competition

Her jitters came and went during the first meet of her college career. Now, it’s time for UCLA freshman Nola Matthews to focus on her training and routines.

“How I practice is the standard that I want,” Matthews said, “so now, I just need to implement that into competition.”

The UCLA women’s gymnastics team sent four freshmen (Matthews, Tiana Sumanasekera, Ashlee Sullivan and Jordis Eichman) to the floor during their meet against Washington, California and Oregon State on Saturday.

After earning three wins during the competition in Washington, the Bruins swept the Big Ten Conference weekly awards, including freshman of the week award for Sumanasekera after she placed second on the balance beam and the floor exercise.

“They have so much experience just through their time with being elite athletes and things like that,” coach Janelle McDonald said about her freshman class. “I think it really is going to bode well for them for their longevity and their NCAA career.”

“I’m excited to see them continue to grow throughout the season and really on what they’re capable of doing out on the competition floor,” she added.

The win made the Bruins the No. 1 team in the country, a distinction they say they are not going to worry about. Instead, they’ll just concentrate on themselves.

“We’re only going to be focused on what we’re doing, staying in that bubble, staying together, staying as one team,” Matthews said.

Leadership

When they first hit the floor, McDonald noticed nerves from the freshmen. Their execution wasn’t perfect and they performed a bit too tight. Since it was their first meet, their coach expected it, but what impressed her the most was their adjustments.

“We’re going to have so many things throughout the year thrown at us and really being resilient through those moments and just really being able to turn the page and focus on what’s next is just so crucial to being a successful team,” McDonald said.

The grit they showed was supported by the leadership the newcomers got from Jordan Chiles and the rest of the returning members.

“I just thought Jordan did that phenomenally and our returners did as well,” McDonald said. “Those were the things that I took away that I was really excited about.”

“They’ve really taken all of us under their wing, and they’ve been there for us, especially when we’re having bad days,” Matthews added.

The noise of a No. 1 ranking

McDonald understands that the leadership skills her returning team members bring to competition is the key to success for the Bruins this season. In order for UCLA to maintain its No. 1 ranking it needs to worry about what it can control and not the noise from outside.

“We’re really focusing on what we can do to continue to improve and get better in our gymnastics and our connection with each other and how we show up for each other as we head into this next meet,” she said. “You can’t always control your scores, you can’t always control your ranking, but you can always control how you show up in each moment and how you prepare for those opportunities.”

Their next meet will be against Oklahoma, Utah and Louisiana State on Saturday on ABC at 1 p.m. PST. The lights will be bright, a target will be on their back as the best program in the country, but they will tune out the noise by focusing on their work.

“We all just have to keep our heads down, keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Matthews said. “We’ve been working so hard this preseason and I feel like we’re in a really good spot.”

Dec. 21 (Asia Today) — Nearly half of South Korea’s small and medium-sized exporters expect their overseas shipments to decline next year, with many citing intensifying low-price competition from China as their biggest challenge, a survey released Sunday found.

The Korea Federation of SMEs said its “2026 SME Export Outlook Survey” polled 1,300 exporting SMEs from Dec. 1-12.

In the survey, 68.6% of respondents said they expect exports to increase in 2026 compared with this year, while 31.4% forecast a decrease, the federation said.

Among firms expecting export growth, cosmetics exporters (86.4%) and medical and biotech exporters (86.1%) were the most optimistic, the federation said. The most common reason for expecting export growth, in multiple responses, was improved product competitiveness through new product launches and quality improvements (47.1%), followed by diversification of export markets (29.8%) and improved price competitiveness due to exchange rate appreciation (21.6%).

Among SMEs forecasting weaker exports, 49.3% cited intensifying low-price competition from China as their main export challenge, followed by greater exchange rate volatility (44.6%), sharp increases in raw material prices (37.0%) and uncertainty over U.S. and European Union tariff policies (35.0%), the federation said.

Planned responses to weaker export performance included diversifying export markets (28.2%), improving quality or launching new products (23.0%) and reducing production costs such as labor and raw materials (21.8%), according to the survey.

Despite tariff concerns, the United States ranked first among markets SMEs most want to enter or expand into, at 21.0% when combining first-, second- and third-priority choices, the federation said. Europe followed at 15.2%, with Japan and China tied at 10.6%.

For government priorities to strengthen export competitiveness, respondents most frequently called for expanding support for an export voucher program (53.5%), followed by building a system to counter China’s low-cost offensive (35.8%) and strengthening diplomacy to respond to U.S. and EU tariffs (35.1%), the federation said. Other priorities included expanding support for participation in overseas exhibitions, including in emerging markets (31.5%) and supporting overseas certification and regulatory compliance (27.2%).

Chu Moon-gap, head of the federation’s economic policy division, said it was significant that SMEs are projecting export growth by improving competitiveness despite external headwinds such as tighter export regulations by various countries. He added that companies’ ability to reduce total costs, including production and logistics costs, tariffs and lead times, will be key to export competitiveness and said the government should prepare cost-reduction support measures to help SMEs respond to China’s low-cost competition.

– Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

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