Women To Lead The Charge

The Age

Thursday August 7, 2008

John Huxley

PECULIARITIES of the selection system mean that Australia's two best medal hopes, former high bar champion Philippe Rizzo and pommel horse specialist Prashanth Sellathurai, are sitting out the Olympics.

So it is left to the seven members of the women's artistic team to lead the medal charge. It looks like mission impossible.

The team finished a disappointing 11th at the world championships.

Australia has won only one gymnastics medal, Ji Wallace's silver in the men's trampoline in 2000. And the sport's world superpower has home town advantage.

But in Russian-born Daria "Dasha" Joura, a three-time national champion, it has a proven top performer in the all-around, bars and floor apparatus. She could help pull the team into the top eight, some way behind favourites and the US.

The two men making their Olympics debut in Beijing, "Bouncing" Ben Wilden (trampoline) and Sam Simpson (individual all-around), can only benefit from the experience.

© 2008 The Age

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