Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Doha So Good

After the shock of Philippe Rizzo 's injury and the disappointment of letting a Beijing place slip through their fingers last year, the Aussie men's squad is clawing its way back up the ladder.
Philippe, Prashanth Sellathurai (also a Worlds medallist, wow it makes me so happy to say that!) and Josh Jefferis are competing at the Qatar World Cup in Doha as we speak.

With a 6.7 difficulty score, the highest in the qualification field, Prashanth had rather a headstart going into the pommel final despite having qualified 6th. He ended up...

...

...wait for it...


...WINNING! With a great score of 16.075 so good on you, Prash!
View video of his routine here.


Quoted from the Gulf Times newspaper...


"I have not qualified for the Olympics in both the individual as well as the team event. However, this result against the best in business will do wonders for me in future tournaments. This has been my best show till now and I'm
looking forward to improve from here on," said a visibly pleased Sellathurai.


What a little (and I mean that; he's pocket-sized and smiley and adorable) champ!

High bar will be contested today [Thursday] and if the event website's qualification results are to be believed (bit of confusion here, might not be true), Phil has qualified in equal first place! First or not, he's through to the final so good luck to him too and well done on such a strong comeback. Understandably these performances are bittersweet given that we won't be seeing them in Beijing but there's always next year's World Cup and World Championships to aim for.

I'll keep you all posted :)



I may get to see this happen more than once in my lifetime...

ETA: Phil placed third on high bar. Still, a great effort for someone on the comeback trail.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Prashanth Sellathurai,pommel, video from DOHA...:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gur2j5a_rB0

Mez said...

Thankyoooooou! I heart Prash, he's such an "aw, shucks!" kinda guy.


Very fluid, very neat, and an *interesting* skill at 00:09! His technique along the horse is hypnotic... he's like a lava lamp... o_O

Anonymous said...

what is that strange press to handstand thing he does towards the start of the routine? never ever seen something like that on pommel before.