Monday 17 May
Challenge on to spend $195m among sports
Nicole Jeffery, The Australian, 17/5/10
AUSTRALIA'S Olympic sports have won only half the battle for extra funding despite the record $195 million injection to sport announced by the federal government last week, two of the nation's most influential sports administrators have warned.
At the Australian Olympic Committee's annual general meeting on the weekend, both AOC president John Coates and Australian Sports Commission executive director Matt Miller said the fight for extra funding for sport was won, but that individual sports would now have to compete for their slice of it.
"It was our campaign that got the money and now we (Olympic sports) have to make sure we get more than our fair share," Coates said.
"Leaving it to the ASC board (to allocate) doesn't guarantee that the Olympic sports will get their fair share. You are going to be, in some cases, competing against each other (for funds)."
Miller confirmed that the ASC's previous funding criteria, which were biased towards Olympic sports, would not apply automatically.
Instead, all sports, Olympic and non-Olympic, would have to justify their bids for more money.
Over the next four years, $120m of the new funding will go to high performance, and $75m to the grass roots.
"I can confidently state we are not going to apply it as a percentage of income across 64 sports," Miller said.
"We are trying to get some well-targeted money to the key sports for London (2012 Olympics), but the sports who get high performance funding may not be the same as those who get participation funding. The government wants returns on its investment, both in participation and health outcomes."
Miller warned that all sports would face a "robust annual performance review" rather than the current quadrennial audit, to ensure they were meeting their promised targets.
Despite the continued uncertainty over the breakdown of the funding, Coates was confident enough of the ability of the Olympic sports to secure extra support to challenge them to deliver a top-five finish on the medal tally for Australia in London.
"With the funding boost that the government has just delivered, there can be no stepping back from this challenge," he told the AGM.
He exhorted the AOC's member sports to "rain on their parade" by finishing ahead of Britain at its home Olympics.
He said the key to knocking off the host nation would be to maintain Australia's dominance in swimming (20 medals to six in Beijing), turn around the cycling results (1:14) and improve in rowing, sailing and equestrian where the two nations traditionally go head to head.
Coates also identified gymnastics as an area where Australia could make inroads after winning three medals at last year's world titles.
All of those sports seem likely to get a funding boost.
The national cycling team has already made dramatic progress, winning three gold and two silver medals in Olympic events at the world track championships in Denmark this year.
Miller will host a forum in Melbourne on Wednesday to explain the allocation process to the sports, and a series of workshops will follow soon after.
Thursday 13 May
Pair going for Belarus gold
Bullsbrook Bindoon Gingin Advocate, 13/5/10
TWO women from Bayswater's ANA Rowing Club are aiming for gold at the July under-23 world rowing championships in Belarus.
Henley Brook's Hannah Jansen (18) and Alex Hayes (22) from Maylands will form half of the Australian under-23 lightweight women's quad that will take on the next generation of Olympic rowers.
The pair have made it to the pinnacle of Australian rowing without sponsorship or government funding.
Alex and Hannah have already won gold at the 2010 national championships held in Victoria in March.
They are national under-23 lightweight double scull champions and Hannah is also Australian under-23 lightweight single scull champion.
ANA club president James Carpenter said the club was "extremely proud" to be represented by the two up-and-coming stars.
"Hannah is almost at prodigy status and Alex Hayes is absolutely unbelievable too," he said.
"Alex gave up a full-time job to concentrate on her rowing because she knew she had unfinished business and Hannah is the third fastest lightweight woman in the country, as a teenager."
Coach Stuart Ridgway said they owed their success to their hard work and drive.
"They've been doing sessions every morning and afternoon, six days a week. It's been very, very hard work since last May," he said.
"Both of them will be looked at for the open women's quad and if they keep going the way they're going, they're definitely a chance of an Olympics."
Alex said the most exciting thing about Belarus would be competing against the world's best.
"It's going to be great to take that next step, go from a national level to an international level. To see the real top-end, potentially Olympic crews," she said.
"That's obviously been our goal, to perform at that next stage in rowing. We've been doing 12, 13 sessions a week."
Monday 10 May
Brat pack of league
Rebecca Wilson, Daily Telegraph, 8/5/10
OLYMPIC silver medallist and one of Australia's leading rowers, Francis Hegarty, will spend the best part of the next two months in Europe rowing in two world cup events.
He has taken extended leave from a generous employer, moved to Melbourne with his future wife so he can train with the other three crew members in his four and not earned a single cent out of his chosen sport in the eight years he has spent at the top.
He sweats blood to row for his country, lives with a bulging disc in his back and trains 14 times a week.
Hegarty would not have it any other way. He and the rest of the Australian rowing team have spent the best part of the last four months taking part in gruelling selection trials that would make most normal people cry.
When their names were read out by national selectors last week, finding a more proud, excited bunch of athletes would have been tough.
Wearing green and gold is what they live for, the highest honour any of them they could ever imagine.
Rowing Australia will pay for their travel and accommodation, but they won't pay them a cent to compete for their country. Nobody is complaining. That's how it is in rowing and many other Olympic sports. The honour of the green and gold is akin to earning a million dollars for these athletes.
Australian rugby league star Jarryd Hayne should spend a couple of hours with Francis Hegarty. The cocky winger might learn something about humility, courage and gratitude. He might also find out how tough it is for elite athletes who did not choose professional football as a career path.
Hayne disgraced himself this week in the eyes of most normal, hardworking Australians. Hayne earned $6000 for playing last night's rugby league Test match. Apparently, that was not close to enough. He says it is actually a disgrace that the match fee is not a whole lot more.
