Aussie team: No 100/200

26.06.2008
Debutants dominate Beijing athletics nominations
The 2008 Olympic Games will see the changing of the guard in Australian athletics with 24 new faces set to make their debut in Beijing.

Headlined by reigning world champions Jana Rawlinson and Nathan Deakes, Athletics Australia will nominate a final team of 41 athletes to the Australian Olympic Committee.

Meeting for the final time this week, selectors added four more athletes to the list: Paul Burgess (WA, pole vault), Mark Ormrod (SA, 4 x 400m), Youcef Abdi (NSW, 3000m steeplechase) and Victoria Mitchell (VIC, 3000m steeplechase).

Dani Samuels is the youngest athlete at 20 years of age and Kate Smyth is the oldest at 35.

The Australian track and field team for the 2008 Olympic Games features:

  • Three Olympic silver medallists and two Olympic bronze medallists
    In Athens in 2004, the Australian men’s 4 x 400m relay team surprised everyone to win a silver medal. Dubbed the ‘silver bullets’, three members of the relay team will return in Beijing - Clinton Hill, Mark Ormrod and John Steffensen. Walkers Nathan Deakes and Jane Saville, who both won bronze medals in Athens, will again chase a spot on the podium.

  • Two world champions and one world indoor champion
    An emotional Nathan Deakes walked to a gold medal in Osaka last year and supermum Jana Rawlinson added a second world title to her growing list of achievements in the 400m hurdles. Tamsyn Lewis stormed to a shock 800m win in Valencia at the World Indoors earlier this year.

  • Seventeen athletes who have competed in one or more Olympics
    Jane Saville will add her name to an exclusive list of Australian track and field athletes to have competed in four Olympics - joining fellow walker Simon Baker, sprint star Raelene Boyle and marathoners Rob de Castella, Steve Moneghetti and Lisa Ondieki.

  • Australia’s first indigenous field event athlete
    Victorian discus thrower Benn Harradine will have the honour of becoming the first indigenous field athlete to represent Australia at an Olympic Games. He becomes the sixth indigenous track and field Olympian, joining Cathy Freeman, Patrick Johnson, Nova Peris-Kneebone, Joshua Ross and Kyle Vander-Kuyp.

  • Two male shot putters for the first time since Melbourne in 1956
    Australia will be represented by two male shot putters in Beijing, Scott Martin and Athens finalist Justin Anlezark, for the first time since Barry Donath and Peter Hanlin graced the Olympic stage in Melbourne in 1956.

  • Three team members with Olympian parents
    Alana Boyd will become the first Australian in any sport to join both parents as Olympians with father Ray Boyd in the pole vault at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and mother Denise (Robertson) Boyd, in the 100m, 200m and relay in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics. Steve Hooker’s mother Erica (Nixon) Hooker was a 1972 Olympian in the long jump and Tamsyn Lewis’ father Greg Lewis competed in the 1968 Olympics, in both the 100m and 200m.

  • Five parents on the 2008 team
    Justin Anlezark (father of four-year-old Holly and one-year-old Lucy), Clinton Hill (father of three-month-old Callum), Lee Troop (father of two-year-old Macy), Jana Rawlinson (mother of one-year-old Cornelis) and Donna MacFarlane (mother of six-year-old daughter Marcella and four-year-old son Gabriel) are all parents.

The team size of 41 (subject to appeals) compares with Athens (44), Sydney (86), Atlanta (62), Barcelona (39) and Seoul (30).

The athletics competition will be held from August 15 to 24, at Beijing’s National Stadium, affectionately known as the Bird’s Nest.

Pending appeals, the list of final nominations will be sent to the Australian Olympic Committee for selection into the Australian Olympic team on July 4.

Australian athletes selected for nomination into the 2008 Australian Olympic Games team
(as at June 26, 2008, ages as at August 8, 2008 – additions in bold)

