(March 26) A Reuters reports that Australian Emma Snowsill, the gold medal winner at the 2008 Beijing Olympics may not even make the team this year after she had to withdraw from last weekend's World Cup race in Mooloolaba in Queensland due to a stomach issue.
In a lead up to this year's summer Olympics in London, every race becomes a critical piece of the selection process. Miss too many races or withdraw from the more competitive ones, and a triathlete's chances of making their respective country's Olympic squads grow dimmer.
Fellow Aussie, Erin Densham won the Mooloolaba event to boost her chances of securing one of the three slots on the Australian team bound for the London Games. Emma Moffat, Bronze medal winner at the Beijing Games and two-time world champion has already locked up one position, while up-and-coming Emma Jackson made her case for another slot with a win at the Oceania champs earlier in March.
Snowsill is quickly running out of chances. Will she need to win, and win decisively, at the elite World Series triathlon let in Sydney next month to make the team? No one knows.
As for Densham, she claims that the Olympic triathlon isn't even on her mind, telling Reuters "Whether that impresses them or not I don't know (speaking about her win in Mooloolaba), but it's in their frame of mind now. I just did what I had to do."
Now it's time for Snowsill to do what she has to do. Stay posted, as one of the most competitive series of triathlons heats up this spring, with racers fighting to represent their countries in London this summer.
Photo: Triathlon.org
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