26 August 2005 - Gold Pickings Seem Sparce

ONLY four Australian athletes are seeded to win gold at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games based on the latest rankings list released yesterday.

And all four bombed out of the world athletics championships in Helsinki in August.

The gold medal favourites are Nathan Deakes (20km and 50km walks), Paul Burgess (pole vault), Jana Pittman (400m hurdles) and Jane Saville (20km walk).

Saville was the only member of the foursome who actually made it to the starting line in Helsinki and she finished 20th, eight minutes behind the Russian winner although she was still the first from a Commonwealth country to finish.

Deakes, Burgess and Pittman all withdrew in the days before the world titles due to injuries.

"It was bloody disgraceful," Saville said of her own performance. "I don't really know what happened but I didn't feel that good from the start.

"I'll keep going to the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup next year but I might have to think about getting a day job because you have to ask whether it's worth it working so hard for that."

Australia is seeded to win only one medal on the track in Melbourne.

And that solitary track medal favourite - purely in a statistical sense - is 400m hurdles reigning champion Pittman who could not defend her world title due to a fractured spine.

Of course great hopes are held for Craig "Buster" Mottram who snatched the bronze medal in the 5000m final at the world championships, breaking the African grip on distance running medals.

And if the men's 4x400m team can regain their Athens Olympic silver medal form they could run off with relay gold in Melbourne.

But based on cold hard times and distances achieved in 2005 Australian athletes are currently ranked to win a total of only 15 medals -- 11 of those coming from two events, the walks and pole vaults.

Australia has the top three ranked athletes in both the men's and women's 20km road walk.

Deakes, who is ranked No.1 in the 20km is also tops in the 50km race.

Deakes brilliantly won both titles at the 2002 Manchester Games. He won a bronze medal at the last Olympics but he was forced to withdraw from the world championships with a chronic hamstring problem.

Burgess - the only man to clear 6m this year - heads an Aussie trio at the top of the Commonwealth pole vault list, although he withdrew from the world championships with a twisted ankle.

There are lies, damned lies and then there are statistics; if the medals were handed out purely according to the rankings there would be no need for championships.

However, in themselves, the stats offer cold comfort to

those expecting a new dawn for Australian track and field to coincide with the stimulus of a home Commonwealth Games.

The Commonwealth Games may be viewed by some cynics as a third or fourth rate event after the Olympics, world and European championships, but with the sensational Caribbean sprinters and African distance runners to contend with, medals on the track in Melbourne will be as scarce as happy Telstra shareholders.

The Daily Telegraph