Latest News

26/7/10

Our beloved Shona Morgan announced her retirement from elite gymnastics competition in Australia last Thursday. Shona recently accepted a full gymnastics scholarship to the prestigious Stanford University. Now that she is not needed for the Commonwealth Games team Shona will no longer delay her start at Stanford and has confirmed that she will fly over early September for the International students orientation week and will be there for the start of the academic year. Shona said she has great faith in the Australian team for Commonwealth Games and that she has her fingers crossed that the team and especially fellow team mate Georgia Bonora can medal at the event!

The 19 year old is a proud member of Waverley Gymnastics Centre and expressed how much she will miss her family, coaches, team mates, supporters and everyone from Waverley when she leaves for Stanford. She is still in the gym training hard and will now start working on the NCAA competition requirements.

Shona’s coaches John Hart and Shaoyi Jiang are very sad to see Shona retire from elite competition but are also incredibly excited about the exceptional opportunity she has been given to compete in the NCAA for Stanford. John said Shona’s work ethic and determination are second to none and she has been an inspiration to coach. “In some ways it’s the end of an era, but its also the start of a new world of possibilities for Shona”. I hope to go and watch her compete in the USA sometime soon! We hope this will pave the way for many more Waverley gymnasts to obtain these types of scholarships.

When asked by some fellow club members if the London Olympics was a possibility Shona cheekily replied ‘you never know’!

Waverley Gymnastics Centre is extremely proud of Shona’s incredible career that spans 5 years in Snr International gymnastics alone, includes three World Championships and the Beijing Olympics. Some of Shona’s career highlights include:

- Selected to represent Australia at the 2006 World Championships (Aarhus, Denmark)
- Represented Australia at the 2007 World Championships (Stuttgart, Germany)
- Represented Australian and Waverley successfully at 11 International competitions as both a Jnr and Snr in France, Canada, Germany, USA, Ukraine, Sweden, China, Denmark, and Britain.
- Represented Australia at the Beijing Olympics where she was the highest contributor to the team score and was the second highest placed Australian gymnast - placing 15th AA and was the 1st reserve for the Olympic beam finals.
- Represented Australia at the 2009 World Championships (London, Britain)
- 2010 Victorian Championships Shona placed 2nd AA, 1st Bars, 1st Vault, 2nd Beam, 3rd Floor
- 2010 National Championships Shona placed 3rd AA.
- Shona represented Waverley at 9 Victorian Championships and has been Victorian All Around Champion three times and Silver AA medallist twice, as well as won more than 20 State Championship apparatus medals.
- Shona has won two National titles at Australian Championships - 2009 Vault and 2008 Beam, in addition she placed 2nd AA in 2008, 2nd AA in 2009 and 3rd AA in 2010 and she has won a total of 10 National AA and Apparatus medals.
- Represented Victoria at eight Australian Championships.

Shona has been an amazing club member and incredible role model at Waverley. We congratulate Shona for her incredible commitment and contribution to Australian and Victorian Gymnastics. We wish her the very best in this exciting new stage of her life and hope to see her back for the 2012 Olympics!

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