanese-born champion made on his way to a score of 169.849.

Tsukahara won team Olympic gold at Athens 2004.

“Even the smallest things are always what I am looking to improve,” he said.

“It is control and consistency that will take Australian gymnastics to success.”

“This is something I am trying to teach here; I want to contribute.”

The subplot to the main event though was the developing return of Lauren Mitchell (WAIS), who showed exactly why she is a world champion.

The fan-favourite more than lived up to her name as the 23-year-old showed glimpses of what could only be described as vintage Mitchell.

Whatever weight may have previously been on her shoulders appears lifted, Australia’s greatest ever gymnast smiling the whole way through her two routines, as the nation now cheers her towards Rio 2016.

“This time round is completely different to London,” she admitted.

“This time it’s more about me and how my body is feeling, and contributing to the team.”

“It’s more self-focused than everyone else’s expectations and if I don’t meet everyone else’s expectations then I’m not that worried, whereas previously I would have been.”

Whilst Mitchell focused on beam and floor, West Australian teammate Emily Little (WA) was always threatening to steal Georgia Godwin’s all-around crown.

Ultimately, the 21-year-old would fall short, but her overall score of 107.475 is not the one she will be marking herself against.

“The main goal is worlds so I really just want to be ready and this is the best experience for that,’ said Little.

“As my coach reminded me, I have been out of action for two years and this is about getting my nerves under control and preparing under competition conditions,”

“Georgia is an amazing gymnast and she certainly deserves it [the title].”

In both the junior and senior women’s team competition, it was Victoria which continued its dominance.

For individual results from day 5, click here.

The competition continues tomorrow and Sunday with the apparatus finals, as the top gymnasts from each state and territory compete for the title of Australian Champion, and commence their journey on the Road to Rio.

Tickets are now available for general public purchase via www.ausgymnasticschamps.com.au.

The 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships are supported by the Victorian State Government under the Significant Sporting Events Program.

 

20 May 2015 

Mitchell makes impressive return, as Little and Godwin battle for all-round crown

Day 2

Australia’s best ever gymnast showed next to no signs of rust, returning to competition for the first time since injuring both ankles last year; a comeback hoped to culminate with a berth at Rio 2016.

2010 world champion Lauren Mitchell (WAIS) was impressive on floor posting a 14.075 to sit atop the leader board after qualifying.

“Even though it’s qualification, it’s still the first time I’ve been out there on the podium since the Commonwealth Games, so it’s very nerve-racking,” she said.

“Now that I feel like I’m not going to stand there and just shake with nerves, I can be a lot more confident ahead of Friday.”

The twenty-three-year-old made pleasing progress on the beam, and whilst not in contention for all-round title, will return to Hisense Arena on Friday night, focused on building form across the two apparatus for which she is famous.

Fellow West Australian Emily Little (WAIS) was simply outstanding in her first test of the championships, the crowd on their feet as she posted the highest score of the night in women’s artistic, a 15.125 on vault.

All but faultless across the four apparatus, she did her hopes of taking out this year’s all-round crown no harm, not afraid to push the limits in search of the big scores that come with increased difficulty.

“That’s what you have to do when you’re introducing new elements into a routine,” she said.

“But I need to control myself a bit more, get my nerves down pat, and look a bit stronger and steadier across all apparatus.”

The story of the night though was Georgia Godwin (QLD), the seventeen-year-old going stride for stride with Little in a rivalry that will only build across the next week of competition.

The points quite literally going to Godwin on this occasion with a total score of 54.500 to Little’s 53.100.

She was consistent every time she took to the podium, particularly outstanding in bars and beam.

First time certainly a charm, notching up a 14.125 on the bars for a routine developed fresh for nationals, though Godwin won’t be patting herself on the back.

“I don’t look at the scores because if I do then I think about what I need to do next, when I should be focused on what I do in training,” she admitted.

“I know what I need to work on, and what I need to keep doing consistently.”

“The other girls are pushing me.”