Men
400m: Joel Milburn (22, NSW), John Steffensen (25, WA), Sean Wroe (23, VIC)
800m: Lachlan Renshaw (21, NSW)
1500m: Mitchell Kealey (24, QLD)
5000m: Collis Birmingham (23, VIC), Craig Mottram (28, VIC),
3000m Steeplechase: Youcef Abdi (30, NSW)
4x400m: Dylan Grant (20, QLD), Clinton Hill (28, ACT), Milburn (NSW), Mark Ormrod (25, SA), Steffensen (WA), Wroe (VIC)
20km walk: Luke Adams (31, NSW), Chris Erickson (26, VIC), Jared Tallent (23, VIC),
50km walk: Nathan Deakes (30, VIC), Adam Rutter (21, NSW), Tallent (VIC)
Marathon: Lee Troop (35, VIC)
Pole vault: Paul Burgess (28, WA), Steven Hooker (26, WA),
Shot put: Justin Anlezark (30, QLD), Scott Martin (25, VIC)
Javelin: Jarrod Bannister (23, QLD)
Discus: Benn Harradine (25, VIC)

Women
400m: Tamsyn Lewis (30, VIC)
800m: Lewis (VIC), Madeleine Pape (24, VIC)
1500m: Lisa Corrigan (23, ACT), Sarah Jamieson (33, VIC)
100m hurdles: Sally McLellan (21, QLD)
400m hurdles: Jana Rawlinson (25, NSW)
3000m steeplechase: Donna MacFarlane (31, TAS), Victoria Mitchell (26, VIC)
20km walk: Jane Saville (33, NSW), Kellie Wapshott (26,VIC), Claire Woods (27,SA)
Marathon: Benita Johnson (29, VIC), Kate Smyth (35, VIC), Lisa-Jane Weightman (29, VIC)
Pole vault: Alana Boyd (24, QLD)
Long jump: Bronwyn Thompson (30, QLD)
Discus: Dani Samuels (20, NSW)
Heptathlon: Kylie Wheeler (28, WA)

Always thought it was an interesting move by Aths Oz to ban all its sprint coaches from attending Charlie’s seminars…Today, Australia does not have a single 100m or 200m sprinter (male or female) deemed worthy of selection, not even in the shape of a 4x100 relay team.

For AA to have not selected an athlete because their Coach attended a CF seminar would have been an legally interesting situation. If someone had attended and trained an athlete who performed to the required standard the athlete would probably have been selected.

What action was threatened by AA (I tried to find it but the Aussie seminar thread but couldn’t)? Nanny organised the seminars and without too much detail it would be interesting to know what impact that has had on his relationship with AA, i.e. has he been blacklisted? :confused:

The other thing is how many would have attended (unknown) and would they have changed? While the seminar was fantastic and I would attend another if the opportunity arose there is plenty of information available in the form of DVD’s, Books, private consulting, here to those who genuinely want to learn. IMHO for a coach to say I would like to learn about CF methods but AA said I couldn’t go to 1 seminar is a cop out! :eek:

i posted the figures elsewhere about who attened to seminar and the results that flowed on from that inc national 100m champ and a few other rapid improvements.

the sadest thing about the relays is that both men and women are in the top 16, the men were given all the chances in the world but the womens team once Sally Mc was injured AA said oh well they are out, now we have an 11.2 an 11.4 and 6 others all around 11.7 in the u/22 age group, why not let them go and run a heat looking towards 2012 or are AA that broke?

they say top 8 is only good enough well you cant go from top 16 to top 8 eating hotdogs or drinking beer in australia while you give another country a go at making it through.

i can see the trickle effect from this from the upcoming men and women “why even bother trying to run times or do the sport if they dont take a team anyway”

so now one of the the worlds best sporting nations cannot field a mens or womens 4 x 100m team in either the olympics or world juniors

No Australian 100m/200m athlete, male or female & no 4 x 100m relays. This is a complete failure of sprinting in Australia and in my view the worst year for the sprint discipline in Australian athletic history. Let’s not beat around the bush. It’s as bad as it gets when the entire sprint coaching community in this country cannot produce one decent in form (100/200) sprinter for an Olympic team.

If this was an AFL club there would be a thorough and exhastive review conducted and heads would probably roll. Both Geelong and the Western Bulldogs undertook well documented & extensive reviews of their respective football departments following unacceptable results. Geelong’s review occurred in 2006 and the Bulldogs in 2007. Consequently Geelong won the 2007 premiership and currently the Bulldogs sit strongly second on the ladder with 10 wins and a draw from 12 matches.

BUT, I doubt that will happen in athletics as I fear there is simply no-one with the balls willing to implement a decent review. We have people in high places who protect their own positions and are not prepared to air their dirty linen nor accept responsibility, all at the expense of the sport.

Take the AIS - what an unmitigated disaster - the following athletes have had been training there for the last 12 months - Chris Troode, Kurt Mulcahy, Adam Miller, Patrick Johnson, Daniel Batman plus up until a year ago - Casey Vincent. None will be in Beijing.

