By John Salvado
BRISBANE, March 2 AAP - If only everyone was like Dani Samuels, Australia’s track and field selectors would have a pretty easy job picking the 2008 Olympic team.
Despite carrying a slight hamstring twinge, Samuels needed only one throw in the discus final to again better the A standard with a personal best of 62.95m.
Aged 19, the world junior champion is already a serious contender.
But Samuels was one of only six athletes who guaranteed their berth in the Olympic team with their performances at the selection trials which finished yesterday.
The others were javelin thrower Jarrod Bannister, heptathlete Kylie Wheeler, steeplechaser Donna MacFarlane, pole vaulter Alana Boyd and Tamsyn Lewis, who can now pick between the 400m and 800m.
They join pre-selected superstars such as Jana Rawlinson and Craig Mottram and a large contingent of walkers as Beijing certainties.
A bevy of other athletes will have to steady their nerves until the bulk of the team is announced in the next few days.
The matter has been complicated by the early Australian team nomination cut-off date of June 23, more than six weeks before the Olympic opening ceremony.
That gives any athletes not named this week precious few further opportunities to chase qualifying standards. We have basically decided at the moment there will be a list of people that we are interested in watching what they do,'' said chairman of selectors Peter Fitzgerald. By inference if you are not on that list we are pretty much trying to get the message home to those people don't waste your time'. ''... we have tried to educate people this whole season that we are fair dinkum that we are going to pick this team in March. ``The only additions we are going to make to the team are ones which we didn't think we could put in now because of their injury status and athletes who are proven international performers that for one reason or another haven't been able to be here. ``And there's always the hope and chance that someone comes totally out of the blue and does something outrageous and says you have got to pick me’,’’ added Fitzgerald.
The injury provision covers the likes of sprinter and hurdler Sally McLellan, who is nursing a hamstring problem.
The men’s 400m is a tough call.
The selectors could name the top three finishers in yesterday’s final - Joel Milburn, John Steffensen and Sean Wroe - or they could leave a spot open for the likes of Clinton Hill, who missed the trials to be at the birth of his first child.
The men’s 4x400m is the only relay squad all but guaranteed of getting to the Games, although both 4x100m teams could sneak in too.
But any chance of Australia being represented in the individual men’s 100m at Beijing is very slim, despite the heart-warming story of cancer survivor Otis Gowa’s victory in Brisbane.
Gowa’s winning time of 10.63 was the slowest in 28 years.
Fitzgerald estimates the final team will number between 35 and 45 depending on the status of the relays.
BRISBANE, March 2 AAP - Athletics Australia will name the bulk of its Olympic team this week following the February 28-March 1 selections trials in Brisbane.
Pre-selected athletes and walkers who had already met criteria
Men
5,000m: Craig Mottram
Pole vault: Steve Hooker
20km walk: Luke Adams, Jared Tallent
50km walk: Nathan Deakes, Adam Rutter, Jared Tallent
Women
400m hurdles: Jana Rawlinson
20km walk: Kellie Wapshott
Athletes who guaranteed selection by performances in trials
Men
Javelin: Jarrod Bannister
Women
400m: Tamsyn Lewis
800m: Tamsyn Lewis
3,000m steeplechase: Donna MacFarlane
Pole vault: Alana Boyd
Discus: Dani Samuels
Heptathlon: Kylie Wheeler
Athletes who have not met all selection criteria but likely to be named in squad this week
Men
400m: Joel Milburn, John Steffensen, Sean Wroe
800m: Lachlan Renshaw
110m hurdles: Justin Merlino
Marathon: Lee Troop
Shot put: Scott Martin
Decathlon: Jason Dudley
4x100m relay: Six runners
4x400m relay: Steffensen, Milburn, Wroe and three others
Women
100m: Sally McLellan
800m: Madeleine Pape
100m hurdles: Sally McLellan
Long jump: Bronwyn Thompson
Marathon: Benita Johnson
20km walk: Claire Woods
4x100m relay: McLellan and five others
Other athletes have until June 23 to meet selection criteria or prove their fitness
Monday, March 3, 2008
Aussie athletes struggling to qualify for olympics A WIPE-OUT in the sprinting ranks may see a smaller-than-expected Australian track and field team sent to this year’s Beijing Olympics.
There is unlikely to be an individual competitor in the men’s and women’s 100m and 200m. It is also increasingly unlikely both 4 x 100m relay teams will make the qualification cut-off.
The Australian Olympic Committee had budgeted for a track and field team of 45. But that now seems ambitious after three days of selection trials in Brisbane.
Only six athletes achieved automatic nomination at the titles, which means only 14 have booked their Beijing seats.Up to 13 others could be added on Wednesday under the selector’s discretion when the first wave of selections are announced.
A number of athletes will be given more time to prove fitness or chase qualifying standards, with the final selection deadline on June 23.
While Otis Gowa’s 100m victory was a wonderful story for Athletics Australia, it blew away the Olympic dreams of former champions Matt Shirvington and Patrick Johnson.
With Athens Olympian Joshua Ross on the sidelines suffering from depression, the sprinting ranks have never been in worse shape.
Sally McLellan’s absence because of injury and her decision to focus on the 100m hurdles means there is no one left on the female side.
It would be the first time since 1980 that Australia has not had a 100m or 200m male runner.
Daniel Batman is the only remaining hope in the 200m, but he has yet to run an Olympic A-standard qualifying time.
AA chairman of selectors Peter Fitzgerald said he was not surprised to see the controversial men’s 100m final - Shirvington and Johnson both lodged protests claiming an unfair start - won in the slow time of 10.63sec.
“Personally, it was about what I thought the season had indicated was going to happen,” Fitzgerald said.
“At the end of the day, the standard was about what we had seen all year.”
Only the world’s 16 fastest relay teams get to compete in Beijing.
The men’s 4 x 100m is ranked 12th and the women’s 14th, but they are unlikely to hold those positions when the European season begins in June.
Fitzgerald said a number of athletes would be told they were still in the selection picture this week.
“There will be a list of people that we are interested in watching . . . if you are not on that list, we are pretty much saying don’t waste your time,” Fitzgerald said.
"We have tried to educate people that we are fair dinkum that we are going to pick this team in March.
"The only addition that we are going to make to the team are ones which we didn’t think we could put in now because of their injury status and athletes who are proven international performers that, for one reason or another, haven’t been able to be here.
“When it is all finalised, I think it will be somewhere between 35 and 45 (team members), depending on whether we have relays.”
There was only one national record broken at the trials - by javelin thrower Jarrod Bannister.
Discus thrower Dani Samuels was the only other high-profile title winner to set a new personal best.
I actually don’t have a problem with selecting team by March. You have until June (?) to finalise teams, but only add injured athletes or an exceptional performance well under qualifiers.
What about
Paul Burgess - PV
Justin Anelezark - Shot
Haven’t hear much of Burgess, I’m guessing he is injured?
Justin, I think, has thrown 2 B’s in 2 weeks and was close to an A in winning Nationals. He should throw multiple A’s in the next month or so, I reckon.
Would be good to have multiple Aussies in events. In PV we have a 6m jumper and another one close.
In shot we have 21m man and a 20plus man, so they are all shots for medals and top 8