25.02.2009

Gainsford-Taylor joins national selection panel

Three-time Olympian Melinda Gainsford-Taylor has been appointed to Athletics Australia’s national selection committee.

The former star of the track and field circuit joins chairman Peter Fitzgerald, Steve Moneghetti and Dion Russell on the new-look panel.

Gainsford-Taylor said the opportunity to resume her involvement in elite-level athletics was an honour.  

“I’m really excited to get involved in athletics again, you always have a passion for your sport so hopefully I can help and see the growth and development of track and field again,” she said.

“I really enjoyed watching the Beijing Olympics and hearing about the new athletes coming through so I feel really honoured to be a part of the selection committee and I’m looking forward to it.”

A former darling of the international athletics scene, Gainsford-Taylor said her first-hand understanding of the sport would hold her in good stead for the task ahead.

"I think having been there and done that, from being a young kid and getting into the relay system and then all of a sudden going into the Olympics in individual events and getting a taste for it, that’s what’s important for the athletes and for them to hopefully get the qualifiers they need to compete at the top level,” she said.

On the eve of major meets in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in coming weeks, Gainsford-Taylor said the standard of local talent would continue to rise in 2009.

“I think everyone was surprised by how well the track and field team performed in Beijing and I hope that we can go from there and get a lot of other athletes coming into the top eight in the world.

“I love the idea of being able to go and watch the athletes in Sydney and Melbourne and then in Brisbane just to see how they’re performing, I’m sure a lot of them would have been inspired by the Olympics last year and will have been working really hard so to be a part of that and to help in the selection of a team is really exciting.”

While Jamaican sprint sensation Asafa Powell and Beijing medallists Steve Hooker and Sally McLellan are touted as the major names to watch this season, the emerging depth of talent in a number of events is set to have selectors in a spin.

“What I love about the meets this year is that we have Asafa Powell but then we’ve also got other Olympians coming out and competing, we’ve got Steve Hooker and Sally McLellan who are in amazing shape and I’ve been so impressed by them coming off the Olympic Games and performing so well even now,” Gainsford-Taylor said.

“Being a sprinter, it’s going to be exciting to have Melissa Breen and Sally on the track.

“In the year that I came through it was lucky that we had a lot of athletes who were very competitive with each other and if we can create that again, where you have these really good competitions between athletes – and we’ve got it in the men’s 400m as well with John Steffensen and Joel Milburn – to be able to have that and build from that, I think it’s really exciting.”

The selection committee faces a busy year, with selection for both the World University Games in Belgrade this July and the World Championships in Berlin the following month already in its sights.

“I think that we could step it up a little bit in Berlin, I think that from last year we could get a few more athletes through the semi-finals," Gainsford-Taylor said.

“The step-up from a semi-final to a final is pretty major but if we can get them into the top 16 in the world that’s a start, because the team is reasonably young still, it’s not like they’re coming to the end of their careers and I think a lot of the team is in that position now, where they have a big future and hopefully they’ll just grow and develop now towards 2012.”

Gainsford-Taylor joins the committee following the departure of Max Binnington last month. She is appointed to the committee for the four-year period leading into the London Olympic Games in 2012.