Magic all-around at gymnastics nationals week one
In a giant week for Jewish gymnastics in Australia, eight Jewish athletes represented three states in the opening week of the 2022 Australian Gymnastics Championships in the Gold Coast, winning seven golds, two silvers and a bronze between them.
Leading the way in rhythmic gymnastics was 20-year-old dual 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva, who began at her absolute best by winning the senior international all-around competition – an event she narrowly came second in last year.
She convincingly won gold with a PB score of 115.500 across the four apparatuses, with runner-up and reigning title-holder Lidiia Lakovleva of Queensland second on 109.950, and fellow Victorian Ashari Gill third on 98.150.
Fellow Jewish Victorian Alisa Gimgina came 10th in the all-around in the top quality field of 16, made the clubs final, and combined with Kiroi-Bogatyreva and Gill to win a team gold medal for Victoria.
In the apparatus finals, Kiroi-Bogatyreva won gold medals in hoop (scoring 30.150 points) and ribbon (27.850), silver in ball (29.150), and bronze in clubs (26.800).
She also represented Australia, at the same venue on May 17, in the 2022 Oceania Continental Cup. Together with Gill and Lakovleva, they came first in the final, beating runners-up New Zealand.
Kiroi-Bogatyreva told The AJN that winning the all-around title at the nationals “has shown that all the 10-hour training days, difficult competitions in the past, being away from my family for nearly a year [training overseas in Baku and competing at world cups], while focusing on my law degree as well, has only made me stronger and better”.
“That was the most difficult decision my family and I had to make … but so far the results have been positive, and the improvement evident.”
She will now begin preparing for the 2022 World Games, the Maccabiah Games, Commonwealth Games, and the World Championships.
In other rhythmic gymnastics results, Victorian Amber Goldberg came eighth in the pre-junior international all-around competition, and in junior international, Queensland’s Jessica Weintraub – a former Victorian rep – came eighth in all-around and made the hoop, ball and clubs finals, while Victorian Eva Gordienko came 12th in all-around, and 11th in hoop.
2021 Australian Aerobic Gymnast of the Year, Deborah Greenbaum, won two golds and a silver in team events.
Greenbaum and her four NSW teammates won gold in the senior group final on 17.803 points. She then teamed up with Victorians Annabel Muttdon and Olivia Feaver to top the senior trio competition on 21.085 points, beating teams from NSW and Victoria, and then was in a NSW aerobic dance senior group team that won silver, scoring 17.199, just 0.167 of a point behind winners Victoria.
Delighted with those results, Greenbaum – who currently lives and works in Canberra – said all the solo training, and regular trips to Sydney and Melbourne for group training, were worth it.
“I’ve been a trifle busy, but if you are aiming for perfect [at national finals], you have to put in the hard yards,” she said.
Her next focus is representing Australia at the aerobic gymnastics world championship in Portugal in mid-June.
Another team gold medal was won at the nationals in international senior men’s trampoline by a NSW team featuring Avi Margolis, which edged in front of Queensland and Victoria.
Originally from Perth, Margolis also came fourth in the synchronised pairs final with NSW teammate Shaun Swadling.
Margolis began trampolining 11 years ago, trains up to 18 hours per week, and said it was an “amazing feeling” to represent NSW for the first time, and contribute to winning gold.
He said what he loves most about his chosen sport is “the adrenaline and the rush of flying through the air – it’s an exhilarating feeling”.
Unluckily, Jewish Victorian trampoline athlete James Mann-Segal tested positive to COVID the day before the nationals, so had to withdraw.
He had been in good form in the lead-up, having won a gold medal in U15 boys’ individual trampoline at the NSW Championships in April.
In acrobatic gymnastics at the nationals, Victorian Chloe Auslander was in a team that came ninth in women’s level 7.
The national championships continue from May 20-25, featuring three Jewish Victorians.
Ellie Zalcman will compete in the Level 8 women’s artistic gymnastics, and Asher Ginsberg and Jay Rosenzweig will be in the Level 9 men’s artistic gymnastics competition.
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