Travel Blog
We had our last competition today. The good thing is that we got to have a sleep in, because our competition started at 7.00pm. We went out for a walk in the morning around the city. Their wasn't much to see and it was drizzling with rain. We stopped off for a hot chocolate on the way back to warm us up - its freezing here !!
The afternoon was spent doing some homework and then getting ready for the competition.
The girls arrived for the competition and looked fantastic, the time spent getting uniform together in Melbourne was well worth it and the girls have looked sensational throughout the trip.
The competition began on Vault. Isis competed her pike tsuk. It was the first time she had done it since last Saturday and she did a much better job. maddie didn't do vault as her ankle was still too sore. The competition was done in two parts with 1/2 the girls competing and then marching off the floor and the next group coming out to compete. This continued for the 4 apparatus.
The competition is also being televised here in oklahoma and in various other states so the TV camera's were everywhere - even following Isis over to recieve her high 5's from Ross after her vault.
On Bars Isis went first and added her blind change reverse giants to her routine from the previous competition (hope that's OK Tim !!!) her routine was excellent except for a bit of a mashed up hiccup which landed in a dead hang, somehow however she pulled a kip to handstand out of it and got it together scoring a huge 10.70 !!! Maddie was up next and performed a near flawless routine with the most amazing hiccup of the meet - the audience gasped as she took off for it - can't remember the score but it didn't matter - the routine was so nice.
on Beam isis was up first again - here she added her side somi to her routine from the previous week, she had a major problem with her back somi but somehow managed to stick by grabbing on so tight with her feet. The routine was excellent and scored a 13.00 on Senior International requirements. maddie was up last and she got off to a shaky start, she pulled her side aerial up really strong though and did a fantastic routine except for a fall on her flic layout that she competed for the first time. She even added a front aerial full twist dismount in the last day of training as her ankle was giving her heaps of troubles dismounting. She scored an excellent 12.70.
On floor isis was again first. here she competed her double back for the first time. Whilst it wasn't good and landed short the effort was fantastic. the rest of her routine was excellent and many comments were recieved on how awesome her dance was. maddie skipped floor to look after her ankle.
The competition was an amazing experience for the girls and one they will never forget. A week with Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner where they were treated like absolute royalty was jusgt fantastic. i think we represented our club and country well and now many of the gymnasts are keen to come to australia.
The girls leave tomorrow on their holiday experience - off to San Francisco and Alcatraz before heading up to watch Lizzy ... can you believe she has qualified for an Olympic Final !!!, we are so excited.
Hope everyone back at Jets is training hard and has some new and exciting skills to show us. |
Linden went shopping on this morning to organise a suprise present for Nadia- getting photos developed with us and Nadia. We also organised a card and bought a frame for the photo. We were just so grateful for all their support and wanted to get them something special.
We had lunch with all the competitors, coaches, and organisers and the coaches picked out the first appartus they would start on with a draw out of a hat. We also recieved a goodie bag including a shirt, make-up kit, pen, magazine, etc.
That night we transferred hotels from Norman into the city so we were closer to the competition arena. In this new hotel Linden got her own room and the girls got their own room!
The girls had the opportunity to train on the comp equipment tonight. The session was quite frenetic as everyone tried to get all of their things done. The competition gym is amazing .... all in dressed up in RED - Ross thought it was a Jets Competition ! They are expecting a crowd of around 5000 to watch the Comp. After training they jumped in the spa and after iced again... of course!
some great skills were being done in training, in particular the girls were so impressed by Jessica Lopez from Venezuela who did a superb triple twist on floor and eagle giants to jaeger followed by gienger on bars.
We went out for dinner to a cool jazz restaurant with all the international delegations and Ross ordered aligator bites which we all tried and thought it tasted like chicken! Great meals with great company- the girls got a chance to mingle with the Ukrainian girls and learn some of their language. |
The girls trained in the morning working on newer skills and consolidating routines.
During the evening we went to another function at the Muesum of Natural History with the international students from the University of Oklahoma. On the way Paul drove us through the university and the soreritys which look just like the movies!
This was another swish event with Bart, Nadia, Paul, the ex Governer of Oklahoma, Sandra, various international students and of course all the teams and coaches. The Mexican team arrived tonight and were chatty to Isis and Maddie.
The museum had dinosaur bones in the exhibits and a massive wolly mammoth statue to actual size. We recieved show bags at the completion of the night with some goodies. |
Today was a pretty good day, but Maddie woke up feeling sick. we went down for breakfast and the Romanians have arrived. Sandra Izbasa is also here- gold medalist on floor @ Olympics 2008. Isis and Ross went to training, and Maddie and Linden stayed at the hotel.
The girls have now met a gymnastics gold medallist from the 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988 and 2008 Olympics in the space of 3 days .. can you believe that !!
Maddie skipped training and stayed home in bed whilst Isis started feeling much better and her heel wasn't quite as sore. We re-set some competition goals and Isis trained really hard towards achieving them, her focus and energy had returned. On the bus on the way to training Paul said that the girls could get a free leotard courtesy of Bart Conner Gymnastics - Isis's eyes nearly popped out !
The evening we were invited to a dinner in Oklahoma City with all of the competition sponsors. we went on a bus with all of the International Delegations. We arrived at the building and after a short wait took the lift to the top floor ... on arrival we were flabbergasted, it was the most incredible view of a city we have ever seen, we were in the tallest building with windows all around, a piano was being played in the room and we were introduced to the creme de la creme of the Oklahoma High Society. What was even better was that they were so excited to meet all of us.
