Mitchell and Little Qualify for Apparatus Finals
Australia’s women gymnasts have been eliminated from the final round of the teams competition after qualifying 10th overnight, but both Lauren Mitchell and Emily Little will contest apparatus finals later in competition.
WAIS Athlete of the Year, Lauren Mitchell, A 2010 world champion on floor, has qualified fifth for the apparatus final, and will compete on Day 11 (Tuesday, August 7).
The break is certain to benefit Mitchell, who has been battling a minor abdominal strain, according to women’s coach Peggy Liddick.
Mitchell’s fellow WAIS athlete and Olympic debutant, Emily Little produced an impressive performance to earn qualification along with Melbourne’s Ashleigh Brennan for the all-round final, to be held on Day 6 (Thursday, August 2).
Both Little and Brennan had falls on the beam today, which Liddick says cost the team its qualifying spot in the teams competition.
“My prediction coming into the Olympics was that our team would finish somewhere between sixth and tenth,” Liddick said.
“We didn’t have the difficulty to be in medal contention as a team. Unfortunately we finished at the other end of six to 10. Two silly mistakes from veterans that you don’t expect cost us. I have no explanation for why it happened.
“The two falls (Georgia Bonora and Ashleigh Brennan on beam) cost us four places … that’s how close it was. If we had done a normal job we would have qualified comfortably.”
Australia finished sixth in the teams competition at the Beijing Olympic Games four years ago.
Competing in the second qualifying subcategory, the Australians finished second behind Italy during the morning round after a string of good performances on the floor, vault, uneven bars and beam.
They had a combined score of 166.721 points compared with Italy’s 168.397, but as world gymnastic superpowers such as; USA, Russia, China and Romania took to competition, it quickly became evident, the Australian women would not feature in the medal round.
Following competition, Mitchell said it was a case of controlling her nerves for the floor routine in the wake of expectation that she could lead the Australians to the next level in world gymnastics.
“Hopefully, the judges can see that I have performed well enough,” she said.
As well as winning the world title in 2010, Mitchell, 21, also won four gold medals at the Delhi Commonwealth Games when she took out the team event, the all-round, uneven bars and the beam, along with silver on the floor.
Best performer on vault was Emily Little with a score of 14.766 ahead of Mitchell (13.933).
On the uneven bars, Brisbane’s Larrissa Miller was best with a score of 14.025, ahead of Little (13.433).
On the beam, Mitchell topped the Aussie performances with 14.300 ahead of Little on 13.633.