Aussies Finish Eighth in Team Final

The Australian Women’s Gymnastics team has finished in eighth place at the 2011 World Artistic Championships in Tokyo.

The Australian girls started off on beam with a solid routine from both Ashleigh Brennan and WAIS-AIS gymnast Lauren Mitchell, however, a mistake from Mary-Anne Monckton was costly when it came to the final score.

The Australian girls dazzled on the floor with Mitchell showing why she was the 2010 World Champion on this apparatus, receiving the highest score of the night on Floor with a score of 14.900. This result put the Australian girls right back in the competition.

Unfortunately, Mitchell couldn’t continue that performance into Vault having to put her hands down on her difficult Yuchenko double twist, however, Ashleigh and WAIS-AIS athlete Emily Little both competed excellent Vaults.

The Australians finished on the Uneven Bars where new comer to the senior team Georgia-Rose Brown started with a great performance and both Mitchell and Larrissa Miller followed with respectable routines, however it was not quite enough to equal its sixth place finish in qualification and the team finished in eighth place with a score of 166.739.

The USA team dominated the competition taking out the gold medal followed by Russia and China respectively.

As opposed to the Team Qualifications that followed the 6-5-4 system, allowing each country to line up six gymnasts per apparatus, out of whom five actually compete with the best four scores making up the team’s total. The Team Finals followed a 6-3-3 system. This meant that the teams lined up six gymnasts, but only three competitors performed in each event and all scores counted. Scores from the qualifying round were not carried over to the Final.

Lauren Mitchell and Emily Little will contest the All Around final on Thursday 13th October at 7.45pm AEST.

Gymnastics Australia