Gym: Aussie gymnasts fail to live up to expectations

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2004
Gym: Aussie gymnasts fail to live up to expectations

By Darren Walton

ATHENS, Aug 28 AAP - It's back to the drawing board for Australian gymnastics coach
Peggy Liddick, who admits her charges didn't come up to scratch at the Athens Olympics.

The women's all-around team was universally tipped as a strong chance to win Australia's
first Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics after finishing third at last year's world
championships in the US.

Instead it finished eighth in Athens after placing seventh at the Sydney Games four years ago.

The team suffered a double setback before the Games, losing two world championship
bronze medallists to injury, but it was the senior members - not the newcomers - who Liddick
felt could have performed better.

Individually, Allana Slater was Australia's standout gymnast in Athens, reaching the
all-around final for the second successive Olympics and finishing a career-best 10th in
the event.

Stephanie Moorhouse was 20th after gaining a late start in the final following teammate
Monette Russo's withdrawal with a leg stress fracture.

Slater was the only Australian to make an individual apparatus final, but fell off
the balance beam to finish eighth after qualifying with the fifth-highest score.

On a team note, while Slater carried the burden of having to complete all four apparatus,
the 20-year-old made a couple of uncharacteristic errors on two of her strongest routines,
as did Russo.

At 16, Russo was the baby of the team but, like Slater, one of Liddick's key players.

Russo's injury prevented her from competing at her peak, and it showed in Australia's scores.

"I don't think they performed to their capabilities. That's the bottom line," Liddick
said of the Australian medal hopefuls.

"They had a great (pre-Games) camp and did everything asked of them and we had some
good mock competitions beforehand, so I certainly did expect a little bit more consistency.

"I mean, the routines they hit, they hit really well. But the ones they missed, they
missed big time and that really cost us.

"And to me, there was no indication that that would happen. Normally, you can sense
when there is going to be a bad day - just by the mood or something.

"But it came out of left field, for me.

"So I have to go back to the drawing board and see what went wrong.

"Maybe when Monette went down (off the uneven bars), that affected their morale."

Liddick said her highlight of the Games was the contributions of Moorhouse, Melissa
Munro and Karen Nguyen.

"They all blazed through for us," the coach said.

Philippe Rizzo also failed to live up to the high expectations placed on him.

He was unable to progress beyond the qualification rounds in any of the three disciplines
he contested, despite being rated a medal contender on the high bar.

AAP djw/mo

KEYWORD: OLY GYM AUST WRAP

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.