Jana Pittman takes a comfortable 400m victory over Cathy Freeman in Sydney - 22 March 2003 (© Getty Images)
SydneyNone of Australia's three medallists at the Sydney Olympics will be automatic selections on the team to compete at the IAAF World Championships in Paris this August, following the Telstra national athletics championships which finished in Brisbane today.
Athletics Australia (AA) is likely to name a small but potent team of perhaps only 22 in the first instance, then add a further 16 or more discretionary selections - as well as marathon runners and walkers still trialing in May - by August 4 at the close of entries for the World championships which start on August 23.
Olympic 400m champion Cathy Freeman is sure to be named - albeit only in the 4x400m relay squad - when AA announces the team tomorrow-week (Tuesday 15 April) following the last meet of the domestic season at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast next weekend.
Freeman won her sixth national 400m title in her season's best of 51.66 which is still short of the automatic entry A-standard of 51.37sec. She will not try again at Runaway Bay, preferring to wait until she races later in the US or Europe.
Pole vaulter Tatiana Grigorieva will be a discretionary selection after she was beaten by Victoria's Rosanna Ditton, who does not have even the B-qualifier (4.30m).
Fellow Olympic silver medallist Jai Taurima has not posted any mark of significance for two years and broke down injured in the Long Jump qualifying round in Brisbane.
“We don't have that talent pool that we had before the Sydney Olympics,” AA head coach Keith Connor said yesterday. “We have to now be a lot smarter as to how we use this present talent pool.”
“We're taking away a smaller team but I think the top-end result will be the same. In actuality our top performers are still going.”
“We have four world class medal opportunities and then thereafter we have some top-8 possibilities. The minimum result from the athletes we're taking away will be top-16 (semi-final standard).”
The medal contenders are Jana Pittman (400m hurdles), Dmitri Markov (Pole Vault), Bronwyn Eagles (Hammer throw) and Benita Johnson (5000m), although there could be some surprises, perhaps including a well-drilled men's 4x100m relay which includes national sprint double champion Patrick Johnson and Matt Shirvington, Adam Basil and Paul Di Bella.
“It's an exciting team for me because we've got Jana Pittman...another Cathy Freeman. We've got Justin Anlezark who's out there taking the best in the world on. We have the defending World Champion in the Pole Vault coming back again in Dmitri Markov.
“I'm excited about Bronwyn Eagles who has shown she can step up. And I'm excited that Benita Johnson went to the World Cross Country Championships and she fought home and just got pipped out of third spot by 1sec.”
“I'm excited that if Patrick Johnson and Matt Shirvington run well in a relay race, we might have a relay team that can sneak in for a medal again because we're better off than the team that got second in 1995 in Gothenburg.”
Nevertheless only five athletes reached the World Championships A-qualifying standard during the nationals which is quite disappointing. They were Jana Pittman (400m hurdles 53.95sec), Patrick Johnson (200m 20.50sec), Clinton Hill (400m 45.50sec), Justin Anlezark (Shot Put, 20.96m national record) and Jane Saville who won the 20km road walk title today without incident in 1:31:47.
“What we have now is what we have now and in 1998 and 1999 the issues of team needs for 2004 was not addressed. If it was addressed in a way that realised these people would be moving away after 2000, what do we do further on, we wouldn''t have this situation.”
“The solution for that is to put policies and procedures into place that will produce athletes for 2008 because you need four or five years to develop an athlete.”
“For example Patrick Johnson is delivering now what we thought he'd deliver three years ago. Why didn't he do it before, because he and his coach had to go through those learning processes and changes. He had to not be selected for the 2002 Commonwealth Games individual 100m to realize, ‘I have to lift my game’.”
David Culbert, the chairman of selectors, said the depth of the fields was apparent all summer but he is excited that a generation of teenagers is coming through now, which were inspired by Sydney who will revitalise the Olympic team in 2008.
Mike Hurst (Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Australia) for the IAAF
