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• Hill, Carney take the Noosa Triathlon titles |
Hill, Carney take the Noosa Triathlon titles November 5, Noosa, Queensland, Australia (www.triathlonlive.com): Queensland's Chris Hill scored a "hometown" win, and Emma Carney -- now back in Melbourne after putting her Sydney home on the market -- won Australia's biggest race on Sunday, the Noosa Triathlon. The race gathered 2,500 age-groupers and a field of elites gunning for Aus$59,000 in prize money. Started in 1983, the event built to world-class proportions in both 1998 and 1999, when it stood as the season-ending ITU World Cup finale. This year, the absence of such status made for a return to the race's age-group roots. The elite field was understandably smaller, but still attracted top talent in New Zealand's Hamish Carter, ITU's No. 1-ranked triathlete, and Australia's Loretta Harrop, the ITU's No. 2-ranked triathlete. It was Hill's first race since he took third in the Los Angeles Triathlon exactly two months ago. For Carney, it was a return to racing -- and winning -- since she won the ITU Points Race at Edmonton on July 16. She had started the Mrs. T's Chicago Triathlon in late August, but -- at the height of her unsuccessful legal battle for a place in the Olympics -- was a DNF there. Hill pulled out the win late in the run. Runner-up Courtney Atkinson managed to stay with him until the final mile, when Hill moved away to finish in a speedy 1:44:20. Atkinson finished 14 seconds back, and the two fancied Kiwi Olympians in the field, Carter and Ben Bright, were both DNFs. In the women's race, Harrop had visions of winning, coming off the bike with a 1:25 margin over the others. But just two kilometers into the run, she left the course with cramps and dehydration. That left the race open to all the chasers -- and Carney was only 15 seconds behind the others when she started her run. Rebekah Keat took over the lead when Harrop dropped out, but Carney passed her at halfway and ran on to the win. It was the first, she hopes, in a re-oriented training program that will return her to her form of her 1993 and 1994 world-championship years. (RESULTS) ----- Harrop confirmed as CAS dismisses Carney appeal September 4, Sydney, Australia (www.triathlonlive.com): Loretta Harrop was reconfirmed for the Olympics when the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed Emma Carney's appeal for a place on the team after a day-long hearing on Monday. "Loretta is extremely pleased, because it's taken almost five months," said Diane Ainsworth, her manager. "We've all felt like it's been Groundhog Day for a very long time, so we're glad it's over. "Now she knows she's on the team, and she can totally prepare for what she has to do." The hearing, which finished at 6:30 p.m., concluded Triathlon Australia's embarrassing and extended drama of its Olympic team selection. Emma Carney, not satisfied with her first-reserve status, had challenged for a place ahead of both Harrop, the ITU's No. 2-ranked triathlete and the 1999 world champion, and Nicole Hackett, who won her first world title in April in Perth, in the second of two TA-selection races. Sydney World Cup winner Michellie Jones was the only one whose place was secure and intact. Hackett was the first to reconfirm her status for Sydney, when Carney and her camp dropped their challenge of her position in the morning, according to Ainsworth. "That left only poor Loretta on the battlegrounds," Ainsworth said. Harrop herself was not present in the court room, but was ready to provide testimony from her training base in Lucerne, Switzerland, via a conference call. "Loretta was up since 5 a.m., sitting by her phone, ready to be cross-examined," Ainsworth said. "It's a fairly emotional thing to go through. She didn't have to do it in the end, because the judges overviewed the TA evidence that they had. They believed there was no evidence that supported Loretta not being part of the Olympic team." Harrop will return to Sydney within the week. She had tentatively pencilled in the Los Angeles Triathlon, a $100,000 race on September 10, but Triathlon Australia may instead ask her to skip it and report to Sydney immediately. "We'll have to wait and hear from TA what their requirements are of her. She's now in her final preparations for the Games, and that's the one event that she's been working toward, above all others." Harrop's last race was a DNF in the August 27 ETU Cup at Geneva, Switzerland. She crashed on the bike while sharing the lead with Luxembourg's Nancy Kemp-Arendt, the eventual winner. "She was cautious