Mark Ormrod could hardly break 47s this time last year when training at the AIS and was lucky to be in Osaka. He is back in SA, not yet at his best, but in much better shape than he was 12 months ago and gives the 4 x 400m team the ‘X’ factor - something he provided in 2004. Mark woke up, concerned that had he stayed in the AIS beyond September 2007, he would be sitting at home with the others watching the Olympics on TV. To his credit he did something about his predicament.

There’s clearly something wrong with the way the elite sprinters are being prepared & the structure we have to support them - there needs to be a genuine review, no bulldust, where every aspect of the art of sprinting including the support, resources and coaching structure is independently looked at, explored and researched.

My guess is the conclusions & recommendations may not be ‘palatable’ to some in AA, and anticipating that, our chances of a review are sadly remote.

No mens 4x100 or individual 100/200 was predicted here. The relay should of worked around PJ and Shirvo, Ross but AA stance on relays provided little incentive for our best 100 men to focus on the relay. They went for individual spot, PJ was unlucky he had one A, ran it another time wind assisted and eventually got injured chasing the second A.

If it was so predictable and was no chance all along, someone has been stringing along the likes of Josh Ross and Aaro Rouge-Serett because they are both quoted in the paper expressing surprise at the decision not to send a relay team.

Up until Wednesday, the relay coaches were still hopeful a team might be selected.

The other interesting thing in all of this will be the announcement of the accredited coaches including the designated relay coach for the men’s 4 x 400m. :rolleyes:

There was a review on the state of aths in this country a few years ago and an outcome was a critique on the coaching structures and processes.

I’m glad they set about some positive changes, as things look to be on the up… :o

Those two were not the only ones who thought the team would be put forward. Its apparent that relay coaches and runners didn’t really understand what was going on. Frankly the BS smells from miles away, relays haven’t been fair for years. The sport is becoming a joke.

I’ve said it so many times before but I’ll say it again anyway. Relays are where you start in a rebuilding phase. I guess the question is: could they have sent one anyway (pre-qualified)? What is the very last day to get in a performance for any team?

The Australian Olympic Committee determine effectively the last day for submission of nominations and each of the national sports federations affiliated to the AOC will nominate their teams a week or so beforehand, allowing some time for appeals against omissions to the NFs or CAS. The nomination deadline has passed (it was June 23).

But the Aussie men’s 4x100 squad is currently qualified for Beijing. It was more a case of the AA selectors stating they don’t see much potential and lack faith in the men’s 4x100. Then again, they didn’t see the potential in a women’s 4x100 and it’s full of kids.

I think it’s more a situation of the selectors having collectively decided that if a relay should go to the Games, then every member of a potential starting foursome should have attained the A-standard - just like every athletes from all the other event groups (throwers, plodders etc).

The case for relay medals or finals spots has not been made effectively on this occasion. The concept of “team” has been overturned with those involved in pulling this contingent together conforming to the will of the narrow-minded majority who subscribe to the notion that athletics is all about individuals and damn the nation, the national program and the neighbours. The Olympics is not the forum for Development, it is the ultimate proving ground for the ultimate athlete. And there is plenty of truth in that, but it is narrow and not to my personal liking.

To read the head coach Binnington saying the team/sport/program is in a “rebuilding” phase is risable, because when is any sports program not building towards something greater. It is a constant process and if managed competently there will always be cream at the top and plenty of potential being integrated from the junior ranks 24/7.

Thanks. You’ve confirmed for me that AA selectors are the morons I originally thought them to be.

The NZ ones just got hauled over the coals by the Sports Disputes Tribunal here.

Liza Hunter-Galvan v Athletics New Zealand (ST 07/08) Decision 20 June 2008

Overview: Appeal against non-nomination for Olympics - marathon runner Liza Hunter-Galvan appealed her non nomination for the Olympics in the marathon event - in 2007 she ran in the Amsterdam marathon in a time more than two minutes faster than the New Zealand performance standard to qualify for Olympics which was a pointer to nomination - communications to athlete by Athletics NZ may have led her to expect she would be nominated - however selectors considered her past performances not sufficient to indicate she was at required standard to be nominated for Olympics - discussion of whether unfairness to athlete in that if she needed to do more to be nominated she did not know what that was - allegations of bias against selectors rejected - Tribunal concluded relevant nomination criteria had not been properly followed or implemented by selectors - selectors should have made further exploration into circumstances of races where she was said not to have performed well and further examination into her performance in hot conditions - relevance of serious motor accident suffered by athlete and family - Tribunal referred matter of nomination back to selectors for reconsideration

http://www.sportstribunal.org.nz/decisions-08.html

That was on the 20th and ANZ haven’t announced anything yet :rolleyes:

