The wait was nowhere near as excruciating as the USA’s Worlds Team announcement, although it was a couple of days late but we knew that it would be Friday lunchtime as the BG media team had let us know on Twitter.
The WAG team was announced as:
- Beth Tweddle
- Danusia Francis
- Hannah Whelan
- Imogen Cairns
- Jennifer Pinches
- Laura Edwards
- Becky Downie
Beth Tweddle
Hannah Whelan
Jennifer Pinches
Pinches, another All Arounder, key to the British Team although she can be inconsistent at times. She can definitely add to the vault and floor scores. She can be inconsistent on bars especially but she has nice lines and nice form to add. At the same time Pinches is getting better and better and it would really affect the team if she had not been selected. She finished 32nd in last years AA qualification but as this is her second World Championships and has shown progression in the last year, she is bound to move up in the rankings in Tokyo.
Danusia Francis
The 2010 English Champion is the third All Arounder that has qualified for the team. In Britain she has quite a remarkable competition history. Beam would be Francis strongest event but most recently her new floor routine unveiled at the 2011 British Championships won the interest of many gym fans. Danusia hasn’t yet competed at a World Championships, she was named in last years squad but became ill forcing coaches to pull her from the team, she was replaced with Imogen Cairns. Despite having her ups and downs over the years, 2011 has been good to Francis, she’s gotten better, more consistent. She’ll be an asset to the team on beam, in which she holds the British Title. The beam to the UK is what bars are to the USA. She holds great flair and lovely choreography on beam. Hopefully she can help GB bump up their bars scores to avoid a repeat of what was a terrible beam set for GB in Rotterdam. Her bars is ok, not the best, lacks some composition but the girls can always rely on Beth to bump the score up. I expect Francis to qualify for the AA final with Hannah Whelan.
Imogen Cairns
Also known as the comeback kid. You only have to read Cairns story to know how hard she has worked to not be presented with a place on this Worlds Team. After her massive success at the Dehli Commonwealth Games, Cairns was flown to Rotterdam to replace the ill Danusia Francis on the team. Not new to Worlds or the international stage, she competed in Beijing in 2008, and placed a second reserve for the AA finals. This gymnast is known for her strong vaulting abilities, clean floor work and most recently she has worked hard with national beam coach Carol Angela Orchard to make a comeback on the apparatus. Cairns was only one of two female British gymnasts to qualify for an apparatus final in Rotterdam. She made the vault final, finishing 7th while Tweddle won her World Bar title once again. Like Francis, her strong beam work will boost the GBR score.
Becky Downie
The 7 time AA British Champion represented Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics where she finished 12th in the Women’s artistic individual AA, the highest position for a British female gymnast in history. In March this year she sustained an achilles ankle injury and has only just returned to competition. Becky was selected as part of the Great Britain team to compete against Romania in a friendly international competition. She returned to competition on 3 pieces of apparatus (vault, bars, & beam) to help the Great Britain team take the gold against Romania. I don’t expect her to compete AA, not just yet, it’s not worth risking another injury and putting her out for the Olympics. She’s an experienced member of the team, great lines on bars and a truly great asset. I’m delighted to see her back from injury.
Laura Edwards
Edwards was part of the silver winning 2010 Commonwealth Team with team mate Imogen Cairns. She finished 6th in the AA competition, 5th in the floor final and 4th in the beam final. Laura is due to be the teams reserve.
This is pretty much the team I had thought it would be – give or take Downey. A pity for Rippin, Hunt and Hibbert. As far as I know Hibbert is still out with injury. Great Britain should qualify in the top 8, they’ve only gotten stronger and stronger. The team is strong and experienced so should injuries, consistency and confidence hold up, I see great things ahead for Team GB at Worlds.
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Great post but you’ve got a photo of Laura Mitchell in place of Becky Downie!!
thanks Emma, oh no don’t know how that happened! Have changed it now
Hibbert is still injured so had no chance of making the team! In fact i think she had a second surgery on her knee not too long ago! … or was that supposed to say rippin and hunt?
should say hunt, was rushing out the door! i thought Hibbert was still injured alright, she’s been out for a long time now. It was announced in march that she injured her knee and would be out for a “prolonged period of time”
What do you make of the team Jess? Would you have preferred Hunt or Rippin in?
I think this team is fantastic! If all the girls hit we’ve definitely got a chance at placing top 5!
I’m not really sure how much more Jocelyn or Niamh could add to the team :S all the girls are so close in terms of difficulty and consistency (not including hannah and beth) and we have no idea whats been going on at camp! .. if Niamh hits her floor with full difficulty she could score pretty high but im not sure about her other events!
Fingers crossed we can quality in Tokyo for London and don’t have to use the test event!