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Lauren Mitchell |
Lauren Mitchell became the first Australian woman to win a world gymnastics gold medal with victory in Rotterdam on Sunday. After finishing a close fourth in the beam, Mitchell went on to capture gold on the floor as the very last competitor in the final event of the night. Performing a triple pivot, something that she had never previously attempted during a floor routine, Mitchell scored 14.8, placing her in first position by the barest of margins over Russian Aliya Mustafina. Mitchell made up for last year’s World Championships in London where she finished with a seilv er medal in both the floor and the beam. Mitchell’s efforts at the Championships were enough to help the Australian team into a very respectable sixth position. At the Commonwealth games in Delhi, Mitchell won a remarkable four out of a possible five gold medals, going down by a whisker in the floor where she won silver. Despite her recent success, it certainly isn’t always plain sailing for Australia’s ‘‘Queen of the gym’’. In just the past year Mitchell has broken her hand, torn a ligament in her foot and has torn an adductor muscle. Not only was Mitchell’s World Championship gold the first for an Australian woman, it was also only the second Australian World Championship gold after Phillip Rizzo’s win in the horizontal bars in Denmark 2008. Ben Asgari |