and going slow, but still crashed on a slippery part of the road. "She was angry for her mind not being on the job because of all the other stuff going on. But now that it's behind her, she can totally focus. Her legs are recovered totally from the injury she had before the trials (April 16 at the ITU World Cup). "She's pretty much in the best shape of her life." ----- Carney's appeal for Olympic inclusion deferred August 30, Sydney, Australia (www.triathlonlive.com): All the world's triathletes who waited on edge Tuesday night -- Loretta Harrop and Nicole Hackett in particular -- to see if Emma Carney gets to go to the Olympics, now have to wait until next week for the hearing of her appeal. Carney's appeal against her non-selection for Austtralia's Olympic team was deferred by the Court of Arbitration for sport. That was reported by AAP, which noted that "Triathlon Australia chief Tim Wilson said Carney's legal counsel wasn't available." Wilson told AAP: "That was one of the reasons. The other was that the appealing parties believe there was too much paperwork to get through and they needed more time to prepare." Carney is the team's first reserve, but is pushing to be named ahead of Harrop and Hackett, both of whom were named to the team by Triathlon Australia selectors. ----- Reuters: Carney appeal still alive August 26, Sydney, Australia (www.triathlonlive.com): The 628 members of Australia's Olympic team has still left room for a few more, should their appeals -- such as triathlete Emma Carney's -- be successful Reuters reported Friday that the Australian Olympic Committee met the International Olympic Committee's selection deadline on Friday, but indicated it expects to possibly add more pending the appeal outcomes. The AOC system, Reuters said, allows appeals to the individual sport, then an independent appeals panel, and finally the Court for Arbitration of Sport. One Australian athlete tried to get his case heard before the New South Wales Appeals Court, only to be told that the authority lies with CAS. The Lausanne-based CAS has two other "offices" worldwide -- one in New York, where England's Spencer Smith had his hearing in March, and the other in Sydney. The appeal of two-time world champion Emma Carney is yet to be heard by CAS, Reuters said. There is a unfortunate irony to Carney's situation. Rather than fighting for a place on Australia's Olympic team by appeal, three weeks before the September 16 Olympic race, Carney could have been an automatic, qualified member of the Great Britain squad. That is, had she followed the path her younger sister, Clare Carney, did back in the spring of 1998. Both sisters were born in England, where their grandparents still live in Cornwall. In order to increase the family's chances of having both of them in the first Olympic triathlon, one of them -- Clare -- took the decision to take a British passport. Under the British Olympic Association guidelines, any triathletes with top-25 world rankings -- such as Andrew Johns (3), Simon Lessing (7), Steph Forrester (14) and Sian Brice (18) -- were automatic selections. Johns and four other Australians -- Clare Carney, Michelle Dillon, Beth Thomson and Chris Lee -- switched their allegiance, and world ranking points, to Great Britain in 1998. Emma Carney is the ITU's No. 3-ranked triathlete. ----- Carney takes last in Olympic Trials 5000m August 21, Sydney, Australia (www.triathlonnlive.com): While Emma Carney waits for her turn at the Court for Arbitration in Sport, she tried for an Olympic spot a second way on Saturday: on the track. She lined up for the 5000-meters event of Australia's Olympic Track and Field Trials, only to realize her talents lie more in triathlon. She finished as the 10th and last finisher of 11 starters. Carney finished in 16:47.66. Winner Benita Willis set the pace at 15:23.63. Now Carney turns her attention back to triathlon. Her appeal to CAS -- still to be heard -- has left Triathlon Australia and its selectors in limbo. The women's Olympic team will be selected only after all due process is completed. The position for Michellie Jones, however, is firm. What is being questioned is the places given to Loretta Harrop and Nicole Hackett. Carney, named as the first alternate, is appealing to remove one of the others for various reasons. ----- Emma Carney 7th in Aussie cross country August 7, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (www.triathlonlive.com): Emma Carney, still hopeful of gaining a place in the Olympics via either her appeal to Triathlon Australia selectors, finished seventh Saturday in the Australian Cross Country