Athletics: Australian team named for world champs

Sydney Olympic silver medallists Jai Taurima and Tatiana Grigorieva head a 27-strong Australian team named yesterday for the world athletics championships in Edmonton, Canada, in August.

The team range in age from 16-year-old middle-distance runner Georgie Clarke to 20km walker Kerry Saxby-Junna, who will contest her sixth world championships at the age of 40.

Australia's only reigning Olympic champion, 400m runner Cathy Freeman, is not competing this season, leaving New Zealand-born long jumper Taurima and pole vaulter Grigorieva as the automatic selections from the Sydney Games.

The only two people in the team who did not compete in Sydney were hammer thrower Bronwyn Eagles and Adam Basil, a member of the 4x100m relay team.