The latest

ATHLETICS: Hunter-Galvan accuses athletics body of playing ‘mind games’
Steve Kilgallon - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 29 June 2008

Earlier this month, a sports disputes tribunal told Athletics NZ to review their original decision not to pick Hunter-Galvan. But with a New Zealand Olympic Committee nomination deadline looming tomorrow, Athletics NZ chief executive Scott Newman yesterday said selectors were still deliberating on the marathon runner’s case.

Hunter-Galvan accused Athletics NZ of playing “mind games” with her and appears to have the backing of New Zealand’s greatest runner, Peter Snell, who told her “this is not right”.

Hunter-Galvan told the Sunday Star-Times that Athletics NZ had offered to ask the NZOC for an extension if she wanted one, but she has refused and asked them to make a decision this weekend.

If Athletics NZ again refuses to nominate the runner, who has beaten the Olympic A standard qualifying time by nearly seven minutes, she will immediately refile another case to the tribunal, asking them to override the selectors.

[b]Tony Rogers, a former selector and former Athletics NZ high performance director, yesterday slammed Athletics NZ’s handling of the process and said he was amazed they no longer had any copies of his reports (as team manager) from the 2004 Olympic Games.

The Star-Times has learned Athletics NZ also contacted popular running website, nzrun.com, asking them to collate publicly-available statistics of Hunter-Galvan’s past performances.[/b] :eek:

One of Hunter-Galvan’s supporters, national cross-country representative Rees Buck, who manages the website, was concerned selectors appeared to be focused only on gathering evidence of poor performances.

Hunter-Galvan believes that to be the case. “They have been trying to gather `dirt’ on me,” she told the Star-Times, adding she was “disgusted” by Athletics NZ’s approach.

She has stayed up late every night this week with legal advisers, lawyer Bill Nash and district court judge Bert Richardson, to answer what she said was a series of emails from Athletics NZ, each email demanding new information.

When she spoke to the Star-Times from Texas yesterday, she said: “I’ll be up until 3am and have to get up with my kids, I’ll be lucky to get five hours sleep and I feel as if they are trying to push me over the edge.”

She even turned to Snell, who works as a sports scientist in Texas, for advice. “I feel they are trying to play mind games … the first time I called Peter Snell I asked him is this just me?' but he said this is not right’. But you do question yourself.”

She said reports from former high performance directors Rogers and Eric Hollingsworth should have been asked for six months ago when the original decision not to pick her, on the grounds she would not be capable of a top-16 finish, were being made. “It is the job of the performance director [Kevin Ankrom, who now holds the post] and now he is trying to get it all done in five days.”

Buck said it appeared Athletics NZ didn’t want more information about Hunter-Galvan’s personal best 1hr 13min half-marathon last weekend, or personal bests (PBs) at 3000m, 5000m, 10,000m and the marathon in the past two years, but was searching for disappointments such as the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, where she failed to finish the race because of dehydration.

Rogers was “astounded” when Athletics NZ contacted him this week. “For some unusual reason, they didn’t seem to have any record of the reports from Athens on their files, I have my suspicions why not,” he said.

Rogers said it had been an “unusual” decision not to pick Hunter-Galvan and another marathoner, Michael Aish, who had run a qualifying time.

"I am absolutely surprised by the selections and decisions.

“What concerns me now is whether they have gone through the same process with all athletes previously selected and that’s what I think should be the major question now in the light of this decision. They still don’t appear to be applying their selection policy consistently.”

He was concerned Hunter-Galvan would run out of time to follow through due process, which could end with a trip to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, before the games begin.

Newman, however, said there had been “no delay” in making a fresh decision, but that Athletics NZ had spent the time gathering information to ensure their decision-making was “robust”. They were working towards a decision by tomorrow, but would push for an extension if they had to. Asked why the selectors were only now gathering performance information, he said: “I would prefer not to comment on that. It is additional information to what the selectors already had.”

