Home » News and Media » News » 2009 » December » Hooker, Samuels to headline record athletics team bound for New Delhi
22.12.2009
The Australian Commonwealth Games Association together with Athletics Australia will look to send its largest athletics team ever to contest a major overseas meet to next year’s 19th edition of the Games, to be held from October 3-14 in New Delhi, India, with over 90 athletes expected to be given a call-up to the squad.
Seven of the athletes named in today’s opening round of nominations earned the nod by securing a top-eight finish in an individual event or top-20 result in the marathon at the 2009 IAAF world championships in Berlin (GER) in August.
World championships gold medallists Hooker (pole vault) and Samuels (discus throw) are joined on the list of Round 1 nominations by Berlin bronze medallist Mitchell Watt (long jump), fellow long jumper Fabrice Lapierre, Olympic medallists Sally McLellan (100m hurdles) and Jared Tallent (20km walk), and marathon athlete Lisa Weightman.
The eighth athlete to be nominated, Collis Birmingham (10,000m), met the automatic selection criteria following his A-qualifying performance and national title win at the Zatopek:10 at Melbourne Olympic Park on Thursday, December 10.
To confirm their selection in the Commonwealth Games team all athletes (marathon representatives excluded) must perform to at least the B-qualifying standard by the close of the national championships on April 18, 2010 unless granted exemption by Athletics Australia.
Athletics Australia’s High Performance strategy to send a large squad to the Commonwealth Games in 2010 teamed with the current high standard of athletics in Australia and the depth of domestic talent means almost 100 athletes look set to book a ticket to Delhi by the end of the upcoming season.
To date the largest Australian athletics team to contest a major international meet outside our shores featured 83 athletes in action at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand.
In the countdown to the domestic race calendar, Athletics Australia High Performance Manager Eric Hollingsworth has thrown down the gauntlet to Australia’s top track and field athletes.
“We’ll be taking away the biggest team ever to leave these shores,” Hollingsworth said.
“Essentially it encourages everyone to have a go, the standards are within reach of a widerange of athletes and one of the key things we want to emphasise is that we want to take as many athletes as we can to the Commonwealth Games to finalise Athletics Australia’s High Performance identification process.
“We’re encouraging all athletes to get out there and compete during the domestic season and to be a part of it and I’m sure we're going to get over 90 athletes on the team.”
Hollingsworth said the Delhi-bound Australian Flame was expected to not only be the largest on record, but also the best performed.
“To be the No. 1 nation in the Commonwealth is the objective, we’re aiming for 30 medals and that’s 20 from our able-bodied athletes and 10 from our athletes with a disability,” Hollingsworth said.
“One of the sub-goals is to make sure all the performances that produce medals are of world standard, it’s not just about winning the Commonwealth Games but winning them at world standard.”
Australia’s elite athletes are about to enter a fast and furious four-month period in which the Australian Athletics Tour will be used as the platform for qualification to the Australian Flame, culminating in the 88th Australian championships and Commonwealth Games selection trials to be held in Perth (WA) from April 16-18.
2010 Australian Commonwealth Games athletics team nominations:
Men (5)
10,000m: Collis Birmingham (24, Vic)
20km walk: Jared Tallent (25, Vic)
Pole vault: Steve Hooker (27, WA)
Long jump: Fabrice Lapierre (26, NSW), Mitchell Watt (21, Qld)
Women (3)
100m hurdles: Sally McLellan (23, Qld)
Marathon: Lisa Weightman (30, Vic)
Discus throw: Dani Samuels (21, NSW)
News
Hooker, Samuels to headline record athletics team bound for New Delhi
World champions Steve Hooker and Dani Samuels will spearhead the Australian athletics team’s assault on the 2010 Commonwealth Games after the two world title-holders were today named alongside six fellow stars of track and field to have been provisionally nominated for the Delhi-bound team.The Australian Commonwealth Games Association together with Athletics Australia will look to send its largest athletics team ever to contest a major overseas meet to next year’s 19th edition of the Games, to be held from October 3-14 in New Delhi, India, with over 90 athletes expected to be given a call-up to the squad.
Seven of the athletes named in today’s opening round of nominations earned the nod by securing a top-eight finish in an individual event or top-20 result in the marathon at the 2009 IAAF world championships in Berlin (GER) in August.
World championships gold medallists Hooker (pole vault) and Samuels (discus throw) are joined on the list of Round 1 nominations by Berlin bronze medallist Mitchell Watt (long jump), fellow long jumper Fabrice Lapierre, Olympic medallists Sally McLellan (100m hurdles) and Jared Tallent (20km walk), and marathon athlete Lisa Weightman.
The eighth athlete to be nominated, Collis Birmingham (10,000m), met the automatic selection criteria following his A-qualifying performance and national title win at the Zatopek:10 at Melbourne Olympic Park on Thursday, December 10.
To confirm their selection in the Commonwealth Games team all athletes (marathon representatives excluded) must perform to at least the B-qualifying standard by the close of the national championships on April 18, 2010 unless granted exemption by Athletics Australia.
Athletics Australia’s High Performance strategy to send a large squad to the Commonwealth Games in 2010 teamed with the current high standard of athletics in Australia and the depth of domestic talent means almost 100 athletes look set to book a ticket to Delhi by the end of the upcoming season.
To date the largest Australian athletics team to contest a major international meet outside our shores featured 83 athletes in action at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand.
In the countdown to the domestic race calendar, Athletics Australia High Performance Manager Eric Hollingsworth has thrown down the gauntlet to Australia’s top track and field athletes.
“We’ll be taking away the biggest team ever to leave these shores,” Hollingsworth said.
“Essentially it encourages everyone to have a go, the standards are within reach of a widerange of athletes and one of the key things we want to emphasise is that we want to take as many athletes as we can to the Commonwealth Games to finalise Athletics Australia’s High Performance identification process.
“We’re encouraging all athletes to get out there and compete during the domestic season and to be a part of it and I’m sure we're going to get over 90 athletes on the team.”
Hollingsworth said the Delhi-bound Australian Flame was expected to not only be the largest on record, but also the best performed.
“To be the No. 1 nation in the Commonwealth is the objective, we’re aiming for 30 medals and that’s 20 from our able-bodied athletes and 10 from our athletes with a disability,” Hollingsworth said.
“One of the sub-goals is to make sure all the performances that produce medals are of world standard, it’s not just about winning the Commonwealth Games but winning them at world standard.”
Australia’s elite athletes are about to enter a fast and furious four-month period in which the Australian Athletics Tour will be used as the platform for qualification to the Australian Flame, culminating in the 88th Australian championships and Commonwealth Games selection trials to be held in Perth (WA) from April 16-18.
2010 Australian Commonwealth Games athletics team nominations:
Men (5)
10,000m: Collis Birmingham (24, Vic)
20km walk: Jared Tallent (25, Vic)
Pole vault: Steve Hooker (27, WA)
Long jump: Fabrice Lapierre (26, NSW), Mitchell Watt (21, Qld)
Women (3)
100m hurdles: Sally McLellan (23, Qld)
Marathon: Lisa Weightman (30, Vic)
Discus throw: Dani Samuels (21, NSW)
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