Alice dominates at national championships
Nilma’s Alice Johnson is officially the top future international gymnast in Australia after a dominant showing at the Australian Gymnastics Championships recently.
Alice came home from the Gold Coast with four gold medals in total, including the AllAround category in her class, as well as for her bars and floor routines. She also won a team gold for Victoria.
It was an incredible result for the 12-yearold, whose initial goal was simply to finish in the top five overall.
The two-day competition saw Alice compete against the best the country has to offer in the bars, beams, floor and vault and show that she’s got what it takes.
“I’m very proud of myself,” Alice said of her exploits.
The first day saw some strong performances from her in her four events, though a fall on the beams had her placed second overall going into the second day.
Despite falling a little behind early in the day, Alice came home with a wet sail.
She was able to put the day one slip on the beams behind her, acing the event the second time around. She eventually found herself in the lead with the floor as the only event left.
Alice said at that stage she was “nervous,” but “also really excited because I love floor.”
Her excitement was well-founded as she nailed her final routine of the competition to clinch the gold.
As she watched the live scoreboard tick over, showing that she’d won the All-Around event, Alice said she was shocked.
“I didn’t believe it, I thought it was glitching.”
Coming into her second national competition with the hope of improving on her efforts from her first attempt, it’s safe to say Alice was pretty happy with her results.
Mum Rebecca said when Alice won, “I just couldn’t believe it.”
“It’s the worst and best comp I’ve ever watched, just because I’ve never felt so sick watching a competition.”
Alice said she was now most excited to get her photo on the wall of the Waverley Gymnastics Centre, an honour reserved only for some of the top performers at the gym.
She’ll soon be turning her attention to junior international competition next year, where she’ll be one of the youngest competing.
But if her recent efforts are anything to go by, age won’t mean much as she goes for gold yet again.