Former World 400 hurdles champion Dai Greene has been thrown an international lifeline by the Welsh Commonwealth Games selectors and been given until 4 March to clock a qualifying standard to go to the Gold Coast.
The 2010 Commonwealth champion has been plagued by injuries since finishing fourth at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. He has had two hernia operations, switched coach and moved from Bath to Loughborough and hasn’t run the required qualifying time since August, 2013.
But the biggest problem for the man hoping to celebrate his 32nd birthday at his fourth Commonwealth Games in April is going to be finding good enough races and opposition to push him to the necessary time of 49.50 sec sec to take up his place in Team Wales.
Green is currently training in Tenerife and is eying up races in South Africa and Australia to try to reach his goal over the next month.
“Dai is a quality athlete with a proven, medal winning track record and we exercised some discretion in our selection when we considered both him and Seren Bundy-Davies,” explained Welsh Athletics director of performance, Scott Simpson.
“Their selection is subject to them getting the qualifying times – it is not a case of us giving them a place. Dai is delighted to have been given this opportunity for what is likely to be his last chance to compete for Wales at the Commonwealth Games.
“He is not motivated by just making teams for major championships, he wants to be able to go there and fight for a medal. We are looking for the right races for him at the moment and he could go as far as South Africa or Australia to try to get the qualifying time.”
Bundy-Davies, who ran in the 400 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympics, is set to compete indoors in Vienna this weekend after recovering from an Achilles injury that wrecked her 2017 season.
The 21-strong Welsh Athletics contingent will travel to Australia for the 21st Games, that will run from 4-15 April, as one of 70 nations sending teams to take part in 18 different sports.
The Welsh Athletics team contains:
3 former medallists in Dai Greene (400H gold in Delhi, 2010), Carys Parry (Hammer silver in Delhi, 2010), Sally Peak (PV silver in Glasgow, 2014)
8 returning athletes from the Welsh team in Glasgow in 2014 – Andy Davies (Marathon), Dai Greene (400m H), Ben Gregory (Decathlon), Dewi Griffiths (5000m &10,000m), Osian Jones (Hammer), Carys Parry (Hammer), Sally Peake (Pole Vault), Elinor Kirk (Marathon)
2 Olympians (Dai Greene, Seren Bundy-Davies) and 6 World Championship athletes (Dai Greene, Seren Bundy-Davies, David Omoregie, Josh Griffiths, Andy Davies, Ieuan Thomas)
2 athletes, Carys Parry and Dai Greene, will be going to their 4th Games and 2 athletes, Ben Gregory and Sally Peake, will be heading to their 3rd Games
6 Para-Athletes were announced as part of Team Wales in November and include Paralympic and IPC World Championships gold medallist in the javelin, Hollie Arnold. Jumper Bev Jones will be going to her third Games
Welsh athletes faced the toughest ever selection criteria for the Gold Coast, with a limit of 108 places for all individual sports being placed on Team Wales by the Games organisers. Welsh Athletics sent 24 athletes to Glasgow in 2014 and 18 to Delhi in 2010. The last time the Games were held in Australia, in Melbourne in 2006, there were 21 athletes in the Welsh team.
There will be four athletes competing in the Marathon, including the 2017 World Championship duo of Josh Griffiths and Andy Davies. Caryl Jones and Eli Kirk, who has stepped up from the 10,000 metres four years ago, will compete in the women’s race.
European Cross Country Mixed Relay gold medallist Tom Marshall will run in the 1500 metres with Cardiff AAC clubmate Rowan Axe, while another Cardiff member, Ieuan Thomas, who ran at the London World Championships last year, is included alongside Jon Hopkins, one of seven Swansea Harriers in the team, in the Steeplechase. Great North City Games mile winner Melissa Courtney will double up in the 1500 and 5,000 metres.
Dai Greene, David Omoregie, currently based in Jamaica, and Caryl Granville compete on the track in the hurdles events, while Seren Bundy-Davies, like Greene, is chasing a qualifying mark prior to the Games to confirm her selection over 400 metres.
British international Ben Gregory will be hoping to improve on his successive sixth place finishes in Delhi and Glasgow when he competes for the third time in the Decathlon.
It will also be a third Games for Pole Vaulter Sally Peake, who was Wales only athletics medallist in Glasgow, where she struck silver, while long jumper Rebecca Chapman will head to her first Games as the proud holder of the Welsh record having added 2 cms to Gill Regan’s 35-year-old mark last summer. Hammer thrower Carys Parry will find herself cast as athlete and coach in Australia when she chases another medal.
The 36-year-old will be throwing at her fourth Games, but it will be her first as coach to newly crowned Welsh men’s record holder Osian Jones. North Walian Jones is heading to his second Games in confident mood having smashed through Shaun Pickering’s 34-year-old Welsh record barrier last summer and taken his personal best up to 70.00 metres.
The Welsh Athletics team will be introduced to the crowd at the Welsh Indoor Athletics Senior Championships on Saturday, 27 January at the National Athletics Centre in Cardiff.
Welsh Athletics Team for Gold Coast Commonwealth Games
Men (11)
Tom Marshall (1500m)
Rowan Axe (1500m)
Jon Hopkins (3000m SC)
Ieuan Thomas (3000m SC)
Dewi Griffiths (5000m / 10,000m)
David Omoregie (110m H)
Dai Greene * (400m H)
Ben Gregory (Decathlon)
Andy Davies (Marathon)
Josh Griffiths (Marathon)
Osian Jones (Hammer)
Women (10)
Seren Bundy-Davies * (400m)
Melissa Courtney (1500m / 5000m)
Caryl Granville (100m H / 400m H)
Caryl Jones (Marathon)
Eli Kirk (Marathon)
Bethan Davies (20k Race Walk)
Heather Lewis (20k Race Walk)
Rebecca Chapman (Long Jump)
Sally Peake (Pole Vault)
Carys Parry (Hammer)
* Athletes selection conditional on achieving a Commonwealth Games A Standard before departure in March
Para-Athletes (announced in November 2017)
Men (3)
Morgan Jones (T47 – 100m)
Rhys Jones (T38 – 100m)
James Ledger (T12 – 100m)
Women (3)
Olivia Breen (F38 – LJ & T38 100m)
Beverley Jones (F38 – LJ)
Hollie Arnold (F46 – Javelin)