Dasha Joura, who sustained an ankle injury in Beijing, is finally back in action
(Photo: Jasmin Schneebeli-Wochner/Gymbox)
One of the goals of the camp is to determine which athlete will attend which competitions this year. According to the Gymnastics Australia website, head coach Peggy Liddick has announced that Australia will not attend the WOGA Classic and the Nadia Comaneci Invitational this year, "as we need to continue work on our new skills and programs." However, Lauren Mitchell will attend the Doha World Cup in April. It is also rumored that Emma Dennis and Amber Fulljames will attend Canada's Gymnix competition, but the GA website makes no mention of this.
Apparently, another camp will be held in April, to select the candidates for the Pre-Olympic Youth Cup (to be held in Dusseldorf, Germany, May 23-25). Meanwhile, the remainder of the team will continue to train for the Australian Championships in Perth in July, where Liddick hopes Australia can also host a friendly with another country, to prepare the gymnasts for the 2009 Worlds in London and other European events held at that time of year (DTB Cup, Massilia Cup, Voronin Cup).
When questioned on the notion of routine/skill upgrades, Liddick only said, "I am very happy with some of the upgrades and there will be a few surprises to be revealed soon."
More information on the Australian girls' training camp can be found on Gymnastics Australia's website.
Thanks for the update on the Aussie girls! I hope they do well at this year's world championships. Though I kind of wonder - I think they as well as difficulty really do need more international exposure - they don't always seem to deal with pressure well. But I guess if London 2012 is the aim better to get the difficult moves down now and work on the nerves for the next few seasons.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! More international exposure for the Aussie girls would be great, but as Peggy Liddick keeps reminding everyone, Australia is a long way away from most places, and airfare is expensive, and gymnastics is not a huge sport like cricket or rugby, so there isn't a lot of money to send gymnasts to international competitions. Sad but true.
ReplyDeleteWe guess not sending any seniors to the February meets might be a smart idea. It IS still very early in the season, and there's a new code of points, so chances of any of the girls being up to much are slim. Combined with the long journey to North America, it's a recipe for disaster, really. Greater international exposure in the second half of the season wouldn't go amiss though. One friendly (which isn't even certain yet, by the sound of it) isn't much...