Mitchell Makes History as She Claims Gold

Published On: 22 December 2008

Lauren Mitchell in action on beam at the 2008 Olympic Games

 

Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) gymnast Lauren Mitchell made history overnight (Perth time), becoming the first Australian female gymnast to win a gold medal at a World Cup final.

 

The 2008 Olympian defeated a world class field that included three Olympic gold medallists (China’s Cheng Fei and Li Shanshan and Romania’s Sandra Izbasa) to take home first place in Madrid, Spain with a stunning score of 15.250. Mitchell’s gold medal adds to her haul of five medals (four silver and a bronze) that the 17-year old has won in the regular World Cup season in 2008.

 

WAIS Head of Gymnastics Liz Chetkovich said the result was simply exceptional.

 

“For Lauren to win a World Cup final against such a strong field confirms that she is an outstanding world class gymnast,” Chetkovich said.

 

“She’s shown incredible character to bounce back from the disappointment of not making the beam final in Beijing to make the podium six times during the World Cup season. Last night’s result just caps it all off.”

 

Mitchell took the beam in Madrid with a difficult routine which included her signature “Wolf Double Turn”. The high A score of the routine (6.6) combined with anoverall steady performance to give the beam specialist an overall score of 15.250. The score was good enough to defeat Russia’s European Champion Elfin Yulia Lozhechko who scored 15.200 and China’s 2008 Olympic Gold Medallist Li Shanshan who managed 15.150.

 

The World Cup winner will return to Perth tomorrow afternoon and after a hectic 2008 (which included sitting TEE exams prior to the heading to the European World Cup season) will take a well earned break over the Christmas/New Year period before setting her sights firmly on the 2009 World Championships which will be held in London in October 2009.

 

Mitchell’s performance tops off an outstanding year by the WAIS Gymnastics Programme, with the highlights including:

 

– three gymnasts selected to the Australian Olympic Team which finished 6th in Beijing (Dasha Joura, Lauren Mitchell & Olivia Vivian)
– five girls competing for Australia in a total ofseven international events (Dasha Joura, Lauren Mitchell, Olivia Vivian, Emily Little & Tain Molendijk)
– Australian All Around titles in the three highest divisions – Senior International (Dasha Joura), Junior International (Emily Little) and International Level 10 (Natalia Joura)

– three Juniors selected to compete in the 2009 Australian Olympic Youth Festival (Emily Little, Natalia Joura & Ashley Cooney)