My Pacific Alliance
Championships Diary
~By Ellen Pullar
I went to 5 sessions of the 2000 Pacific Alliance Champs in Christchurch, New Zealand. I was very excited because it was the first real gymnastics competition I’d ever been to. We drove 6 hours to get there, but it was definitely worth it!
Men's All Around and Team Saturday 22 April 2.30pm
I
arrived at Westpac Stadium two hours early so that I could get good seats. At
the entrance they were selling some really nice Alpha Factor leotards, T Shirts,
badges and souvenirs but I didn't buy any because I didn't have enough money
with me. I noticed that the Japanese gymnasts were having lunch at a table out
the front, so I asked for their autographs, they seemed really nice but we
didn't say much to each other because they didn't understand much English.
Finally
the main doors opened and my sister and I went to find the best seats that we
could. There were a section of seats that were closer to the competition floor
than the others so we decided to sit there but we were told by security that we
couldn't sit there (it turned out those seats were saved for VIPs, and later the
International Gymnast people staff arrived and sat there.) Anyway, we got the
second best seats in the stadium (we were about 2m above the gymnasts when they
were waiting for floor!) Heaps of the women's teams including the Canadians were
sitting in the stands so I got more autographs; all the gymnasts were really
sweet.
Then
the opening ceremony started but most of the gymnasts didn't know they were
meant to be in it and were still sitting in the stands. So they got told to join
the ceremony. There was still no sign of the American or Australian girls. I'd
been told that the Australian girls hadn't arrived for the training sessions,
although all the other teams had. The other teams were there though and I got
out my USA sign and yelled out for USA even though the rest of the crowd was
pretty quiet.
There
was an aerobics display at the start of the competition but little Bai Chunyue
was so tiny and she couldn't see it over the heads of all the other gymnasts so
she they had to move for her.
When the USA men's team were presenting themselves to the judges, John Rotlisberger saw my sign and smiled at me! They were so close; I could hear everything they were saying when they were waiting to compete on floor. Blaine Wilson was listening to his music and chewing gum just like you see him do on TV. Like I had predicted, Blaine won but Sean Townsend had been beating him for a lot of the competition. A cameraman filmed me with my ‘USA’ sign and I was on TV two days later! The theme song was "Larger than Life" by the Backstreet Boys. I used to think it was pretty cool, but they used it as marching music, so after 4 days I was really sick of it! I took photos but unfortunately the film broke because I didn't know how to use the camera properly and couldn't get it out.
MEN'S TEAM
1
China
168.426
2
USA
168.281
3
Australia
163.078
4
Japan
162.026
5
Korea
155.681
6
Venezuela
153.663
7
Chinese
Taipei
152.463
8
Malaysia
149.194
9
Canada
148.729
10
Mexico
146.428
11
New
Zealand
143.045
1
Blaine
Wilson
USA
56.766
2
Zhao
Sheng
China
56.230
3
Li
Dezhi
China
55.715
4
Sean
Townsend
USA
54.782
5
Steve
McCain
USA
54.532
6
Ryota
Suzuki
JPN
54.364
7
Lu
Jia
China
54.215
8
Takehiro
Kashima
JPN
52.864
Rhythmic All Around (Hoop and Roop) Saturday 22 April 7.30pm
We
got the same seats. This time some of the men's teams were in the stands so I
got autographs again. Rhythmic gymnastics is really a beautiful sport, the
leotards were cool and some of the stuff that they did was amazing.
I
was really impressed with the girls from China and Philippines. I always though
that rhythmic gymnastics didn't take much work but these girl were great, they
were so graceful and extremely flexible. I was mainly cheering for Jessica
Howard coz she's one of my favorites, but all the girls were pretty great. The
New Zealand girls were better than I had expected but they made a few mistakes
and I could tell that they were inexperienced. It really amazed me how a lot of
the gymnasts did backwards walkovers, rolling the apparatus over their bodies
and catching it perfectly after. I’ve never seen that done before, but that
could be because I haven’t seen much rhythmic gymnastics on TV.
After they finished competing the American gymnasts (Jessica, Lindsey and Stefanie) went and sat with their parents in the stands. It wasn’t long before little girls, asking for their autographs, surrounded them. I joined them, feeling kind of mean because they were probably tired and wanting to be alone with their parents. But I figured "What’s one more autograph to them? I mean I’m probably never going to see them again so this is my only chance to talk to them and get their autographs." I wished them luck for the next day and they seemed really nice.
(Ribbon and Ball) Sunday 23 April 2.00 pm
This
was pretty much the same as the other session. The Chinese Taipei men had seen
my ‘USA’ sign and decided to make a ‘Chinese Taipei’ sign, so I wasn't
the only one with a sign anymore. All the gymnasts were wearing different
leotards this session. Just a thought- why do rhythmic gymnastics wear
elaborate, colourful, sparkly leotards while artistic gymnasts wear plainer
ones? I guess the artistic side of gymnastics is more important in rhythmic
gymnastics.
