Athletics boss lashes out at agitators
Jenny McAsey | August 25, 2008
AFTER the best overall performance by Australia in athletics since 1968, the sport’s chief executive Danny Corcoran has blasted a group of athletes who have been agitating in the Olympic village for a management overhaul.
Corcoran said athletes who complained were looking for excuses for poor performances, while the up-and-comers such as silver medal winners Sally McLellan and Jared Tallent and gold medallist Steve Hooker were the hard nuts the sport needed.
“Some people in this environment need excuses for their own performances and they look for someone to blame, while there are others who want medals and they will sleep on a barbed wire fence, they will eat rolled oats and they will bloody well perform because they are hungry,” Athletics Australia boss Corcoran said in Beijing. “We want hungry dogs.”
There were low medal expectations for the 41-member track and field team after world champion 400m hurdler Jana Rawlinson and world 50km walking champion Nathan Deakes both withdrew due to injuries.
But the team collected four medals, double that expected by the Australian Olympic Committee. Hooker won gold in the pole vault, McLellan picked up silver in the 100m hurdles and Tallent scored silver in the 50km walk and bronze in the 20km walk.
There were under-performers, most notably Craig Mottram who did not make the final of the men’s 5000m, Tamsyn Lewis who did not follow up on her world indoor 800m gold medal and shot putters Scott Martin and Justin Anlezark who did not make the top 12.
But the sport, which AOC boss John Coates acknowledged has been “much maligned”, was saved by three athletes who should all be competing until at least the 2012 London Olympics.
Overall, Australia finished ninth among the 212 nations who sent athletes, with points allocated for those who finished in the top eight of their event.
“It is the best finish in 40 years but we do know we have a long way to go in terms of building for London,” Corcoran said.
The chairman of Athletics Australia, Rob Fildes, said they wanted more medals in 2012.
“We think we can achieve six medals in London, that will be our target. We had 11 top 10 placings here, that was 25 per cent of our team in the top 10 in the world,” he said.
But the sport has ongoing funding problems. It has been without a major sponsor since last year and has found it difficult to lure commercial partners because it has no control over the junior arm of the sport, Little Athletics, which has flatly refused to join forces with AA.
[b]In the village senior athletes including long jumper Bronwyn Thompson, who finished 16th, have been surveying athletes to seek their views on changes needed to improve the sport.
Walker Jane Saville said communication between AA and the athletes was poor.
“We need more communication from the hierarchy to the athletes so that the athletes can know what is going on. That is one of the things that has been lacking,” Saville said.
“There needs to be a lot done to encourage younger athletes to stay in the sport and make it financially viable that they are staying in the sport.”
The decision by the selectors, including high performance manager Max Binnington, not to bring a 4x100m relay team to Beijing even though Australia had qualified, was roundly criticised given it would have presented young sprinters with valuable experience. And with the number of dropped batons and disqualifications, they could have made the final.
Corcoran said the omission may have been a mistake and a professional relay squad could be established in future.[/b]
