Looking forward to the 2024 Paris Olympics
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games is just under 1 year away and the countdown is on to the start date of the 26th of July 2024 in Paris, France. This week we look at Badminton.
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games is just under 1 year away and the countdown is on to the start date of the 26th of July 2024 in Paris, France.
The 2020 games in Tokyo were a watershed moment for the Maribyrnong Sports Academy with 5 of our past Students participating in either the Olympic Games or Paralympic Games. Cyclist Luke Plapp won a bronze medal in the team Pursuit while Paralympian and Table Tennis player Nathan Pellissier won a silver medal in the Men’s team C9-C10 event. Reba Stewart represented in Taekwondo and Gronya Somerville was a part of the Badminton team. Connor Metcalfe took part in the football program. Before Tokyo, MSA had only 1 alumni athlete partake in the games and that was Boxer Ibrahim Bella at the 2012 London Games.
Over the next few weeks, we will look at the different sports here at MSA and tell you the athletes that could be a part of the action in Paris in 2024.
This week we look at Badminton.
MSA Alumni, Gronya Somerville & Jacob Schueler are both genuine chances to make the Australian Olympic Badminton team for Paris 2024.
Jacob and Gronya are current members of the Australian Badminton National Squad. This squad is affectionately known as The Falcons.
What they must do to make the team.
Olympic badminton consists of five events – men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles. Each involves a single-elimination tournament, with the top eight players or pairs seeded. The Badminton World Federation ranking list is used to determine qualification for the Olympic tournament. For singles, 38 competitors are selected. For doubles, 16 pairs are selected - BWF News (bwfbadminton.com)
Gronya will be competing for a mixed doubles and ladies doubles spot at the Olympic Games. Jacob will be aiming to compete in the Men’s singles event. They will be competing at World Badminton Federation events all over the world during the lead up to the Olympic Games in order to get their BWF World Rankings as high as possible in order to qualify for the games.
Key Stats:
Gronya Somerville
Olympic Games – 2020, Commonwealth Games – 2014, 2018, 2022
Current World Rank WD: 68. Current World Rank XD: 51
2023 Yonex US Open – Mixed Quarterfinalist
2023 Mongolia International Challenge – Mixed Winner
2023 FZ Forza Dutch International – Doubles quarterfinalist, Mixed Winner
2023 Oceania Championships – Doubles Bronze, Mixed Gold
Jacob Schueler.
Commonwealth Games - 2022
Current World Rank: MS 147, 2019 and 2022 National Singles Champion
Mongolia International Challenge – Round 32
Hangzhou China International Challenge – Round 32
Portugal International Championships = Round 32
2023 Oceania Championships – Singles Bronze
The Score - 010823
Once again our Alumni have been doing their thing in the world of sport. This is how they have been going.
Once again our Alumni have been doing their thing in the world of sport. This is how they have been going.
Golf
Stephanie Bunque has finished tied for 8th place in her second LETAS tournament in the space of a week carding an even par score for the 3 days, 10 shots off the winner. Steph continues to accumulate points towards the order of merit moving up to 26th place with her goal of top 6 and automatic qualification into the European ladies tour next year. Steph’s next tournament is in Denmark starting on the 31st of July.
Athletics
Celeste Mucci has won both her heat and the final of the 100m Hurdles at the 2023 True Athletics Classic in Leverkusen, Germany.
Badminton
Gronya Somerville and her Women’s doubles partner were knocked out of the Japan Open in the round of 32. The Japan Open is on the second tier of Badminton tournaments and attracts the world’s best players and teams. Gronya now moves onto the Australian Open this week with Jacob Schueler also playing in the men’s singles.
NRLW
The Tigers beat the Sharks 10-0 and MSA Alumni Najvada George was right in the thick of things playing 60 mins in the Lock position for the Tigers.
AFL
Geelong V Fremantle
Fremantle travelled to Geelong to collect the 4 points with a 7-point victory. Luke Ryan had 28 disposals, 6 marks and 644 metres gained for the Dockers.
Bulldogs v Giants.
Rhylee West had 11 possessions and kicked a goal in the Bulldogs loss to GWS in Ballarat by 5 points.
Gold Coast Sun v Brisbane Lions.
The Suns beat the Lions by 41 points. For the Suns Rory Atkins had 28 possessions and 564 metres gained. Touk Miller 29 disposals, 579 metres gained and 5 tackles. For the Lions Cam Rainer had 14 disposals and 4 tackles and 4 clearances.
Essendon v Swans.
In Buddy Franklins final game in the AFL, Peter Wright had 8 disposals, 6 marks and kicked 4 goals 1 in the Bomber’s loss to the Swans by 2 points.
Adelaide v Port Adelaide.
Favourites Port Adelaide lost the Showdown by 47 points to the Crows with Zak Butters having 32 possessions, 6 clearances and 518 m gained for the Power.
Richmond v Melbourne
Melbourne beat Richmond by 32 points with Joel Smith having 5 disposals and 3 marks after being subbed on in the 3rd quarter.
West Coast v North Melbourne
North Melbourne lost by 5 points to the Eagles, storming home in the final quarter to nearly win the game. Paul Curtis had 15 Possessions and kicked 4 goals 1 in the second quarter to nearly carry the Kangaroos over the line.
Bridget Mihulka - Tennis
There are so many great stories here at MSA and this one is no exception. Bridget Mihulka is a year 11 student athlete in our Tennis program and recently had the opportunity to head overseas to play some tennis. Read more to find out how she went.
When year 11 MSA Tennis athlete Bridget Mihulka looks back at her junior tennis career, the European summer of 2023 could be the time that she looks back on with interest. For it was this period a month ago that Bridget played on the ITF’s junior tour in Europe.
The trip organised by Tennis Australia is designed to give players a feeling of what it is like being on the tour and living out of a suitcase for a period of time, and for Bridget the trip was very educational. “I went to Europe 4 weeks ago and went to the Netherlands and Germany and played in 3 tournaments. My best result was reaching the semi-finals in doubles in the second week. It was really a great trip organised by Tennis Australia, and I went with 2 other girls and 3 other boys, and it was an amazing experience playing in international tournaments and learning how to travel and live out of hotels.
While Bridget didn’t make it past the 1st round in her singles competition, she says the competition was as hard as she has been involved in. “The competition was strong, and all the Aussies who played were not that highly ranked. All the girls we played were like so strong and we had to work hard to get a point.”
The experience taught Bridget a lot about playing tennis on the road. “I now understand how difficult it is to be on tour and how hard it is to stay focused on the job because it would be easy to get home sick. It was a great experience though because we got to learn to do everything by ourselves like prepare our food and washing our clothes and just learning all those things, while still trying to focus on playing good tennis and managing everything else.
While the overall experience will no doubt benefit Bridget over time, she is expecting to see immediate improvement in her game. “The trip will benefit my tennis quite a lot as it really taught me about my game and where I need to improve. I now know what I need to focus on for my next training block and that will be helpful.”
Bridget continues to enjoy being a part of the Maribyrnong Sports Academy tennis program, sighting it as a massive benefit to her improvement. “Training at MSA is really good because there is a really good balance of match play and consistent drills, and it’s great to get like a feel going into tournaments, I love it.”
We wish Bridget all the best as she starts to prepare for the Australian summer of Tennis.