Jana may run for Britain

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Jana Rawlinson contemplating comeback with Great Britain at the London Olympics

Scott Gullan From: Herald Sun June 27, 2010

CHAMPION hurdler Jana Rawlinson is contemplating turning her back on Australia and running for Great Britain at the London Olympics.

The two-time world champion is now living in the UK and is understood to have been sounded out by officials there about the prospect of switching countries.

Athletics Australia is aware of the situation but are adamant Rawlinson won’t be cleared by them to represent Great Britain.

They are understandably fuming given the sport has spent more than $500,000 over the past decade in supporting Rawlinson.

It is believed London’s Olympic chief Sebastian Coe became aware of the possible coup when Rawlinson applied for a British passport earlier this year.

The defending 400m hurdles Commonwealth champion hasn’t worn the green and gold since the 2007 world championships in Osaka.

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That means she wouldn’t have to sit out an extended period of time before competing for her new adopted country should she follow through with the switch.

The British government is throwing lots of cash at athletics in the lead-up to the 2012 Olympic Games which is appealing for Rawlinson given she has lost almost all her sponsors.

In a recent interview with the Herald Sun, Rawlinson said her decision to set up a new base in England with her British husband, Chris, and three-year-old son, Cornelis, was a desperate attempt to resurrect her career after two horror years of injuries.

“I can’t afford to stay and keep getting hurt,” Rawlinson said. "If I don’t have a good year … I lost all my Australian sponsors this year so if it wasn’t for (my major sponsor) adidas I would be out looking for a job.

“We really need a good racing season because I have been injured for so long now.”

Rawlinson re-married her husband – the pair separated for six months last year – in England in March and he has once again taken over as her coach.

Over the past 12 months Rawlinson has lived in Sydney, Canberra and the Gold Coast and had two coaches with highly respected AIS-based coach Craig Hilliard dumped when she reunited with Chris, the 2002 Commonwealth Games 400m hurdles champion.

Rawlinson’s body has broken down horribly in recent times and last month she had achilles surgery in Holland which has again placed enormous doubt on her ability to get back on the track before October’s Commonwealth Games.

3 comments on this story

Comments on this story
paul Posted at 6:40 PM Today
need any help packing?
Hazza of Doncaster of Doncaster Posted at 6:35 PM Today
YESSSSS! Jana go, go, go away.

chris Posted at 6:30 PM Today
She is all yours!!! take her … please.

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‘Drama Jana’ may jump to UK: report June 27, 2010 - 7:44PM

AAP

Australian two-time 400 metre hurdles world champion Jana Rawlinson has reportedly approached UK athletics officials about switching allegiances for the London 2012 Olympics.

It’s understood the controversial Rawlinson is set to walk out on Australia and compete for Great Britain, a decision she has made after remarrying British husband Chris.

The Nine Network has reported Rawlinson no longer wants to compete for the country which developed her and who she represented as a world champion.

However a spokesman for the Australian Olympic Committee told the Network they’ve never stopped athletes changing countries and would consider any such request.

“Everyone will remember her fingernails being painted with the Australian flag at the start line and you know her childhood idols have always been Australian athletes as well so I’m quite shocked really,” athletics legend Jane Flemming said.

At the Athens 2004 Olympics, Jana Rawlinson, formally Pittman, attracted the nickname “Drama Jana”.

Leading into Athens Rawlinson famously threw her crutches away after knee injury and raced against time to be fit for the Olympics, only to finish fifth.

The Australian media scrutinised this entire episode and Rawlinson revealed she felt ostracised and not supported by the Australian public.

She’s had a highly-publicised feud with fellow athlete Tamsyn Lewis. Rawlinson has married, divorced and married again her coach, Chris.

Rawlinson also went for breast implants, then had them removed.

The 400 metres and 400m hurdles star has been based in Britain and has been training there for some time.

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Oh dear…!

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Scott Gullan From: Herald Sun June 28, 2010 12:00AM 36 commentsIncrease Text Size Decrease Text Size Print Email Share Add to Digg Add to del.icio.us Add to Facebook Add to Kwoff Add to Myspace Add to Newsvine What are these?

Track star: Jana Rawlinson warming up before training.
CASH-strapped champion hurdler Jana Rawlinson is considering turning her back on Australia to run for Britain at the 2012 London Olympics.

The two-time world champion is now living in the UK with her British husband, Chris, and three-year-old son, Cornelis.

International officials last night confirmed she had been in talks with London’s Olympic chief, Lord Sebastian Coe, about the prospect of switching countries.

“She has approached Seb Coe asking for his advice and support as she moves to switch allegiance,” an International Association of Athletics Federations official said.

Athletics Australia is aware of the situation, but officials are adamant they won’t clear Rawlinson to represent Great Britain.

They are fuming, given that the sport has spent more than $500,000 over the past decade in supporting Rawlinson.