NZOC secretary general Barry Maister said: “We want to resolve [the issue] so we will stick to next week unless we have an application to extend and think there is a good enough reason to do so.”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4600844a6444.html

And they’re paying these fuckers??? There was a day when communities would rise up and deliver an appropriate response- tar and feather em and ride em out on a rail.

Rebuilding? I don’t see how. The mass exodus has just been further reinforced. Why would you want to stay in athletics in OZ?

couldnt agree more…

sharmer clear your inbox when you can its full, probably of complaints :smiley:

No sprinters in the team for Beijing
By Jenny McAsey
The Australian
June 27, 2008

THE nation’s up-and-coming sprinters have been denied a chance to compete at the Olympics after Athletics Australia refused to select a men’s relay team even though they were qualified.

Australia’s sprint stocks sank to an all-time low yesterday when no men or women were chosen to run in either the 100m, 200m or sprint relays at the Games in August. The final athletics team announced yesterday includes 41 competitors, the smallest since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. While there are no sprinters, there are eight walkers.

World champion 50km walker Nathan Deakes and world 400m hurdles champion Jana Rawlinson are the main gold medal contenders, though both are battling injuries.

It will be the first time for 28 years, since the 1980 Moscow Olympics, that Australia has not had a competitor in the feature men’s sprint races. The last time there was no men’s 4x100m team was at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and AA said yesterday there would be a review of its sprint development programs.

Only the world’s top 16 relay teams can compete at the Olympics, and Australia is ranked 12th based on times run in the past year. AA’s chairman of selectors Peter Fitzgerald admitted it was “extraordinary” to turn down an Olympic sprint relay berth.

But he said the form of the country’s top sprinters was not worthy of selection, and rejected the notion a developing squad would gain invaluable experience.

“We don’t believe we have a team at the moment that can justify going to the Olympic Games … even though we had qualified,” Fitzgerald said.

“The performances, both individually and collectively, didn’t give us any confidence at all. In fact, you can infer the opposite.”

Australia’s best 4x100m time in the past year was 38.73sec, clocked by a team comprising Adam Miller, Matt Shirvington, Tim Williams and Aaron Rouge-Serret at last August’s world championships.

However, Miller is injured, Shirvington is semi-retired and other leading sprinters, such as Patrick Johnson and Josh Ross, have been well below their best.

But AA could have sent those experienced athletes with a team of rising sprinters, including Rouge-Serret, 20, who was shocked to learn yesterday there would be no men’s relay team.

He gave up a soccer career to concentrate on sprinting and was keenly anticipating his first Olympic Games. Last week he was at an AA relay camp in Queensland where the sprinters believed they were vying for spots on a six-member team for Beijing.

“Everyone is a bit surprised given that we’ve qualified,” Rouge-Serret said. “We were all wondering who would be in the team, not whether they would send a team.”

He believed Australia could have been competitive, and said that at the 2004 Athens Olympics the 4x100m relay team (Johnson, Ross, Paul di Bella and Adam Basil) went into the Games ranked 15th and ended up sixth in the final.

“Competing against the best brings out the best in everyone,” Rouge-Serret said.

“There is no doubt in my mind we could have run a quick time. For all the young blokes, for Isaac Ntiamoah, Matt Davies and me, all being in our early 20s, it would have been great experience and kept us motivated. But the best thing for us to do is move on, maybe use some of the emotion from this in training to get the best out of ourselves and prove them wrong at next year’s world championships or four years from now at the Olympics.”

Johnson, who was hoping for an individual berth in the 100m and 200m, will appeal his exclusion from the team. Athletes have until Saturday afternoon to appeal against non-selection.

There were no other controversial omissions. The majority of the team was announced after the trials in March, but pole vaulter Paul Burgess, and steeplechasers Victoria Mitchell and Youcef Abdi were late additions to the team announced yesterday.

While there is no men’s 4x100m team, the men’s 4x400m team will be hoping to repeat its surprise silver medal result from the Athens Olympics.

South Australia’s Mark Ormrod, a member of the medal-winning team in 2004, yesterday earned a berth as the sixth and final 4x400m relay runner.

He joins John Steffensen and Clinton Hill, who also ran in Athens, and new members Dylan Grant, Joel Milburn and Sean Wroe. There are 24 debutants on the 41-athlete team, with discus thrower Dani Samuels, 20, the youngest member.

Be interesting to see who conducts the review and the Terms of Reference under which it is conducted.

