Media Release                                                                                Friday 4 April 2008

ELUSIVE SOFTBALL GOLD LIVES IN BEIJING

Impressively Australia has won a minor medal at Softball’s three Olympic appearances. The 15 Australian women named today for the Beijing Games are all chasing that elusive gold.
 
Captain Natalie Ward who has played over 400 games for Australia, including the Atlanta, Sydney and Athens Games, wants nothing more than to go out on top.

“I’m such a competitive person with whatever I do. I have three medals, two bronze and a silver and I still don’t have the gold. That is what gets me up everyday to keep training and keep going to Beijing,” said Ward who will retire after Beijing.

Beijing will be Australia’s last attempt, for the time being, to secure Olympic gold following the decision in 2005 by the International Olympic Committee to drop softball and baseball from the competition program indefinitely from London 2012.

“It is obviously very disappointing. I guess Beijing is an opportunity for us to go and showcase softball and hopefully leave it with a good image, so it has the opportunity to get back into the Olympic program,” said Ward, who started playing the sport at 10 years of age.

National Coach Fabian Barlow is very pleased with the mix of experience, youthfulness and enthusiasm in his Beijing team. Five are making their debut and 10 have Olympic experience.

Joining Ward at a fourth Olympics are pitchers Tanya Harding and Melanie Roche. Kelly Hardie is the team’s oldest player at 38 with 21-year-old Justine Smethurst the youngest.

Smethurst was identified by Barlow back in 2006 as a young player he hoped would develop to Olympic standard. However it wasn’t until recently he got a really good look at her playing. The young pitcher has spent the past two years playing for the University of Hawaii.

“Justine normally comes back for the Nationals for a week each year and plays very well. This year she came back and played very, very well. She decided to forego her final college season, made her Olympic intentions known and it has paid dividends,” Barlow said.

The coach is very happy with the quality of players across all positions on the diamond but he is not talking medals just yet.

“We fancy our chances against any team in the world. We have the athleticism and skills. The key is playing smart softball,” Barlow said.

“We have talked about success but the focus is on playing every game above our expectations. After the round robin we can assess our position and the plan is to be in great form going into the medal play-offs.”

Between now and Beijing the players will attend six training camps and play exhibition and international games in Canada in July. The team is scheduled to arrive in Beijing two days before the Opening Ceremony on 6 August with their competition commencing on 12 August.

Many of the players have experience at the Fengtai Sports Centre in Beijing with Australia contesting the two Olympic test events in August 2006 and October 2007.

The Softball Section announced today at Blacktown Olympic Park was the fifth sport and first team sport named for the 2008 Australian Olympic Team. The complete team is listed below with detailed biographies on all athletes available on the Official Team Website, olympics.com.au.

1. Jodie Bowering         
2. Kylie Cronk                    
3. Kelly Hardie                   
4. Tanya Harding          
5. Sandra Lewis           
6. Simmone Morrow         
7. Tracey Mosley          
8. Stacey Porter          
9. Melanie Roche          
10. Justine Smethurst              
11. Danielle Stewart               
12. Natalie Titcume        
13. Natalie Ward (captain)                  
14. Belinda Wright         
15. Kerry Wyborn 
Head Coach: Fabian Barlow