THIRD OLYMPICS FOR LOCAL JUDGE

10th March, 2004

Athens is on the itinerary for local Gymnastics Judge, Avril Enslow. Mrs. Enslow, the Chch School of Gymnastics Executive Officer and Senior Coach, has received the invitation to be one of the 32 artistic judges at Athens.

Enslow attended theAtlanta and Sydney Olympics as a control judge on Vault, and Balance beam respectively, but this time will have to wait until arrival to find what she will judge.

“They have changed the rules to come into line with the Men”, Enslow said. “This means that only 4 judges are appointed to the control jury prior to the Games and the other 4 plus the panel judges for each apparatus will be drawn after arrival.
It will mean that I will have an opportunity to judge different apparatus. I am looking forward to that. The other Olympics were special but I didn’t get the chance to put in a score on the other apparatus.”

The rule change also meant that countries are restricted to only 1 judge. There are 32 countries with gymnasts qualified. 2 countries did not have judges of sufficient standing to be invited, and Enslow got the nod as she has been in the top ranks of the sport since 1992.
NZ didn’t qualify a gymnast directly at the qualifying World Championships last year, so Enslow’s selection was not a certainty.

Top NZ competitor Ailish Nolan (Auckland) is sitting at 2nd reserve position and will have to wait until the end of the month to find out if she has moved up into one of the 20 individual places, and then for NZOC selection, to see if she will join Enslow.

As a build up toAthens, Enslow will join Nolan and the NZ team on their trip toHawaii for the Pacific Alliance competition in April. This regional competition prior to the Olympics has always been very important guideline for the Olympics, the top gymnasts always competing. With the strong USA women’s team seeded first after winning Worlds last year, and China coming in 4th after Australia and Romania it will be a very interesting and very exciting. 3 of the Worlds top 4 teams will be there.

For further information Ph Avril Enslow 3886616 wk, 021 2505099