Athletics Australia – WORLD RELAYS

A big team of 31 athletes that includes a mix of regular Australian Flame representatives including Collis Birmingham, Zoe Buckman, Tristan Thomas, Jeff Riseley and John Steffensen as well as young talents such as Morgan Mitchell has been selected by Athletics Australia to take part in the inaugural IAAF World Relays in The Bahamas in May.

Australia will field teams in the men’s 4x100m, 4x400m, 4x800m and 4x1500m relays, as well as the women’s 4x800m and 4x1500m events.  Athletes have also been selected for the women’s 4x100m and 4x400m relays, but are subject to Australia receiving a berth in those events from the IAAF.  

Athletics Australia Chairman of Selectors Dion Russell said the mix of familiar faces and promising youngsters was a positive. 

“We are pleased to have a mix of experienced international level athletes as well as some emerging talented athletes in the team,” said Russell.  “We’ve been able to select teams for each of the relay events which maximises providing major Championship experience for our athletes.  At this stage it looks like 48 countries will be sending teams to The Bahamas.

“In exercising our discretion the Selectors opted for a larger squad for the distance relays to ensure we had coverage for both the 4x800m and 4x1500m events.  With the top eight teams in the 4x100m and 4x400m automatically qualifying for the 2015 IAAF World Championships this is a great opportunity for Australia to try and secure a qualification and assist in the planning for Beijing next year.

“As per the Policy, the Selectors took into account performances throughout the Australian domestic season – more than half of the selected team are medallists from the Australian Athletics Championships just three weeks ago.” 

The Australian Flame team confirmed today will have the honour of taking part in the first-ever edition of the new annual IAAF World Relays, which will be held at the Thomas Robinson Stadium in The Bahamas capital of Nassau from 24-25 May.  In order to be selected, athletes needed to nominate to take part in the event and therefore the team does not include those athletes who elected not to participate, or those who had already been selected to take part in the IAAF World Junior Championships. 

Close to 800 international athletes are expected to compete at the first edition of the IAAF World Relays. In addition, the top eight teams in each event will be awarded prize money with the gold medallists taking home no less than US$50,000. In the event that a team breaks a world record in Nassau, an additional bonus of US$50,000 will be awarded. 

The full list of Australian athletes selected for the IAAF World Relays is below. 

 

Men 4x100m

Joel Bee (VIC)

Tom Gamble (QLD)

Jarrod Geddes (NSW)

Jake Hammond (NSW)

Jin Su Jung (NSW)

 

 

Women 4x100m*

Margaret Gayen (SA)

Elly Graf (NSW)

Ella Nelson (NSW)

Ashleigh Whittaker (VIC)

 

 

Men 4x400m

Alex Beck (QLD)

Craig Burns (QLD)

Dylan Grant (QLD)

John Steffensen (NSW)

Tristan Thomas (TAS)

 

 

Women 4x400m*

Jess Gulli (VIC)

Morgan Mitchell (VIC)

Lyndsay Pekin (WA)

Anneliese Rubie (NSW)

 

 

Men 4x800m & 4x1500m

Collis Birmingham (VIC)

Ryan Gregson (NSW

Joshua Ralph (NSW)

Jeff Riseley (VIC)

Jared West (NSW)

Josh Wright (NSW)

 

 

Women 4x800m & 4x1500m

Zoe Buckman (VIC)

Bridey Delaney (NSW)

Melissa Duncan (VIC)

Heidi Gregson (NSW)

Kelly Hetherington (VIC)

Brittany McGowan (QLD)

Selma Kajan (NSW)

 

* Participation subject to team qualification.

 

Athletics Australia