WAIS Athletics Quartet Selected for London

Western Australian athletics stars Steve Hooker, Alana Boyd, Liz Parnov and Kim Mickle have today been officially selected by the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

The Australian Flame athletics team will be headlined by reigning Olympic men’s pole vault champion and team captain Steve Hooker, who will compete in a third Olympic campaign in London.

At 29, Hooker has won all before him and he will enter competition in the London Olympic Stadium as the Games record holder, following the 5.96m he cleared in Beijing to win gold in 2008.

Commonwealth Games champion and Australian women’s pole vault national record holder Alana Boyd will compete in a second Olympic campaign in London, with the 28 year-old coming off a stellar domestic season that saw her set the national record at 4.76m.

Boyd will be joined in the women’s pole vault by 18 year-old Olympic debutant Liz Parnov, who holds a personal best of 4.50m and is considered one of Australian Athletics’ brightest prospects.

Seven-time national javelin champion Kim Mickle will also make her Olympic debut in London, and will do so in good form after last weekend improving her personal best to 64.12m in Europe.

Mickle – a 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist – will be looking to better the sixth place finish she recorded at last year’s IAAF Athletics World Championships in Daegu, Korea.

* Please note: The Australian men’s 4x400m relay squad including Western Australian Ben Offereins have been nominated to the AOC subject to them being allocated a quota place by the IAAF. The IAAF Qualifying Period ends 2 July 2012 with the IAAF to confirm the allocation of quota places on 3 July 2012.

The four athletes selected has taken WA’s numbers for the London Games to 36 athletes.

Full biographies on Hooker, Boyd, Parnov and Mickle can be found on the AOC’s official website – http://london2012.olympics.com.au/athlete-search?sport=AF74D71A-5056-B04A-537192AA8499A569