Image Copyright to "The West Australian" - Lauren Mitchell

The following article appeared in The West Australian, September 30, 2011. 

GENE STEPHAN, The West AustralianSeptember 30, 2011, 6:40 am

Lauren Mitchell heads to the world gymnastics titles in Tokyo next week armed with the world’s highest scoring floor routine.

Mitchell headlines an Australian team which includes training partner Emily Little, Ashleigh Brennan, Georgia-Rose Brown, Larrissa Miller and Mary-Anne Monckton, with WA’s Nikki Chung the travelling reserve in her first major international trip.

Mitchell, Little, Brennan and Miller were members of the team that finished sixth in Rotterdam last year where Mitchell made history by winning gold on the floor.

After dominating the national championships in Perth in July, Mitchell was devastating during recent selection trials in Canberra, scoring 58.85 on day one and 60.45 on the second day for a combined tally of 119.30 – a massive nine points clear of Brown, who edged out Little by a slender .20.

The starting value of Mitchell’s floor exercise is 6.4, ahead of American Alexandra Raisman (6.2), Russian Ksenia Afanasyeva (6.1) and Briton Beth Tweddle (6.1).

National coach Peggy Liddick said Mitchell arrived at trials in great shape and coaches were looking after her ankles, which gave her problems earlier this year.

“We backed off a bit after trials to get them to settle down and not become too inflamed but have ramped up her training this week,” said Liddick, a former gold medal-winning coach on the US team.

“On paper, she has the highest scoring floor routine in the world, but she has to go out and perform it so it does not mean much unless she executes. She knows she can do it but has to hit it in qualification.”

Liddick said Mitchell had also upgraded her beam exercise, where she won silver at the 2009 world championships in Germany, alongside silver on the floor.

“With a very high start value of 6.8 she has added a turn combination on the beam which was not necessary, but she knows the routine very well which means there will be less execution errors,” Liddick said.

The Australians are aiming for a top-eight finish which will guarantee them team status at the Olympics rather than try to fight it out at a test event in London in January.

“We are among a tight bunch of six countries who are all very similar in standard, behind the top four (US, Russia, China and Romania) and the fight for four spots will be close,” Liddick said.

Chung was the surprise packet at trials, earning her spot despite having elbow surgery in July.

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