Aussies Kelly and O’Grady Line Up For Record Fifth Olympics in Beijing
SYDNEY, June 27, 2008 (AFP) - Track sprinter Shane Kelly and road squad
rider Stuart O’Grady will race in a record fifth Olympics after being named in
a 28-strong Australian cycling team on Friday for the Beijing Games.
Three-times world champion Kelly, 36, a silver and bronze medalist in the
1000m time trial at Barcelona and Sydney, won a ride-off against Ben Kersten
earlier this month to gain selection.
O’Grady, 35 two days before the August 8 summer Games start, partnered
Graeme Brown to win the gold medal in the Madison event at the 2004 Athens
Games and has been at every Olympics since Barcelona in 1992.
Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans will lead the men’s road team, which
also features three-time world time-trial champion Michael Rogers, who has
recovered from a bout of glandular fever.
Two-time world 500m time trial champion Anna Meares was selected after
proving her fitness from serious injuries sustained in a January race crash in
the United States.
Meares posted a world-class time of 11.189 seconds for the flying 200m in
Melbourne earlier month fighting back from a fractured neck vertebra and
dislocated shoulder.
Meares broke the world record when she won the 500m time trial — no longer
an Olympic event — at the Athens Games and also won bronze in the sprint.
Athens gold medallist Sara Carrigan and Kate Bates were named to join
Oenone Wood in the three-rider women’s road team.
Bates, the 2007 world points champion on the track, will also ride in that
event at the Games as well as the road race.
Five Australians will compete in the BMX event, which will make its Olympic
debut in Beijing.
They include Kamakazi, who changed his name by deed poll from Jamie
Hildebrandt.
The Australian Olympic Committee must approve the nominations before they
become official members of the Beijing team, with riders having until July 1
to appeal against their non-selection.
The 28-member Australian cycling team
announced on Friday for the Beijing Olympics.
Track Sprint
Men: Ryan Bayley, Daniel Ellis, Mark French, Shane Kelly
Women: Anna Meares
Track Endurance
Men: Jack Bobridge, Graeme Brown, Mark Jamieson, Brett Lancaster, Bradley
McGee, Cameron Meyer, Luke Roberts
Women: Katie Mactier
Road
Men: Cadel Evans, Simon Gerrans, Matthew Lloyd, Stuart O’Grady, Michael
Rogers
Women: Katherine Bates, Sara Carrigan, Oenone Wood
BMX
Men: Jared Graves, Kamakazi, Luke Madill
Women: Tanya Bailey, Nicole Callisto
Mountain Bike
Men: Daniel McConnell
Women: Dellys Starr
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