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An Athletics Australia source told the Herald Sun it was a “bit rich”, given the support she’d received.

“Even over the past couple of years where she hasn’t run, the sport has still been helping her out. You would hope that that amounts for something when it comes down to the crunch.”

Furious Australian sports legends attacked the star for making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Olympic legend Raelene Boyle said that she’d had enough of the Rawlinson roller-coaster.

“I’m really sick of hearing stories about Jana … it seems she almost does anything to get publicity,” Boyle said.

"You might think she is scared of competition.

"I find it difficult to understand, with such talent, how she keeps making headlines.

"To be truthful, we have a good Olympic track and field team led by people that are doing well. It’s just a shame all the publicity goes to somebody who doesn’t actually participate.

“If she goes, then I wish English officials and her management the very best of luck.”

Swimming great Grant Hackett urged Rawlinson not to turn her back on Australia.

“A lot of people invested time and money into the development of her talent and would like to see her compete for Australia,” he said.

Athletics Australia head coach Eric Hollingsworth had spoken to Rawlinson in recent days about the issue and pledged she would continue to get the support required to get her career back on track.

Hollingsworth declined to comment to the Herald Sun.

The defending 400m hurdles Commonwealth champion hasn’t worn the green and gold since the 2007 world championships in Osaka.

That means she wouldn’t have to sit out an extended period of time before competing for her new adopted country, should she follow through with the switch.

Rawlinson recently said she had set up a new base in England with her husband and son in a desperate attempt to resurrect her career after two horror years of injuries.

The Herald Sun was unable to contact Rawlinson and relatives in Australia did not want to comment.

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G’day KK,

Was watching Fox Sports news last night and they had an athletics journalist from the Sydney Telegraph offer his two cents worth suggesting Jana continues to get into the news for the wrong reasons, hence the name Jana drama.

As much as I would love to support Jana, it is getting to the stage (probably already there…) where I’d be happy for her to throw her lot in with Great Britain if it meant AA ceased wasting any more resources on a non-performing athlete.

2007 is long gone - can’t rest on her laurels anymore. If she was an AFL (or NRL) player she would have been delisted by now. No club, or in her case sponsor, could afford to have a player (athlete) not compete at any decent level for nearly 3 years.

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‘You get over it’: Boyle hits out at ‘self-obsessed’ Rawlinson
MEGAN LEVY
June 28, 2010 - 11:22AM

Jana Rawlinson is rumoured to be planning to run for Britain.

Jana Rawlinson is rumoured to be planning to run for Britain. Photo: AFP

World champion hurdler Jana Rawlinson is self-obsessed and has wasted her talent on the track, according to athletics great Raelene Boyle.

In a scathing assessment of the Australian star, Boyle said the latest controversy over her possible defection to the British team for the 2012 London Olympics was yet another saga in a career more renowned for what was happening off the track rather than on it.

Boyle hit out at the constant drama that surrounded Rawlinson, including her on-off marriage to British hurdler Chris Rawlinson, constant injuries and publicity surrounding her breast implants, which Rawlinson later had removed.

“I mean, what she should be doing is running, and she’s not, and getting publicity for that,” Boyle told Radio 3AW.

“But she seems to be coming up with, you know, in a marriage, out of a marriage, back in a marriage, having a baby, got an injury, going to represent England. You get over it.”

Rawlinson, who recently moved to the UK with her son and husband, was reportedly distressed to learn of a news report on Channel Nine that claimed she was open to joining the British team. She last night personally assured Athletics Australia that she was committed to racing in the green and gold.

Rawlinson has scarcely competed, and has not represented Australia, since she became world champion for a second time in her pet event in 2007. She withdrew from the Beijing Olympics due to a toe injury and was unable to defend her world title in Berlin last year, also because of injury.

Boyle, who represented Australia at three Olympic Games as a sprinter, said there was “no doubt” Rawlinson had wasted her talent.

“Well, you know, I think Jana potentially was an Olympic champion. She certainly won two world championships and a couple of Commonwealth golds,” Boyle said.

"What the community wants is to see Jana get out and run because we know she’s a fine athlete and that doesn’t happen.

“And as much as I’ve been a great supporter of Jana over the years, I just think it’s at a ridiculous level now and it’s time that she put foot on the track and showed us that she can still run, and in doing that she won’t look back later in her life and say: 'What the hell did I waste all that time for?”

She said Rawlinson lived in a “very pampered world and a very ‘me’ world”.

“You know, ‘It’s all about me, forget about you, it’s all about me’. I thought having the baby probably would have brought her back to reality but that doesn’t seem to have even happened,” Boyle said.

She added that other athletes, such as pole vaulter Steve Hooker and discus champion Dani Samuels, managed to compete and thrive without any of the drama.

“Why aren’t we talking about these lovely kids? Why are we talking about silly Jana?” she said.