His grievances don't end there. Hayne complained that he was only given four tickets for his family to attend the match. He had to, wait for it, put his hand in his own pocket to pay for more tickets. Hayne says that stinks and that a new collective bargaining agreement should see players like him rewarded far more generously for their efforts.
He has criticised rugby league, and David Gallop, for treating players like him without the respect they deserve. He actually did not express himself quite that clearly: "They really care about their players heaps" was the eloquent sarcasm used by Hayne.
As one bright spark blogger said this week: "He can barely string two words together. At the age of 20, that equals labourer, buddy."
This young man has had his life turned around by his sport. Remember this is the bloke who was shot at outside a Kings Cross nightclub last year.
In a world without league, our blogger was right. Hayne would be lucky to earn the average wage and might have to buy his own tickets to watch his favourite footy team run around every weekend.
Jarryd Hayne was bestowed with the game's highest honour last year. He was its best player and won many awards for his efforts. He now earns more in a single year than most people earn in five and has thousands of young kids who idolise him.
He should be grateful. Instead, he is like so many of his ilk graceless, greedy and spoilt.
He and the rest of the players agitating for pay rises at both club and representative level are given oxygen by a small group of media commentators intent on creating a world of super rich footballers, no matter what the cost.
This small group panders to players who use scare tactics in public threats to desert the code, create imaginary offers to play rugby union in France and Japan and thumb their nose at the sport that has given them a great life.
The National Rugby League should call their bluff. Let them go to France to play in a second-rate competition in front of 5000 fans. Let's see how they fare in Japan with no English and nobody who recognises them. Even better, flick them to the AFL and see how they will struggle to play a game in the reserves.
Hayne is disappointing. It is sad that he is a so-called "role model" because he is not how we want our kids to be. The world that I grew up in worshipped at the feet of the green and gold.
The world my sons inhabit is thankfully the same.
There should be no higher honour for an athlete. I deeply suspect people like Francis Hegarty would actually pay for the right to represent Australia. But athletes like Francis have not been corrupted by professional football – a world that is fast becoming a safe haven for mercenaries and brats who have not been taught the meaning of honour.
Sunday 9 May
For Ben, it's next stop Slovenia
Chris Georgakopoulos, Penrith Press, 7/5/10
ADAPTIVE rower Ben Houlison has been selected to represent Australia at the Rowing World Cup in Slovenia.
Houlison, a member of The Lakes Rowers, recorded a personal best time in the men's single scull arms-only race at Rowing Australia's national selection trials at the Sydney International Regatta Centre.
"I didn't expect to get that time, to be honest," he said.
"I beat my personal best by three seconds, which stood from last year's World Championships where I got a bronze medal, so I am pretty happy."
The 28-year-old will leave this month for a one-week training camp in Italy before heading to Slovenia.
Confidence is high for the arms-only rower, but he says he cannot get ahead of himself.
"I am confident but not over-confident," he said.
"I've got a lot to improve on but I think if my coach and I work on a few little things we have spoken about I will come back with good results."
Houlison and coach Pedro Albisser were selected to train at the Australian Institute of Sport last year.
Education in the importance of the body was a key to success, Houlison said.
"I've been at the AIS since November and I guess it's been a bit more about how to treat the body," he said.
"I've been educated on how nutrition and recovery all comes into my performances.
"It's something new to me but I think the training has been about the same stuff we were doing down here, just more consistently."
Tuesday 4 May
Eight in national squad
Ollie Wilson-Haffenden, Hobart Mercury, 4/5/10
EIGHT Tasmanian rowers have been named in a national squad of 39 after impressive performances at the national rowing trials in Penrith last month.
Five have been selected in the senior A squad and three in the under-23 squad. Sam Beltz, Anthony Edwards and Blair Tunevitsch were all selected in the men's lightweight senior four.
The fourth member of the crew is Olympic rower Todd Skipworth, of Western Australia. Edwards, who will be aiming for his fifth Olympics in London in 2012, said the lightweight four was "potentially quite an exciting crew and we hope to go away and prove that".
Because of the depth of talent in the senior lightweight squad, a second lightweight four was also selected.
Both crews will be coached by Tasmanian Institute of Sport head rowing coach Brett Crow.
The crews will be based in Tasmania in the leadup to World Cups one and two.
The senior men's quad will also have its training base in Tasmania, with local John Driessen selected to again coach the boat that he led to a silver medal at last year's World Championships.
The crew will be based on the Huon River and will feature Olympic gold medallist David Crawshay.
Past junior world champion Adam Wertheimer and Alex Fowler were selected in the under-23 men's eight, breaking what has been an almost 20-year drought of Tasmanian representation in the men's heavyweight sweep category.
Eight crews will compete for Australia at the under-23 World Championships in Brest, Belarus, in July.
Other Tasmanians named in the national squad are Kerry Hore, in the women's double scull: Ingri d Fenger, in the women's lightweight single scull, and; Annabel Gibson, in the under-23 women's lightweight quad.
Tasmanian Ken Davey has been selected to coach the Australian men's junior quad to compete at the 2010 World Junior Rowing Championships in the Czech Republic, in August. Australia will send crews to World Cup events in Munich, Germany and Lucerne, Switzerland, on a four-week tour of Europe.
The squad will then return to Australia to continue preparations ahead of the 2010 World Rowing Championships in New Zealand from October 31 to November 7.
The 2010 senior Australian rowing team will depart for Europe on June 13 to compete in Munich and Lucerne.
A final round of selection trials for the team will be held in August to finalise the Australian boats for the World Rowing Championships.