Aussie national 400m titleholder Joel Milburn (pb 45.1 this year) either did not finish Lille 400 or did not start, same hamstring problem that saw him DNF in his last Australian race a three weeks ago. I received a text from his coach. He felt a grabbing at the back of the knee, considered now perhaps to be more related to the junction of tendon to muscle. Hopefully not too bad for their sake (not to mention the Aussie 4x4 team)

Done.

No sprinters in the team for Beijing
By Jenny McAsey
The Australian
June 27, 2008
THE nation’s up-and-coming sprinters have been denied a chance to compete at the Olympics after Athletics Australia refused to select a men’s relay team even though they were qualified.

Australia’s sprint stocks sank to an all-time low yesterday when no men or women were chosen to run in either the 100m, 200m or sprint relays at the Games in August. The final athletics team announced yesterday includes 41 competitors, the smallest since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. While there are no sprinters, there are eight walkers.

World champion 50km walker Nathan Deakes and world 400m hurdles champion Jana Rawlinson are the main gold medal contenders, though both are battling injuries.

It will be the first time for 28 years, since the 1980 Moscow Olympics, that Australia has not had a competitor in the feature men’s sprint races. The last time there was no men’s 4x100m team was at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and AA said yesterday there would be a review of its sprint development programs.

Only the world’s top 16 relay teams can compete at the Olympics, and Australia is ranked 12th based on times run in the past year. AA’s chairman of selectors Peter Fitzgerald admitted it was “extraordinary” to turn down an Olympic sprint relay berth.

But he said the form of the country’s top sprinters was not worthy of selection, and rejected the notion a developing squad would gain invaluable experience.

“We don’t believe we have a team at the moment that can justify going to the Olympic Games … even though we had qualified,” Fitzgerald said.

“The performances, both individually and collectively, didn’t give us any confidence at all. In fact, you can infer the opposite.”

Australia’s best 4x100m time in the past year was 38.73sec, clocked by a team comprising Adam Miller, Matt Shirvington, Tim Williams and Aaron Rouge-Serret at last August’s world championships.

However, Miller is injured, Shirvington is semi-retired and other leading sprinters, such as Patrick Johnson and Josh Ross, have been well below their best.

But AA could have sent those experienced athletes with a team of rising sprinters, including Rouge-Serret, 20, who was shocked to learn yesterday there would be no men’s relay team.

He gave up a soccer career to concentrate on sprinting and was keenly anticipating his first Olympic Games. Last week he was at an AA relay camp in Queensland where the sprinters believed they were vying for spots on a six-member team for Beijing.

“Everyone is a bit surprised given that we’ve qualified,” Rouge-Serret said. “We were all wondering who would be in the team, not whether they would send a team.”

He believed Australia could have been competitive, and said that at the 2004 Athens Olympics the 4x100m relay team (Johnson, Ross, Paul di Bella and Adam Basil) went into the Games ranked 15th and ended up sixth in the final.

“Competing against the best brings out the best in everyone,” Rouge-Serret said.

“There is no doubt in my mind we could have run a quick time. For all the young blokes, for Isaac Ntiamoah, Matt Davies and me, all being in our early 20s, it would have been great experience and kept us motivated. But the best thing for us to do is move on, maybe use some of the emotion from this in training to get the best out of ourselves and prove them wrong at next year’s world championships or four years from now at the Olympics.”

Johnson, who was hoping for an individual berth in the 100m and 200m, will appeal his exclusion from the team. Athletes have until Saturday afternoon to appeal against non-selection.

There were no other controversial omissions. The majority of the team was announced after the trials in March, but pole vaulter Paul Burgess, and steeplechasers Victoria Mitchell and Youcef Abdi were late additions to the team announced yesterday.

While there is no men’s 4x100m team, the men’s 4x400m team will be hoping to repeat its surprise silver medal result from the Athens Olympics.

South Australia’s Mark Ormrod, a member of the medal-winning team in 2004, yesterday earned a berth as the sixth and final 4x400m relay runner.

He joins John Steffensen and Clinton Hill, who also ran in Athens, and new members Dylan Grant, Joel Milburn and Sean Wroe. There are 24 debutants on the 41-athlete team, with discus thrower Dani Samuels, 20, the youngest member.

These relay runners have spent serious money to make this Olympic dream real. For AA to not send a qualified team is very unfair. Maybe grounds for further action for out of pocket expenses.