Daria Joura
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Daria Joura, also known as Dasha, born May 2, 1990 in Leninsk-Kuznetsky, Siberia, Russia, is an Australian Elite gymnast.
Joura began gymnastics at the age of 4 at the Olympic Academy in Russia, prompted by the fact that she was "always at the gym" with her parents, who were both coaches. She now lives in Perth and trains at the Western Australian Institute of Sport with coaches Martine George and Nikolai Lapchine.
Joura competed in her first Australian National Championships in 2001, winning the all-around title, two silver medals on the floor exercise and vault, and a bronze on the balance beam in the junior national division. In 2003 she moved up to the junior international division, winning the national all-around title and placing second on vault and floor. 2003 also brought Dasha her first international assignment, the Canberra Cup, where she placed 6th in the all-around. In 2005 Joura missed Nationals with an injury, but competed in several other events, including the prestigious Japan Junior International meet.
Dasha became age-eligible for senior competition in 2006. She nearly swept the 2006 Australian National Championships, finishing in first place in the all-around and every piece of apparatus except the uneven bars. Her first international meet as a senior was the Pacific Alliance Championships, where she turned in strong performances to help the Australian team to a second-place finish. However, at the Australian trials for the 2006 Commonwealth Games team a short time later, she suffered several falls, resulting in her omission from the team roster.
Joura's first major international competition was the 2006 World Championships in Aarhaus. Undaunted by the occasion, she helped the Australian team to a respectable seventh place, and competed on every piece in the team finals. Her finest hour came in the all-around, where she was one of only a handful of gymnasts not to fall during the comptition. Even eventual champion Vanessa Ferrari could not match Dasha's consistency, falling from beam. Her fifth place finish was the second best ever by an Australian gymnast, after Monette Russo's bronze AA medal in 2005. Joura also competed in the bars final, where she came in sixth.
Following the World Championships, Joura competed in two World Cup meets, the DTB Cup in Germany and the Glasgow Grand Prix in Scotland, where she won a bronze medal on the uneven bars. She is currently an active member of the Australian national team.
In 2007, commenced the year at the 2007 American Cup in Jacksonville, Florida. She was sluggish at the competition, because it took over 36 hours for her to travel to the competition. However, Joura successfully debuted a number of new skills, including a Comaneci Salto on bars.
In May, Joura went on to win her second consecutive Australian all-around title at the National Championships in Melbourne, as well as golds on vault, uneven bars, floor and in the team event with her Western Australian girls. Beam was won by fellow West Australian Lauren Mitchell, where Dasha finished 5th. The 2007 Nationals were held in conjunction with a dual meet against World champions China. Australia beat China in the team event, Joura went on to place equal 6th on uneven bars, 8th on balance beam and 2nd on floor, which was an admirable achievement considering she was up against reigning World floor champion Cheng Fei. In preparation for the upcoming World championships, Dasha then competed in a similar dual competition against Japan, where she again added gold medals in the team, all-around, vault and floor events, plus a bronze on beam, to her flourishing personal tally. She headed into the World Championships as a medal prospect in the team and all-around events, and looked to have strong showings on floor, vault and bars.
Dasha did not have the best of competitions at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, though her enthusiastic and engaging performances won over many in the audience. Several commentators remarked on her polished and positive attitude towards the competitors, audience members and judges she made eye contact with. In the preliminary competition, Joura (and other Australian teammates) counted falls on the uneven bars and balance beam, but bounced back to show a stuck Yurchenko-double vault and a floor routine competent enough to qualify her for the individual all-around final but neither the floor final nor the vault final. The team itself finished in 11th place, missing the teams final but qualifying through to the 2008 Beijing] Olympic Games. Joura was the only Australian woman to qualify for the all-around final, where she finished 10th after errors on bars and beam. Her dynamic floor routine, however, was considered by many to be one of the highlights of the competition.
In October, Dasha headed back to Stuttgart for the DTB World Cup event with teammate Lauren Mitchell. After strong qualification results which saw her make all 4 apparatus finals, Dasha ended up as the most decorated gymnast of the competition. She won a bronze on vault, a silver on uneven bars and a gold on floor - her first at a World Cup competition and the most medals she's won in one international competition. Lauren added to Australia's medal tally with a silver on balance beam and a bronze on floor behind Dasha. This was Australia's most successful showing at the event, and surely a confidence booster for the girls on the road to the Olympics.
At the Good Luck Beijing Tournament, the 'test event' for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Dasha qualified first to the all-around final with four hit routines out of four. She repeated this strong showing in the final, but was pipped at the post by China's Jiang YuYuan (though they received the same score on vault) and graciously took the silver medal. Bronze went to Bridget Sloan of the USA, and fellow Australian Lauren Mitchell finished in fourth. Dasha was humble in defeat and had nothing but positive things to say about her experiences in the final and her fellow competitors. She continued on to win the bronze on uneven bars, place fourth on floor after an unfortunate error and fifth on beam where Lauren won the silver behind unexpected winner Cheng Fei.
Dasha began her Beijing preparations in 2008 by agreeing to pen weekly columns for PerthNow (powered by Perth's Sunday Times Newspaper) about her progress. Her unique perspective on gymnastics sparkled with wit and positive outlook, covering everything from motivational techniques to her thoughts on travelling long distances for meets to her expectations for Beijing. In March, again alongside Lauren Mitchell, she travelled to the USA for a training camp with the Olympic Squad and competed in two competitions while there: The 10th annual Friendship Classic, in which she won the all-around, vault and uneven bars titles (with Lauren coming 2nd all-around and taking the other two apparatus titles) and the Pacific Rim Championships in San Jose, where Ashleigh Brennan would make up the third member of the Australian contingent.
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[edit] Sources
- AIS biography
- Australian Gymnastics biography
- 2007 World Gymnastics Championships results
- quote from coverage of Beijing Test Event at International Gymnast Magazine
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