NEW DELHI: Athletics Australia has named a 69-strong squad for the Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi after the three-day Australian Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games selection trials in Perth, according to information reaching here.
As many as 41 athletes earned automatic nomination to the team based on their results. A further 28 athletes were today announced as discretionary nominations to the team, taking the total number of nominated athletes to 69. The squad includes 12 disabled athletes, the best-known being wheelchair racer Kurt Fearnley in the 1500m.
Newly-crowned national pole vault champion and athletics team captain Steve Hooker (pole vault) will lead a squad that features a true mix of youth and experience into battle in Delhi, with Liz Parnov (pole vault) the youngest athlete nominated to today’s team at 15 years of age and track veteran Patrick Johnson (4x100m relay) the oldest at 37.
John Steffensen (400m and 4x400m relay) is another big name who will defend his 2006 titles in Delhi. Fabrice Lapierre, Chris Noffke and Mitchell Watt were all named in the men's long jump.
A team of up to 90 athletes is expected to be named to the final squad, to be announced following the close of the qualifying period on August 15, Athletics Australia said. With the window for automatic nomination to the team now closed, all future nominations will be made at the selectors' discretion.
“God, I can't even describe it, I'm just so overwhelmed and happy and grateful to my family and my coach,” Liz Parnov, 15-year-old daughter of Russian pole vault guru Alex Parnov, said. She had to concentrate hard during the competition to avoid being distracted by her sister Vicky's troubles. "I have my bad days, she (Vicky) has her bad days but in the end we're still sisters," she said. She credited her sister for blazing the trail for her to break into the national team.
“Knowing Vic could do it, it really made me realise I had a chance and especially with my training group, I have Steve Hooker, Alana (Boyd), Amanda (Bisk), all of these amazing pole vaulters,” she said. “To have jumped what I have jumped and to make it is pretty cool.... But I don't really think about how old I am, I'm just like everyone else, trying to do my best.”
It will be the fourth Commonwealth Games for 31-year-old Tamsyn Lewis (4x400m relay - an event where she is going for her fourth gold medal), 28 athletes will make their Games debut.
Australian Commonwealth Games Association Chief Executive Mr. Perry Crosswhite said the Games were a great place for young Australian athletes to “'learn to win [against international competition at a major event]. The Commonwealth Games gives them that opportunity [to win] then they go on [to win elsewhere]. That's what happened with Steve Hooker who won at the Commonwealth Games, then went on to win the Olympics and world championships.”
That means the door remains open for two-time world champion Jana Rawlinson, recovering from injury, to defend her 400m and 4x400m relay titles, with places still available in those events. But injury-plagued middle-distance runner Craig Mottram, who also missed the trials, will not have a chance to defend his 2006 silver medal in the 5000m or race the 1500m, with all three places in both events already filled.
Mr. Crosswhite said the ACGA planned to take a team of about 425 athletes – its biggest squad ever sent to an overseas Games. Australia collected 16 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze medals in able-bodied events at the 2006 edition of the Games in Melbourne four years ago.
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