Final Night Haul Caps Gymnastics Nationals

WAIS athletes swept five of the eight gold medals on offer on the final night of the Australian Gymnastics Championships, held at Challenge Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Newly crowned senior national champion Lauren Mitchell took home three of the four gold medals in the senior apparatus finals whilst her junior WAIS teammates Emily Little and Ashley Cooney won gold on the floor and bars respectively.

17-year old Mitchell won apparatus titles on the floor, beam and bars, choosing not to contest the vault. The vault title was won by her Beijing Olympic teammate Shona Morgan from Victoria.

Mitchell started her night on the bars, performing her best routine of the Championships to post a gold medal winning score of 14.250. She followed that up with an awkward performance on beam, falling once and not quite landing her dismount but she still managed to secure the gold medal with a score of 13.150.

Finally the Olympian gave her home crowd a shining perforamnce on the floor, taking home the hattrick of titles with a score of 14.725.

Fellow WAIS gymnasts Little and Cooney made sure the first nationals held in Perth in 15 years were an event to remember by closing the championships with two gold medal winning performances of their own.

13-year old Cooney only took to the bars and made it one from one with a great routine. She posted a score of 13.300 to win the title from Queensland’s Georgia Rose-Brown.

Little backed up her third place finish from Monday’s all-around final with a first place on the floor. The 15-year old scored 13.250 to secure the gold ahead of Victorian Georgia Wheeler.

Cooney and Little will have time to celebrate their victories in the coming days but the same can’t be said for Mitchell. The World Cup final winning gymnast is off to compete against some of the best gymnasts in the world from China, Japan and Russia at the Japan Cup this weekend.