In men’s artistic, it was catch me if you can for legendary veteran Naoya Tsukahara (QLD), as he led Queensland to gold in the team competition.

In a clinical performance, the 37-year-old showed incredible poise and strength throughout, typified by an imposing 15.133 on rings – the stadium right behind him with what could only be described as a signature fist pump after every routine.

He looms as the man to beat in the coming days, and it will be the furthest thing from an easy task.

The focus now moves to Friday night and the women’s and men’s all round final.

For individual results from day 3, click here.

Experience two weeks of superhuman feats, as the top gymnasts from each state and territory compete for the title of Australian Champion, and commence their journey on the Road to Rio.

Tickets are now available for general public purchase via www.ausgymnasticschamps.com.au.

The 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships are supported by the Victorian State Government under the Significant Sporting Events Program.


18 May 2015 

 Unfinished business inspires Mitchell and Little as stars soar at podium training

Podium Training

Australia’s first ever world champion and best ever gymnast admits she is far from peak condition, but is heading in the right direction ahead of the 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships.

Lauren Mitchell was joined by Australia’s best men’s and women’s gymnasts for podium training today at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena, ahead of her return to competition for the first time since succumbing to injury just days before last year’s world championships.

After winning two silver medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the 23-year-old rolled both ankles in China and has progressed through an intensive rehabilitation program to be ready just in time for nationals.

“I’ve been training for about four weeks. So not ideal shape and definitely not my peak shape,” she admits.

The 2010 world floor champion will use this week’s competition as a springboard towards October’s world championships in Glasgow, where a top-eight finish for Australia will all but book the team’s flights to Rio in 2016.

Mitchell has already committed to leading the team at what will be her third Olympics, but as for her personal motivation, it’s all built on redemption on the Olympic stage.

“The Olympic medal is the only one I haven’t won, so that’s unfinished business,” she says.

“I wouldn’t just go to the Olympics to go to another Olympics. I don’t think that’s enough.”

Joining the comeback queen will be another 2012 Olympian in Emily Little (WAIS), as she too returns from an extended break.

Despite spending almost two years away from the sport, the 21-year-old will mark her performance with high expectations, and is keen to join Mitchell in Rio.

“I just want to get as close to perfection as I can. I want to hit all my apparatus, every competition,” she says.

“It’s a bit scary to think that now is where it all starts. The whole campaign – nationals, worlds and Rio.”

“It’s very exciting and nerve racking.”

Watching over Australia’s brightest female talent is Australian women’s coach Peggy Liddick.

There are few opinions that matter more in gymnastics, with Liddick using the championships as fully fledged selection trials, from which she will select her world championship squad.

It’s those names which are hoped will form the core of Australia’s 2016 Olympic team.

“I’m looking for a high difficulty that’s world standard, of course,” she said.

“But being able to come in time after time, and compete without much variation in a cool, calm and collected manner.”

“That’s what it’s all about.”

17-year-old Georgia Godwin (QLD) has already proven she can perform when needed, crowned Australian champion at last year’s titles.

Her philosophy can only hold her in good stead for what the future may bring, living and breathing the mantra instilled by the national coach.

“I train how I compete, so I just come out here and it feels like training,” she says.

“You only get one shot at it, and I’ve had the Olympic dream since I was about eight, so to go to Rio and represent Australia would be amazing.”

In men’s competition, Luke Wiwatowski (VIC) is hoping to go one better in 2015 and be crowned all round Australian champion.

The 28-year-old will compete across all six apparatus throughout the two week event, and success here will hold him in good stead for an individual spot in Rio 2016.

“I’ve come so close to winning the national title so many times, but it’s always been just out of my reach,” he says.

“Hopefully this is my year.”

Experience two weeks of superhuman feats, as the top gymnasts from each state and territory compete for the title of Australian Champion, and commence their journey on the Road to Rio.

Tickets are now available for general public purchase here: http://bit.ly/1JN3wGx

The 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships are supported by the Victorian State Government under the Significant Sporting Events Program.


