Kathy Watt yesterday blew away her rivals to win the national time-trial championship and then dedicated her victory to a life-long family friend who died in London last week. Fighting back tears, Australia's leading female cyclist said she had corresponded with the friend, John Gilbert, who was like a grandfather to her, since she was 13.
"My family had close connections with him through the war," Watt said. "My grandmother and then my mother wrote to him and then I wrote to his sister and when she died I was really upset and wrote a poem, and we've been writing ever since."
Watt, 31, who claimed a gold and silver medal at the Barcelona Olympics, yesterday overcame a slipped seat over the last 6km of the 25km undulating course at Calga, on the NSW central coast, to cement her place in the road team for the Atlanta Olympics. Her slick time of 34min 47sec was 1min 21sec faster than second-placed fellow Victorian Anna Wilson, with West Australian Lyn Nixon another 13 seconds behind. Tracey Watson, of Geelong, was fourth in 36:42.
Watt said she started pulling forward on her seat with about 6km to go, but thought it was because she was driving so hard. "Then I realised that my seat had slipped," she said. "By the end (of the race) it was pointing at right angles and it was very hard to get a rhythm." "I tried to stay out of the seat as much as I could up the hills because I was scared the seat would come off."
Watt's comprehensive should silence those who believe she is not entitled to ride both road and track at Atlanta. "I hate people that say you can't," she said. "Obviously those people have not looked at my results at Barcelona and at the Commonwealth Games."
National women's coach Andrew Logan also feels Watt is capable of winning gold medals in the time-trial and individual pursuit at the Games. "I think she is capable of it because of the way it has been scheduled with the road race, the pursuit over four days and the individual time-trial on August 3," Logan said.
Meanwhile, 21-year-old Queenslander Nathan O'Neill said God and a belief in himself had helped him win yesterday's 40km event against the top AIS riders. O'Neill sped over the out-and-back course in 51min 50sec to beat Mt Isa's Brett Dennis by 10sec and earn himself a berth in Australia's under-23 squad for the world championships in October.
Defending champion Matt White was third in 52:10 and Rodney McGee fourth in 53:16. O'Neill was formerly with both the AIS track and road squads and has overcome anorexia and a cracked pelvis to bounce back a winner.
"I'm not ashamed to admit I believe in God and everything happens for a reason." he said. "I believe He's the reason I've been so successful. You're looking at a new Nathan O'Neill."
from Gareth Coco