#Rio2016 | WA Duo on Track for Rio
Western Australian medal hopefuls Melissa Hoskins and Sam Welsford have both earned selection for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games after Australia’s track cycling team for Brazil was announced in Adelaide this morning.
The WA cyclists will form part of an Australian endurance squad that will see both the men’s and women’s team pursuit groups aiming for podium performance on the boards of the Rio Olympic Velodrome.
Hoskins will reprise her role from the 2012 London Games, where she and the Australian women’s team pursuit finished fourth.
In 2015, Hoskins won a world championship in Paris, before missing this year’s titles in London after suffering a bout of pneumonia. The 25 year-old however, has returned to full health and fitness, and will join teammates; Annette Edmondson, Amy Cure, Ashlee Ankudinoff and Georgia Baker in pushing for gold.
20 year-old Sam Welsford will make his Olympic debut in Rio, having helped the Australian men’s team pursuit squad to a world championship win in London, where the Australians rode to a famous victory over a Great Britain team featuring Tour de France champion and reigning Olympic road time-trial gold medallist, Sir Bradley Wiggins.
With the Australian and GB men’s team pursuit squads both boasting multiple world champions, all predictions pre-Rio indicate that the two nations will again vie for bragging rights come August.
Welsford will be joined in action by; Jack Bobridge, Alex Edmondson, Callum Scotson and Glenn O’Shea.
Australia’s track team includes 16 riders, headlined by four-time Olympian Anna Meares. The Velodrome has historically been one of Australia’s most successful events at Olympic level, with Australia having won 12 gold, 15 silver and 16 bronze medals, with the 2016 team hoping to add to this tally.
The selection of Hoskins and Welsford brings Western Australian numbers on the Australian Olympic Team to 24 officially selected athletes.
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