Common wealth games 2010: World champion Steve Hooker leads 69 Australia

NEW DELHI, April 20: Athletics Australia has named a 69-strong squad for the Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi afterthe three-day Australian Athletics Championships andCommonwealth Games selection trials in Perth, according toinformation reaching here.

Steve Hooker

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 squadthat 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 trackveteran 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’slong jump.

A team of up to 90 athletes is expected to be named to the final squad, to be announced following the close of thequalifying period on August 15, Athletics Australia said. With the window for automatic nomination to the team nowclosed, 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 nationalteam.

“Knowing Vic could do it, it really made me realise I had a chance and especially with my training group, I have SteveHooker, 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 todo 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 Gamesdebut.

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]. TheCommonwealth 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 onto 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 alreadyfilled.

Mr. Crosswhite said the ACGA planned to take a team of about 425 athletes – its biggest squad ever sent to an overseasGames. Australia collected 16 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze medals in able-bodied events at the 2006 edition of theGames in Melbourne four years ago.

Men (42):

100m: Aaron Rouge-Serret200m: Matt Davies*400m: Ben Offereins, John Steffensen, Joel Milburn.800m: Lachlan Renshaw, Ryan Gregson.1500m: Gregson, Jeff Riseley and Jeremy Roff.5000m: Ben St Lawrence, Collis Birmingham and David McNeill.10,000m: Birmingham.400m hurdles: Brendan Cole and Tristan Thomas.

High jump: Liam Zamel-Paez.

Pole vault: Steve Hooker

Long jump: Fabrice Lapierre Chris Noffke and Mitchell Watt.

Shot put: Scott Martin and Dale Stevenson.

Discus throw: Benn Harradine, Martin and Julian Wruck.

Hammer throw: Tim Driesen and Simon Wardhaugh.

Javelin throw: Jarrod Bannister.

20km walk: Luke Adams, Chris Erickson and Jared Tallent.

T46 100m: Gabriel Cole, Heath Francis and Simon Patmore.

T54 1500m: Richard Colman, Kurt Fearnley and Jake Lappin.

F32/34/52 shot put: Damien Bowen and Hamish MacDonald.

4x100m relay: Davies, Jacob Groth, Patrick Johnson, IsaacNtiamoah and Rouge-Serret.