Watt made the demand to Australian Cycling Federation president Ray Godkin at the national road championships in Sydney on Saturday. Watt, who won gold in the road race and silver in the pursuit at Barcelona, is already guaranteed a berth in the road team. Several meetings in the past 24 hours have failed to resolve the issue.
Godkin said no such guarantee could be given and reiterated his stance yesterday. "It isn't for the ACF to do that because who knows what's in the future," Godkin said. "But I can't imagine why she wouldn't ride the individual pursuit." However, Godkin added that the final decision on who rode at the Olympics rested with cycling team manager Michael Turtur. "That's his right and nobody's going to usurp that authority," Godkin said.
Watt, who is set to head overseas in the next few days, is hopeful the dispute will be resolved and was not prepared to comment last night. But her manager-partner Carey Hall said he feared that Watt would be forced into a ride-off against Lucy Tyler- Sharman for a berth at Atlanta. American-born Tyler-Sharman is a member of Walsh's Australian Institute of Sport track team.
The ill-feeling between Watt and Walsh has simmered for the past six years and came to a fore before the Barcelona Olympics when she was told she could not ride her track bike for four months before the Games.
"We have already gone through this once and Kathy came up trumps," Hall said last night. "Kathy was the best female Olympian in 1992 and all she wants to do is race." "This whole issue is heading in the same direction as Dawn Fraser, who was persecuted by officials and all she wanted to do was swim for her country."
It is believed Godkin tried to contact Walsh in Buttgen, Germany, on Saturday night, but he would not confirm this. Women's coach Andrew Logan, whom Walsh said in Perth would have the final say on the issue, last night backed Watt's stance. "To have the uncertainty of not knowing you're riding in an event could be long-term detrimental for a person like Kathy because her whole preparation is being geared so she does ride pursuit," Logan said.