1
Canada
112.775
2
USA
112.687
3
Australia
108.00
4
Malaysia
107.846
5
Korea
105.966
6
Mexico
105.470
7
Chinese
Taipei
104.250
8
New
Zealand
97.792
1
Erika
Leigh Stirton
Canada
38.410
2
Jessica
Howard
USA
38.120
3
Zhong
Ling
China
37.980
4
Lindsay
Powell
USA
37.530
5
Senka
Kovacevic
Canada
37.200
6
Julia
Lombara
Canada
37.100
7
Stefanie
Croyle
USA
37.000
Women's All Around Sunday 23 April 7.00pm
This
was really great! There was a lot more people there then there had been at all
the other sessions, I had to rush to get my seat.
All
the girls were so focused; I don't know how they can be when they're marching to
the Backstreet Boys (incase you’re wondering, no, I don’t have anything
against the Backstreet Boys!)
It
was great to see my idols just a few meters away. Bela and Martha Karolyi, Kelli
Hill, Mary Lee and Valery Luikin were there too. Bela is exactly the way people
say he is, I couldn't believe I was in the same room as the man who made Nadia,
Dominique, Kim and countless other gymnasts the champions that they became. He
really is a legend.
Bai
Chunyue is even shorter in person than she is on TV, if it wasn't for her hair
she'd be shorter than the vault! Amy Chow is still great on bars, she got a
9.775 and she doesn’t seem to have lost any of her moves since the Olympics.
It must be great for her to finally be a crowd favourite. Vanessa Atler was
great too, especially on vault, considering she just had a huge bone chip taken
out of her ankle! Her bar routine was good, she's a lot more confident now, but
it obviously didn't have a high start value because she only scored in the high
8s. USA had a great team on bars- Morgan White, Amy, Elise Ray and Vanessa.
I cheered for USA louder than ever and Elise Ray saw my sign and smiled at us.
Elise’s consistency paid off (she
got the highest score on floor, the 3rd highest on bars and beam and
the 6th highest on vault). She won the gold medal. Laura Robertson (NZ's
Olympic representative) has grown her hair long and I didn't recognise her at
first. All of the N.Z girls have improved a lot since I last saw then at the
Nationals last year, where all of them fell on beam at least once.
The
crowd loved Trudy McIntosh’s floor routine to ‘Waltzing Matilda’. They
clapped along with her music and no other routine got as many cheers.
I
met an American girl who was on the same flight as the Australian gymnasts; she
told me that Aussie girls had trouble getting their mini-bar through security.
Although I’m officially a New Zealander I supported USA the whole competition. The other countries were just as amazing though- Australia, China and Canada specially. I know that this was an important step on the way to medalling at the Olympics for them, so I was so proud of them and nearly cried when the USA anthem was played. The American girls sang the anthem with hands over their hearts- I love the pride that they have in their country.
1
USA
112.902
2
Australia
111.650
3
China
111.137
4
Japan
107.912
5
Canada
106.487
6
Venezuela
102.149
1
Elise
Ray
USA
38.000
2
Ling
Jie
CHN
37.275
3T
Morgan
White
USA
37.225
3T
Lisa
Skinner
AUS
37.225
5
Amy
Chow
USA
37.112
6
Allana
Slater
AUS
37.025
Women's Apparatus Finals (Vault and Bars) Monday 24 April 2.00 pm
I
saw Alethea Boon (NZ gymnast) at the mall at lunchtime, but I didn't get her
autograph because I didn't have a pen.
Denise
Lopez won vault, it's great to see that see she’s still so good, even though
she's been around since before the 92 Olympics. I think that it’s great for
gymnastics, being a sport for teenagers today, needs more veterans like her.
I
loved the USA girl’s new leotards. They had a white one with purple hologram
sleeves and a red one with gold stuff on it.
After
the vault finals we moved to be nearer to the bars and we ended up right above
where the USA gymnasts and coaches were. I briefly talked to them and said bye
when we left. Bela saw our sign and smiled at us. He seems like a very sweet
person. I wanted to say something to him but I was kind of scared that he might
yell at us, being the strict gymnastics coach he’s known to be.
I
think Amy should've won bars because she got a 9.775 in the AA and she didn't
make the mistake that she made then so she deserved at least 9.775 but she got
much less.
I'm not happy with that rule that says that only 2 from each country can be in each final, even if more than 2 qualify. It lowers the standard of gymnastics. I mean because only 2 from each country could be in the vault final some people got in that had pretty low start values and nearly no chance of winning, also this meant that Morgan White couldn't compete on bars (Amy and Elise did) and she's so good on that apparatus.
WOMEN’S
VAULT
WOMEN’S
BARS
1.
D. Lopez MEX
9.612
1.
B. Chunyue CHN
9.663
2.
T. McIntosh AUS
9.319
2.
E. Ray, USA
9.650
3.
V. Atler, USA
9.212
3.
Ling Jie CHN
9.638
4.
K. Richardson CAN
8.956
4.
A. Chow, USA
9.600
5.
N. Nakase JPN
8.669
5.
J. Beaulieu CAN
9.425
6.
B. Chunyue CHN
8.606
6.
L. Skinner AUS
9.275
7.
C. Takeda JPN
8.575
7.
A. Slater AUS
9.150
8.
L. Skinner AUS
7.525
8.
N. Nakase JPN
8.325