The evening was a sensational and a great opportunity for the sponsors and gymnasts to mix, ensuring that this event would be successful for many years to come. Bart introduced us to the audience and then proceeded to outline the rest of the trip we have planned to Vancouver and Disneyland, everyone was so excited to hear that we would be going to watch Lizzy compete.
The girls also got a great chance to meet many of the other gymnasts and struck up a great friendship with the girls from Bart Conner Gymnastics - Reagan and Emily. For the competition they would later compete with these girls as a combined team. We also recieved a goodies bag full of some Oklahoma stuff. |
Today was a pretty good day, but very busy! We went to breakfast early. After breakfast we had our bags, and waiting for the taxi man downstairs. He was running 1/2 hour late! by this time it was 7.45am, and we were meant to be at the Plano WOGA at 8am, which is 1/2hr away. The taxi man went to the other holiday inn. Can you believe how many holiday inn's there are! We arrived at WOGA and packed all of our bags onto the bus, along with a few of the other International delegations. We said goodbye to Valeri, Anna, Yvgeney and some others and we got given a plauque from them, it was really nice.
The drive to oklahoma was ok. The scenery... Basically NOTHING and more NOTHING! Maddie slept for some of the time, so did alot of the girls and guys on the bus! We arrived in Norman, Oklahoma and met Bart Conner, Nadia Comaneci (did we say Nadia Comaneci ... Linden almost fainted on meeting her) and the editior of International gymnast- Paul Ziert. They were extremely welcoming and friendly. Bart and Nadia's son Dillon is so cute... what a little devil! We had lunch at the offices of International gymnast, which is right next to the BCGA- Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy.
After lunch we checked into our hotel- Embassy suites. The hotel is soooooo nice and luxurious! Norman Is so spread out though. It 's like land, then maybe one building and so on! we settled into our nice hotel and went to the gym to have a workout. :) The gym is nice, but a ittle bit more lived in than the woga gym! Training went well for maddie and ice. Isis was still feeling a little bit sick though. The Israel girls and coaches came to training today. They just flew over to US for 40hrs! they were pretty tierd.
After training we went back to our hotel and got ready for an NBA game that was organised for all of the international gymnasts by Bart, Nadia and Paul. OMG, it was amazing. We were in a suite up in one of those glass corporate boxes, but then we had a row of seats just outside that. For that night we got to know the canadians really well. They were really nice! Heaps of awesome things were organised for us that night. Suppose when It's Nadia Comaneci, you can have anything done for you! The basketball team - The thunders mascot- Rumble, came up to our suite. He scaled the fence between the seats and walked on them like a beam! It was really funny, when he was up near us he lost balance and fell right on Isis! We got pictures with him, and the rest of the international gymnasts-Ukraine, Israel and Canada. More gymnasts are arriving later this week. Isis, Maddie, Linden, Bart, Paul, Nadia, and Dillon were on the big screen! How awesome! The camera just came on us!
Ross also took a great phot of Nadia with Rumble.
Then later a few of the cheerleaders came up to the suite and we got some pictures with them and they game us some mini basketballs. Earlier in the night there was a balloon man and made us some things. It was a really good game and there was always something going on. Thunder won against Dallas Navericks. Everyone in Oklahoma was really happy! Wht a great night! More exciting things to happen during the week!
Can you believe we spent the whole night being entertained by Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner !!!!! at one point we noticed them missing and then their they are up on the Television being interviewed about the competition we are competing in this weekend. |
|
This was our last day in dallas. Maddie and Isis trained in the morning at WOGA in Frisco. Training was pretty good, and we said our goodbyes to Yvgeney and his girlfriend, although we would see them tomorrow before we left on the bus to go to oklahoma. It was a bit of a rush to get the rental car back to the rental place, the navman keeps leading Ross astray. While Ross and Isis were taking the car back, Linden and Maddie fell asleep... they were very tired! The rest of the day we just spent packing and stuff. For dinner that night, as we didn't have a car we just basically walked along the street to find somewhere to eat... and belive it or not Ross let us have pizza! Isis and I truly thought that something has happened to him! When we got home we watched Ferris Buelers day off. It was really funny! |
Linden, Maddie and Ross went back to the competition again this morning to watch some of the WOGA girls. What was impressive was the number of quality gymnasts here. In the session Maddie and Isis were in basically every girl performed double back on floor as a basic element - many double pikes and some full ins. Again almost every gymnast performed minimum layout yurchenko vault, tkatchev or gienger on bars. This was followed by another session of the same and three more sessions today all of level 10 - thus about 250 level 10's all doing this !!! The level 7's had very similar standard to our level 7's except for vault which for many was a tuck / pike yurchenko - most of these girls were 10 or 11 years old.
The competition today was held in a conference centre which had 3 floors, vaults, bars & beams thus had a level 7, 8 & 10 session all going simultaneously with about 150 gymnasts competing ... it was amazing to see and to see such a high standard.
Other than valentine's day, it was pretty much a do-nothing day. Because Isis stayed at her parents house last night, she got to meet one of her Great Aunt Lois. (Her dad's aunt). And she is going to come and watch me at Oklahoma, as well as my Great Aunt Aquilla, who she's never met before either. Isis stayed with her parents again tonight because she was still feeling sick. So that's pretty much all that happened today! We were all treated to chocolate strawberries for Valentines Day ! |
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 1 of 2 |
|
|
