Australia’s Women’s Artistic Team Fly into the Team Final

Published On: 7 October 2014

The Australian team overcame the late injury absense of Lauren Mitchell (far left) to qualify in eigth for the team final. Olivia Vivian (second from right) impressed on beam and bars

After being dealt a blow with the loss of team stalwart Lauren Mitchell following injury just the day before competition, the Australian Women’s Artistic Gymnastics team have banded together and leapt into eighth position as they head into the team finalsat the 45th FIG World Championships in Nanning, China.

Competing in subdivision 11 of 12 with New Zealand, South Africa and Iceland, the team started on Beam – a test to any gymnast – and more than excelled to start the competition off on a great footing.

Led on the apparatus by WAIS athlete Olivia Vivian, the Commonwealth Games silver medallist scored 13.066 with a clean routine to get Australia off to a flying start. Vivian was followed by Georgia-Rose Brown from Victoria on 13.333, with Emma Jane Nedov (NSW) making her World Championship debut as a senior, opening with an outstanding14.266 on the apparatus and Munteanu – also making her World Championships debut – landed a 13.166. Mary-Anne Monckton from Victoria also put on a strong performance, scoring a 13.300 for the apparatus.

Buoyed by their Beam success, the team shone on Floor with Larrissa Miller making her event premier on the apparatus, scoring an outstanding 14.166.

Brown lead the team on Vault with a score of 14.133 followed closely by newcomer Nedov with 13.966.

Australia’s Uneven Bar performance was lead by Miller who recently won silver on the apparatus at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, scoring 14.566 and a further 0.10 after an inquiry into herD-score was accepted, bringing her D-score to 6.100, and a new total of 14.666.

At the end of qualifications, the team finished in eighth position with an overall score of 218.134 securing their place in the team final andat the 2015 World Championships.

Miller qualified eighth in the Floor final, and is first Reserve in the Uneven Bars final as well, as is Nedov on Beam.

Brown finished 25th in the All Around competition and qualified in 22nd for the All Around final.

-GymnasticsAus