Little Makes Impressive Return to Competition

WAIS gymnast Emily Little has appeared at the American Cup  in the Olympians’ first competition for the year.

Little finished seventh overall with an impressive range of performances against a high class international field.

Having returned to competitive gymnastics in 2014 following a sabbatical post London Olympics, Little appeared at home back on the competition floor and reinforced her standing as a quality vault performer with a high scoring effort that impressed Gymnastics Australia’s Technical Director Jill Wright.

“Emily performed her Yurchenko double twist, with 5.8 difficulty score. She had a 0.3 (deduction) hop on landing but otherwise very clean, great body shape and height,” Wright said. “For Emily, it was a great start to the competition with a final score of 14.766.”

Little returned a solid score of 13.166 on bars before holding a “clean and steady” routine on beam but it was her final apparatus on floor that again earned the West Australian praise.

“Her floor was excellent, stuck landings on both full ins, one pike and one tuck, clean 1¬Ω into double twist and a strong double pike to finish,” Wright said.

“The experience of competing with the standard of athletes at this competition will give Emily a great boost.”

“She was in amongst them, holding her own, and even though her start scores were not as high as some, her performances were equal to or better than most,” she added.