Ruby Pass has made a major statement ahead of the Paris Olympics, winning four senior titles in the space of 90 minutes at the Australian gymnastics championships.
Pass, who turns 17 next Friday, won her first senior All Around title with a dominating performance, as well as claiming the vault, uneven bars and floor gold medals.
It comes a year after Georgia Godwin won the All Around, vault, beam and floor national titles – with Pass finishing runner-up overall.
Godwin is not competing at the nationals because of an achilles injury in training that has derailed her hopes of a second Olympics.
In her absence, Pass has stepped up, with Gymnastics Australia saying her results on Sunday at the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre “felt like a statement of arrival”.
After winning the 2021 and 2022 junior All Around national titles, Pass has made an outstanding start to senior competition.
She won All Around gold last year at the Oceania Continental Championships and competed at the world championships.
Pass scored 110.197 on Sunday in the All Around to finish nearly five points ahead of silver medallist Breanna Scott.
She was the only athlete to score more than 14 on vault and did it in the two sessions for a total score of 28.216.
Pass was even better on the uneven bars, scoring 28.466 to successfully defend her Australian title on that apparatus.
“It really is a dream come true,” the NSW teenager said.
“I’ve worked so hard, so to see it pay off was really good.
“I’ve been struggling a lot with bars recently, with consistency, so really happy to hit (a good routine) both days.
“My goal was to come out and hit eight clean routines and I did that pretty well.”
Scott won the beam event, her first gold at a national championships.