Last chance saloon for Olympics

ELEVEN months before the Beijing Olympics, Athletics Australia has put the hard word on the runners, jumpers and throwers who expect to compete for their country in China.

In the wake of the world championships in Osaka, where Australia had the second worst overall team performance in the event's 24-year history, athletes are being warned they have entered the last chance saloon.

While Jana Rawlinson (400m hurdles) and Nathan Deakes (50km walk) proved themselves the world's best, a swag of athletes who went with medal hopes, such as pole vaulters Steve Hooker, Paul Burgess and Kym Howe, long jumper Bronwyn Thompson, 1500m runner Sarah Jamieson, 400m runner John Steffensen and 5000m runner Craig Mottram, all left empty-handed.

And then there were those who should have at least made finals but perennially under-achieve at major events, such as sprinters Patrick Johnson and Joshua Ross, and 800m runner Tamsyn Lewis.

The 1980 Olympic 800m champion Steve Ovett commented after Lewis's run that she had two options before Beijing. "She should retire or train harder and I would suggest the former," Ovett said.

Danny Corcoran, chief executive of AA, said he left Osaka disappointed because so much promise had come to so little.

"I think there was an enormous wake-up call for the sport," Corcoran said.

"We don't want to have the same feelings walking away (from) the Beijing Olympics.

"Beijing will be the defining moment for a lot of athletes' careers. We have to be a darn sight wiser there and this time they have to get the preparation right. The underlying sentiment is there won't be second chances for a lot of them after Beijing."

It is not just the preparation but also the attitude they need to overhaul if results are to improve.

Corcoran, who stayed in the team hotel in Osaka for the duration of the nine-day championships, was able to observe the athletes close up.

"I saw who bled and who did not," Corcoran said.

In Osaka, some Australian athletes did not appear to be cut deeply enough.

Pole vaulter Hooker, who was gold medal favourite but came ninth through a combination of bad strategy and bad jumping, was already turning his mind to last night's lucrative Golden League meeting in Zurich.

"I am philosophical about it," Hooker said after the final. "There is a bit of history of those who do badly here going on to do well in Zurich."

And then there was Johnson, who ran 9.93sec at a small meet in Japan in 2003 but has not got near that time since. Before Osaka, he was promising a good show but didn't make it past the second round of the 100m or the semi-final of the 200m.

"It was all about preparation for Beijing," said Johnson, who turns 35 this month.

Imagine a footballer walking off after losing the grand final and saying, "Oh well, it was good preparation for next year's grand final".

Josh Ross, who ran 10.08sec in March - easily fast enough to make the blue-riband 100m final if he had done it in Osaka - went home in a distressed state after being burnt out by an ill-conceived lead-up season in Europe.

The men's 4x100m relay was robbed of its two fastest runners, Ross, and Johnson, who were left out by coaches because of a perceived lack of commitment.

Ovett also had a strong take on the relays, saying team management should have resolved the issues to make sure the fastest teams were entered.

Corcoran says Australian coaches need more support and training. "We have to better educate our coaches. Our selection of elite junior athletes is also incredibly important, to find the ones who have the right make-up and mental wherewithal," said Corcoran, who is introducing psychological testing to junior programs.

But they are solutions for the long-term, not likely to make much difference in Beijing.

In the short term, Corcoran says AA will have to take more control of athletes' programs before Beijing so less is left to chance.

For example, Ross, who gets homesick, was advised by AA's elite performance manager Max Binnington not to spend three months in Europe, but no-one actually stopped him.

"If athletes are funded, programs will have to be signed off because we have to ensure our money is well spent and the programs are on track to deliver outcomes we expect," Corcoran said.

The difficulty for AA is that there is no one solution for a team of more than 40 diverse athletes. At one end, there was pole vaulter Vicky Parnov, 16, who was there for the experience, and at the other end, seasoned sprinters, distance runners and vaulters who blew it with more culpability.

Distance runners Benita Johnson and Donna MacFarlane might have won medals if they weren't tripped in rough races. There was bad luck and bad management.

David Culbert, the former Olympic long jumper who was commentating for SBS, said AA officials had to learn from the frustration of Osaka.

"The fact we won two gold medals can't be overlooked. It hasn't happened since the 1968 Olympics and if we had three or four others who finished in the top eight, we would be celebrating," Culbert said.

"It is a very fine line, but a line you have to be on the other side of. But it is not cause for hysteria.

"It is not a swimming pool with a lane where conditions don't change. Grant Hackett doesn't get his goggles ripped off by the guy in the lane next to him," he said.

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