Championships. She is fine-tuning her speed in time for the Australian Olympic Track and Field Trials in Sydney on August 17-19 -- her back-up shot at making the Games. She finished 7th in the open women's 8-kilometer race in 29:01. The winner was Sydney-bound Olympic marathoner Kerryn McCann in 27:02. Some other efforts by triathletes in the races at Melbourne's Yarra Bend Park: - In the same race, Victoria's Kim Wilson was 24th in 31:39, and New South Wales duathlete Margaret Beardslee was 30th in 32:34; - In the under-20 women's race (6k), Queensland's Annabel Luxford was the winner in 22:33, beating the field of 40 others by 30 seconds; - In the men's open race (12k), Victoria's Jay Bourke was 21st (39:23); - In the men's under-20 race (8k), Queensland's Jacob Newell was 25th (28:05) and Queensland's Luke McKenzie was 53rd (31:23). In some other recent running events elsewhere in the world, here's who did what: - Czech Republic duathlete Alena Peterkova, qualified for the Olympics in both the marathon and the 10,000m, won the 22-kilometer, very hilly "Half-Marathon Marvejols Mende" on July 23 in Lozere, France. Her time, 1:25:28, was 1:50 off the women's course record. - German duathlete Christiane Soeder raced the 5,000m at the German Athletics Championships on July 29-30 in Braunschweig. She ran 16:30.07 for 10th place, about 40 seconds off the winning pace. - Colombia's Carmenza Morales, her country's best triathlete who is several times the Central American and Caribbean champion and now qualified for the Sydney Olympics, finished fifth in the Bogota International Half-Marathon. The race drew more than 26,000 runners from 14 countries. Morales clocked a personal-best 1:17:51 in the Colombian capital city, located 2,640 meters above sea-level. ----- Emma Carney entered in Olympic Trials track August 2, Sydney, Australia (www.triathlonlive.com): Australian triathlete Emma Carney has taken her Olympic dreams to the courts -- she has a case pending at the Court for Arbitration in Sport -- and, now, to the track. She is entered in both the 5000m and 10,000m races for the Olympic trials on August 17-19 at Stadium Australia in Sydney. Carney has been posting track results for the last few months, especially after her efforts in triathlon's Olympic selection process left her out of the Triathlon Australia selectors' consideration. She and Jackie Gallagher won their appeals, which nullified TA's original team of three and called back the TA selectors for another round of decision-making. Additionally, Carney filed her case with the CAS in Lausanne, where it should be heard any day now. It is understood that her contention lies with the consideration of the injured Loretta Harrop, who did not start one of the selection races, the ITU World Cup in Sydney in April, "in good faith." A CAS decision in Carney's favor would, presumably, rule whether Harrop can be considered a legitimate candidate for the Australian Olympic team when TA's selectors convene again. Carney's last effort on the track, a 10,000m race at Beckenham on July 29, resulted in a DNF. The 10,000m Trials will be Thursday, 17 August, and includes 19 women. Four of them have met the Olympics' A-time standard (32:30) amid the field of 19. The 5000m race will be Saturday, 19 August. The 22 in the field seven whom have met the Olympic A standard (15:35.00). Carney has a background in Australian athletics of the highest levels. She represented Australia in the World Cross Country Championships in both 1994 (when she placed 68th in Budapest) and 1995 (52nd in Durham, England) -- the two years when she also won her triathlon world titles. ------ Sprinting toward Sydney: Titles to Walton and Carney February 13, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia (www.triathlonlive.com): Craig Walton and Emma Carney took the titles on Sunday in the Australian Sprint Triathlon Championships as they fine-tuned their fitness on their ways to the Sydney World Cup on April 16 -- one of the two Olympic-team deciders for the Australians. Walton wasn´t the only one using the sprint race as a test of his sharpness. The St. George Cup Race also drew several international athletes who are training in Australia in advance of the World Cup -- and Olympic season. Junior titles went to Michael McCann and Rebecca Locke. (RESULTS) ------ Bennett, Carney win the wind-swept Long-Course Champs Greg Bennett and Emma Carney, currently both the world's No. 4-ranked triathletes over the Olympic-distance, both won Australia's long-course titles in the Callala Bay Half-Ironman. |
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