Meet our games girls
Meet our games girls
February 16, 2006
Section: Sport
THE power and glory of northern Illawarra sport has reached the summit of Mt Everest with the selection of four female athletes for next month's Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
Kerryn McCann (pictured top) from Coledale is our senior competitor and extremely experienced with three Olympic and three Commonwealth Games under her belt. She is the current Commonwealth marathon champion and has high hopes of retaining the title.
" I don't know the field but will be surprised if I get it as easy as last time, " she said.
Kerryn is currently in camp at Falls Creek.
Rochelle Gilmore (Stanwell Tops) has proved to be one of our nation's top cyclists over the years and is every chance of bringing home a medal from the Games. She is also in camp in Melbourne.
Petrina Price (Bulli) at 21 is also an experienced athlete - competing in the 2004 Olympic Games' athletics team in the high jump discipline and was the baby of the team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in the same event. However she was a tad surprised at her selection.
"I was out with injury for 18 months after Athens and did not resume training to December," she said.
"I managed to sneak in as third highest qualifier at last week's trials by clearing 1.83m but am working hard for the improvement needed in Melbourne." Petrina leaves for camp today.
At just 17 (18 tomorrow) Woonona's Jamie - Lee Hoebergen (pictured below) is the new kid on the block and understandably was thrilled with her selection. Like Petrina, she was selected after the recent trials by coming third in the 400m sprint final.
That entitled her to make the team for that event and to add icing on the cake will be part of Australia's 4x400m relay team that is certainly in contention for a medal.
Jamie Lee will join Petrina in camp today.
A Year 12 student studying for her HSC at the Illawarra Christian School, Jamie - Lee aims to have fun, learn from the experience and compete to the best of her ability.
They are our "Golden Girls" and we wish them all the luck in the world - and a bit more.