17 May 2015

2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics: Australia’s elite gymnasts limber up on the road to games

The country’s most successful gymnast, Lauren Mitchell, has put her retirement plans on hold to compete at next week’s Australian Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne, in preparation for her third games bid.

VIC NCE

Read more at http://ab.co/1ecAiUy


 15 May 2015 

Raising the bar on gymnasts’ expectations

When young Liverpudlian gymnast Beth Tweddle qualified for her first apparatus final alongside many of the usual eastern bloc suspects at the 2002 European championships, she felt horribly out of place. Then, on the uneven bars, she promptly won a bronze medal.

tweddle

Read more at http://bit.ly/1FvCfr3


14 May 2015

Lauren Mitchell sets sights on Rio as Tweddle says ‘it’s only a matter of time’

Australia’s best ever gymnast has confirmed she will push on for the Rio Olympics, with the dream of taking her country to the podium still burning brightly.

In a huge boost to Australia’s aspirations in Rio, Lauren Mitchell, the 2010 world floor champion and 2009 world beam and floor silver medallist, has confirmed she is committed to what will be her third Olympics, and will take the first step towards qualification at next week’s 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne.

Australia has never won an Olympic medal in men’s or women’s artistic gymnastics, the 23-year-old telling Fox Sports she had her doubts as to whether she would be the one to lead the Australia team towards the podium, something which British Olympic medallist Beth Tweddle believes is only a matter of time away.

“I was really in limbo for a very long time so it’s only probably been in the last couple of weeks that I’ve really kind of stepped it up and said, ok, give it one more crack,” Mitchell said.

After winning two silver medals at last year’s Commonwealth Games, Mitchell was forced out of the world championships just two days before qualifying competition, rolling both ankles in training, throwing her into a long rehabilitation period.

But it’s the Olympic dream and the possibility of an Olympic medal that continues to burn within.

“You kind of forget what the Olympic vibe is like until you are there.”

“I had the AOC athlete’s commission meeting last week and just listening to everyone talking about it again kind of re-motivated me and I’m like, ok, I remember what it’s like.

“I want to go back,” she said.

Meanwhile, Olympic bronze medallist and three time world champion Beth Tweddle has told a Gymnastics Victoria Women in Sport breakfast this morning that Mitchell’s podium dream is simply a matter of time.

Like Mitchell, the now 30-year-old walked away from her first two Olympics with little to show for her years of work, but overcame the odds in her third attempt to claim bronze on uneven bars at London 2012.

The most successful British gymnast in history says she sees similarities between Australian gymnastics and Great Britain before breaking through the medal barrier.

“You can see the passion and enthusiasm and the coaching behind it,” she said.

“You’ve got so much talent in this country and it is just a case of time,”

“You have to target them when they’re six or seven, and then wait another ten, twelve, fourteen years before they can compete at the elite level,”

“It does take time.”

Lauren Mitchell will return to competition next week at the 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships at Hisense Arena (Monday 18th May – Saturday 30th May).

Experience two weeks of superhuman feats, as the top gymnasts from each state and territory compete for the title of Australian Champion, and commence their journey on the Road to Rio.

Tickets are now available for general public purchase via www.ausgymnasticschamps.com.au.

The 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships are supported by the Victorian State Government under the Significant Sporting Events Program.


17 April 2015

Two weeks of superhuman feats in Melbourne

Tomorrow marks one month to go for Australia’s best gymnasts, who will descend on Melbourne for the 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships at Hisense Arena (Monday 18-Saturday 30 May).

Australian titles will be on the line across all disciplines, with spots on the Australian team for this year’s world championships also up for grabs in the Olympic disciplines of women’s and men’s artistic, rhythmic and trampoline gymnastics.

In most disciplines, the 2015 world championships are crucial qualifying events for the Rio Olympic Games, so the Australian titles form a vital springboard to next year’s Games.

With 1300 athletes, 600 officials, 33 sessions and more than 6000 routines, it will be a festival of gymnastics.

