Bill Davoren post World Championships
Monday, 09 June 2008 08:27
LISTEN TO BILL DAVOREN SPEAK TO FOTB.COM
This has been one of the hardest weekends for the Australian Olympic program. After the ITU race in Madrid it was all down to this weekend's World Titles in Vancouver for the last spot in the elite Top 8. A spot there meant three competitors in the Olympic Games instead of two. Unfortunately for the Australians it was not to be as the Russians and the U.S outperformed and prevailed to make it into the coveted group. Bill Davoren, Head Coach of the Australian Olympic team had a chat to us about how all this unfolded and what it means going forward.
It's been a tough weekend for you and the Australian Olympic Triathlon team.
Yes, it was tough for all of us. The conditions were pretty challenging. But the girls did a terrific job with Ashley Gentle (Junior) medaling and the four girls in the elite team doing really well with we had four in the top twelve. So our women's results were pretty positive, but it was disappointing in the men's race today.
The weather was so shocking in Vancouver this weekend that the age groupers were forced to race a duathlon.
The weather's been very ordinary here and in Europe for the past six or seven weeks. It hadn't abated and was still a big problem. But you know if they choose to put races in these locations at this time of the year, you've just got to deal with it. Some people dealt with it better than others over the course of the weekend.
Are the athletes who race in these locations mindful of the weather?
We had to put a lot of planning in to come up with strategies so at least the athletes could get out of the water and get warm as quickly as they possibly can. Talking to most of them post race, they said most of them didn't find their feet until three or four kilometres into the run. And I think that was a factor for a number of them. Others spoke about feeling incredibly lethargic the longer the race went on, which is an obvious product of trying to stay warm. In the end our girls did a terrific job. They were our main concern to be honest with you, and they were the ones who dealt with it the best today. So full credit to them.
Speaking about the girls, the Australian team had a cracking day with a near podium finish decided by a sprint finish?
It was a funny race - you had two girls get away on a break and a bunch that didn't chase, primarily because Fernandes was in the bunch. I think people were looking at her to do something. But she wasn't on today, which is something I haven't seen for a long time. And because of that, the break stuck and they had two plus minutes and there you had your two medals.
Then you had our girls who pretty much raced Samantha Warriner (NZL) for the bronze. We thought we had it with 15 metres to go but Erin (Densham) had a bit of a stumble and Sam (Warriner) was able to get the dive and just nicked her out. We finished with Erin (Densham) 4th, Moffy (Moffat) 5th, Felicity (Abram) 6th and Alee Sharp, who ran on from 28th at three and half kilometres to finish 12th. I think she back ended the run as quick as anyone, so I'm wrapped with the four girls. Today's result stands us in good stead going forward.
Fernandes didn't fire a shot, which was the surprise of the World Championships.
It's funny you know, the Portuguese as a group had a disastrous weekend in terms of the weather being a major factor. I've never seen Vanessa as stressed as she was pre-race and I think a lot of that had to do with the weather. The weather was unsettling for a lot of people. But I never underestimate Vanessa - she'll be back and I'm pretty sure she'll be out of that transition quickly in Beijing. Just chalk it up to a bad race for her so I wouldn't read anything into it. She'll be back with a vengeance in 10 weeks time.
There was a lot at stake for a number of different countries in the men's race.
We knew what we had to do. We've known it for 18 months. We were very clear that it was going to be tough. In the end, we got ourselves into this situation and had a plan to try and deal with that. It just didn't play out as we'd hoped. The reality was that Greg (Bennett) gave himself every opportunity to get on the podium, because that's what it came down to in the end. Regardless of what Brendan (Sexton) was able to do today, the performances of the Russian and the Americans meant that it had to be a podium finish for us. And we didn't get it. He (Greg) gave everything to try and do that but he said he just ran into a brick wall about three kilometre mark on the run. He's very disappointed. I've spent some time with him already and he's very disappointed but he understood the game going into today.
You might assume Bennett's career racing for Australia might be over?
I haven't spoken to him about that. I'm anticipating that now he'll be named as reserve and given the automatic third position on the Australian team. As to whether he'll continue to race and seek selection, I haven't gone down that pathway with him at this stage. I think it's best left for the future.
The fallout for this and the Olympic program, are you answerable to Triathlon Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee?
I'm answerable, there's no doubt. And I'm pretty sure the nuff nuffs at home will be going off today. The reality is that I'm the Head Coach and the Program Director and responsibility does fall on my shoulders. I've already indicated that I won't be re-seeking my position at the end of the year and so the reality is they'll have to find a new program director to lead the Australian Triathlon team to the next Olympics. I'm disappointed, but in the end we just weren't good enough.
There's no excuses. As I said earlier, we've known for 18 months what the game was and we knew what he had to do. We set the target up, but we didn't get the performances and that's what it ultimately comes down to. You have to perform; you have to race World Cups. And you have to race all round the world and our guys haven't done that outside of Brad (Kahlefeldt) and Courtney (Atkinson) for the last two years. So ultimately yes it falls on my shoulders.
So what's the plan going into Beijing? The women look very strong and both Atkinson and Kahlefeldt are handy athletes.
I think we've got to remember here that one guy is ranked second in the world right now (Kahlefeldt) and I think Courtney is ranked in the top 15 in the world and both have been World Cup winners in the last couple of years; one's a Commonwealth Games gold medalist and one medals at World Championships. So, we're in the mix. And in the end, as I say to everyone, you need one person to win a gold medal and we've got five people who I'm very confident are going to be more than competent representing us in Beijing.
The focus from here is very clear. We've got to get back to training, get back into routine and, with the staff and the coaches, we'll basically be working to make sure all five of those guys are ready to rock and roll on the 18th and 19th of August this year.
One last question, how did the other big Beijing favourites look? Whitfield and of course Gomez?
Gomez was Gomez again. It's been an incredible stretch the way he's racing at the moment he looked good. I'm sure Simon (Whitfield) would be disappointed. He came here to win. I guess Bevan Docherty took a step up again, he looked good. Reto Hug was a bit of a surprise, he was the silver medalist from 2005. Henrich de Villiers was also a bit of a surprise. There were a number of key men missing today - Tim Don, Hunter Kemper and our two (Atkinson and Kahlefedlt). So the challenge going forward is for one of those guys to put their hand up to beat Gomez in 10 weeks time.
Thanks for chatting with us today and we wish you and the Australian Olympic team a good final preparation.
