Australian Olympic Committee selects athletics squad for Beijing Games

(BEIJING, July 9) -- The Australian Olympic Committee announced via its official website that 41 competitors in athletics have been selected as members of the 2008 Australian Olympic Team.

The squad is made up of both veterans and new faces: 24 out of the 41 athletes will be making their Olympics debut.

Jana Rawlinson, who won gold medals in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games, is on the team. Other big names on the team are Tamsyn Lewis, Indoor World Champion winner in the 800-meter race in March of 2008, and Jane Saville, three-time gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games, in the 10-kilometer walk in 1998 and 2002, and in the 20-kilometer walk in 2006.

Men:

400m: Joel Milburn, John Steffensen, Sean Wroe

800m: Lachlan Renshaw

1500m: Mitchell Kealey

5000m: Collis Birmingham, Craig Mottram

3000m steeplechase: Youcef Abdi

4x400m: Dylan Grant, Clinton Hill, Milburn, Mark Ormrod, John Steffensen, Sean Wroe

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

50km walk: Nathan Deakes, Adam Rutter, Tallent

Marathon: Lee Troop

Pole vault: Paul Burgess, Steven Hooker

Shot put: Justin Anlezark, Scott Martin

Javelin: Jarrod Bannister

Discus: Benn Harradine

Women:

400m hurdles: Jana Rawlinson

400m: Tamsyn Lewis

800m: Tamsyn Lewis, Madeleine Pape

1500m: Lisa Corrigan, Sarah Jamieson

100m hurdles: Sally McLellan

3000m steeplechase: Donna MacFarlane, Victoria Mitchell

20km walk: Jane Saville, Kellie Wapshott, Claire Woods

Marathon: Benita Johnson, Kate Smyth, Lisa-Jane Weightman

Pole vault: Alana Boyd

Long jump: Bronwyn Thompson

Discus: Dani Samuels

Heptathlon: Kylie Wheeler