Leading the way will be Australia’s best female artistic gymnasts, headed by Australia’s first female world champion, Lauren Mitchell (WAIS) – who will lead a promising group aiming to secure Olympic qualification at the world championships in Glasgow in October.

Mitchell – the 2010 floor world champion and 2009 beam and floor world silver medallist – will join fellow senior Australian team members, 2014 Australian Champion Georgia Godwin (QLD), 2014 world championship team member Emma Nedov (NSW), and 2012 Olympian Emily Little (WA).

In men’s artistic gymnastics, individual spots for Rio are open, with Naoya Tsukahara (QLD) and Luke Wiwatowski (VIC) the ones to watch.

In rhythmic gymnastics, 2014 Commonwealth Games team members Danielle Prince (QLD) and Amy Quinn (WA) are expected to lead the way, along with the returning Enid Sing (NSW).

Trampoline gymnastics will have its own stars, as 2014 world championship finalist Shaun Swadling (NSW) joins brother and 2014 world championship team bronze medallist Ty Swadling (NSW). 2014 national champion Claire Arthur (SA), as well as 2012 Olympian and defending national champion Blake Gaudry (SA) will also be in action in Melbourne.

New South Wales acrobatic gymnastics pair Aiden Lerch and Mackenzie Levin will be looking to claim the Australian title, fresh off an 11th place finish at last year’s world championships.

Experience two weeks of superhuman feats, as the top gymnasts from each state and territory compete for the title of Australian Champion, and commence their journey on the Road to Rio.

Tickets are now available for general public purchase via www.ausgymnasticschamps.com.au.

The 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships are supported by the Victorian State Government under the Significant Sporting Events Program.


17 March 2015 

The 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships are here!

1300 athletes, 600 officials, 32 sessions, more than 6000 routines, and that’s just the beginning…

Gymnastics Australia is excited to stage the 2015 Australian Championships at Hisense Arena, Melbourne from 18 – 30 May.

Experience two weeks of superhuman feats, as the top gymnasts from each state and territory compete for the title of Australian Champion, and commence their journey on the Road to Rio.

Five gymsports will be on show, including the Olympic disciplines of Women’s and Men’s Artistic, Rhythmic and Trampoline Gymnastics, as well as Acrobatic Gymnastics.

Participants and spectators will be amazed by the standard of competition and immersed in an experience like never before: entertainment, activities, educational workshops, a kid’s zone for interactive gymnastics and more…

Tickets

Gymnastics Australia is pleased to offer Affiliated Clubs and Technical Members a range of special discounts to the event. Tickets are now available for purchase via Gymnastics Online (GOL), or by downloading our ticket purchase form.

As an extra bonus, Gymnastics Australia is offering Affiliated Clubs one double pass to a premium session of their choice upon their first club booking order. No minimum tickets required. Plus, when  30 or more tickets for one Championship session are booked, Clubs are eligible for to receive a range of rewards including Online Coaching Courses. The more tickets that are purchased the greater the rewards Clubs can receive. And remember, attendees under five years of age attend free!

Tickets for the general public will go on sale on 1 April 2015 via Ticketek.

Visit the Tickets page for more information.

Free event

Gymnastics Australia will open the doors to Hisense Arena and welcome all attendees at no cost on Monday 18 May! Come along and watch the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Level 9 Q and the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Level 8U Q in the evening session. Stay tuned for more details.

Schedule

A draft schedule is now available to view online. Please note this is subject to change.

Volunteers

Gain a new perspective on the Australian Gymnastics Championships, working behind the scenes to make the event happen. Gymnastics Australia is looking to recruit a volunteer workforce to help deliver the 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships.

Click here to register your interest to volunteer.

More information

More information for state offices and officials, including event Bulletins, is available on the event website.

Follow

Join in the journey of the 2015 Australian Gymnastics Championships and follow and share your experiences via our social media pages using the hashtag #15ausgym.

Watch 

It’s time to get excited! Watch and share our launch video here!