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AllFlying |
Profile:
Gymnastics
2005 Women’s Artistic Gymnastics World Championship Team
 With
the 2005 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships just over a month away, the four
women selected to represent Australia are aiming to better the historic bronze
medal the team captured at the 2003 Championships in Anaheim, California. Following
successful campaigns at the Australian World Titles in September at the Caloundra
Indoor Stadium in Queensland, Monette Russo, Monique Blount, Karen Nguyen and
Olivia Vivian will represent Australia at the last major meet before the Commonwealth
Games. The World Championships will be held at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena,
the venue for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, from November 21-27. While National
Coach Peggy Liddick has yet to determine the events the girls will compete in,
with the exception of Russo who will do all four disciplines, this is how they
qualified for team selection:
Olivia Vivian
Olivia Vivian, the
surprise packet of the Australian team, qualified with two outstanding uneven
bar routines with scores of 9.15 and 9.25. Incredibly, the 16 year old from Western
Australia was only added to the national squad the week before the selection trials
after a petition by the Western Australian Institute of Sport to make her eligible
for selection. Vivian will make her international debut at the World Championships,
after beginning gymnastics in 1995 as a 6 year old. She will also aim to compete
on floor having performed strongly at Caloundra. At this years Australian Championships
she finished 3rd on the uneven bars, equal 4th on floor, 8th on balance beam and
6th in the all-rounder.
Monique Blount
The youngest member of
the Australian team, 16 year old Monique Blount sealed her berth at the World
Championships with the highest score of the trials, displaying her world class
ability with a 9.533 on the balance beam. She is expected to compete on the beam
and the floor in Melbourne, where she will make her international debut and achieve
her life long dream of representing Australia. Blount in coached by Tang Xiaoli
and Valery Kaladzinski at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra while
completing year 10 at Canberra High School. She began her AIS Scholarship in 2001
having been doing gymnastics since 1994. She finished 2nd all round, 1st on the
floor, 2nd on balance beam and 8th on the uneven bars at this year Australian
Championships.
Karen Nguyen
At just 17 (she will turn 18 during
the World Championships), Karen Nguyen is the oldest member of the Australian
team and one of only two members to have any international experience. She was
a last minute inclusion in the 2004 Athens Olympic team that finished 8th –
the highest ever finish by an Australian team at an Olympic Games. Nguyen exceeded
even her own expectations at the selection trials by finishing second and qualifying
for the team, having only returned to training two months earlier after a lay-off
with a stress fracture in her wrist. A gymnast since 1992, Nguyen trains at the
Victorian High Performance Centre in Prahan alongside Monette Russo and is coached
by Shao Yi Jiang and Misha Barabach. She is currently in Year 12 at Melbourne
Girl’s College, where she is studying to become a dietician. She will make
her World Championship debut at the 2005 event in Melbourne.
Monette
Russo
The ‘poster-girl’ for the Melbourne World Championships,
Monette Russo is the most experienced and internationally recognized member of
the Australian team. The 17 year old Victorian was a member of the team which
won bronze at the 2003 World Championships and where she became the first Australian
women to reach the final of the balance beam, where she finished 8th. She was
also a member of the 2004 Olympics team, where she qualified for the all-around
final but was forced to withdraw with shin stress fractures. Currently studying
for her VCE at Melbourne Girl’s College, Russo began gymnastics in 1994.
She is coached by Shao Yi Jiang at the Victorian High Performance Centre, alongside
Karen Nguyen. She dominated the World Titles in Queensland finishing 1st overall,
1st on the uneven bars and floor, 2nd on the balance beam and 4th on the vault.
She will compete in all four disciplines in Melbourne as well as being Australia’s
only all around competitor.
By Sally Browne
See extended profiles
of the girls plus profiles of the entire Australian National Squad at the Gymnastics
Australia website.
Nov
2005
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