MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Aspiring Malaysian track cyclists have had to contend with infrastructure issues and the national obsession with soccer and badminton but coach John Beasley believes he has a team that could deliver the country’s first Olympic gold medal.

Up-and-coming cyclists have a choice of two velodromes across the steamy Southeast Asian nation of 28 million on which to hone their craft.

One offers a bumpy ride on a circuit built for the 1998 Commonwealth Games in the capital Kuala Lumpur. The other, an older outdoor track in the central town of Ipoh, invariably offers waterlogged timber due to monsoon downpours.

Infrastructure issues aside, Beasley, the Australian in charge of the country’s elite programme, says his team can challenge the best of the West at the London Games.

“I’m very quietly confident,” the burly 50-year-old told Reuters as he watched over his three Olympic hopefuls at a sleepy suburban velodrome in southeast Melbourne.

“We’ve got to get it right on the day, but I’m hoping worst case scenario we’ll get a medal in the keirin and best case we’ll win it.

“We’re not scared of racing Chris Hoy or anyone else.”

MELBOURNE, May 22 (Reuters) – Aspiring Malaysian track cyclists have had to contend with infrastructure issues and the national obsession with soccer and badminton but coach John Beasley believes he has a team that could deliver the country’s first Olympic gold medal.

Up-and-coming cyclists have a choice of two velodromes across the steamy Southeast Asian nation of 28 million on which to hone their craft.

One offers a bumpy ride on a circuit built for the 1998 Commonwealth Games in the capital Kuala Lumpur. The other, an older outdoor track in the central town of Ipoh, invariably offers waterlogged timber due to monsoon downpours.

Infrastructure issues aside, Beasley, the Australian in charge of the country’s elite programme, says his team can challenge the best of the West at the London Games.

“I’m very quietly confident,” the burly 50-year-old told Reuters as he watched over his three Olympic hopefuls at a sleepy suburban velodrome in southeast Melbourne.

“We’ve got to get it right on the day, but I’m hoping worst case scenario we’ll get a medal in the keirin and best case we’ll win it.

“We’re not scared of racing Chris Hoy or anyone else.”

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australian boxer Bianca Elmir’s hopes of competing at the London Olympics are in jeopardy after she was slapped with a provisional ban for failing a doping test at national championships in February.

Elmir, Australia’s featherweight champion, had tested positive for a banned diuretic at the championships in Hobart.

She was notified of her suspension shortly after arriving in China to compete at the women’s world championships in Qinhuangdao, her manager Alex Belperio told Reuters.

“It’s a provisional ban, that’s all we know,” Belperio said by telephone. “We appealed to have the ban lifted so she could compete in China, but the appeal was unsuccessful.

“It’s been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster for her as you can imagine.

“We need to find out more information to determine what actions we can take in relation to this ban.”

Elmir was due to compete in the women’s flyweight (48-51kg) category at the world championships, where a first-place finish among the Oceania boxers would have booked her ticket to London, where women’s boxing will debut. She was regarded as one of Australia’s strongest medal hopes in the sport.

MELBOURNE, May 16 (Reuters) – Australian boxer Bianca Elmir’s hopes of competing at the London Olympics are in jeopardy after she was slapped with a provisional ban for failing a doping test at national championships in February.

Elmir, Australia’s featherweight champion, had tested positive for a banned diuretic at the championships in Hobart.

She was notified of her suspension shortly after arriving in China to compete at the women’s world championships in Qinhuangdao, her manager Alex Belperio told Reuters.

“It’s a provisional ban, that’s all we know,” Belperio said by telephone. “We appealed to have the ban lifted so she could compete in China, but the appeal was unsuccessful.

“It’s been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster for her as you can imagine.

“We need to find out more information to determine what actions we can take in relation to this ban.”

Elmir was due to compete in the women’s flyweight (48-51kg) category at the world championships, where a first-place finish among the Oceania boxers would have booked her ticket to London, where women’s boxing will debut. She was regarded as one of Australia’s strongest medal hopes in the sport.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Hitting rock bottom six months before the London Games was the best thing that could have happened to Steve Hooker, the Olympic pole vault champion said, after climbing out of an abyss of self-doubt to qualify last week.

The 29-year-old jets off to Shanghai on Tuesday for the weekend’s Diamond League meeting, having only just booked his ticket to London with a vault of 5.72 meters at a sanctioned event in Perth on Friday.

The party-like atmosphere of thumping electronic music, spotlights and an exclusive guest-list at a disused railway carriage depot was at odds with the enormous pressure Hooker felt as he stared down the runway hoping the painstaking work he had to done to rebuild his shattered confidence would pay off.

“I think for two years, even three years I was in a position where I had momentum, but the momentum was going in the wrong direction and it’s so hard to turn around,” the shaggy-haired redhead said in a conference call from Perth.

“I think in a lot of ways hitting rock bottom had to happen at some point for me to have that point where the only was up and now I feel like I’m on that trajectory and I’m happy that I feel like I can keep building on the things that I’ve been working on.”

Hooker jumped 5.90m at the Beijing Games to become Australia’s first man to win Olympic athletics gold in 40 years and has a personal best of 6.06m set indoors, only bettered by retired Ukrainian great Sergey Bubka.

Hooker’s dominance extended to winning the 2009 world championship and the indoor title in 2010, but injury problems saw him crash out of his rushed world title defense at Daegu last year when he failed to clear 5.50m and make the final.

MELBOURNE, May 15 (Reuters) – Hitting rock bottom six months before the London Games was the best thing that could have happened to Steve Hooker, the Olympic pole vault champion said, after climbing out of an abyss of self-doubt to qualify last week.

The 29-year-old jets off to Shanghai on Tuesday for the weekend’s Diamond League meeting, having only just booked his ticket to London with a vault of 5.72 metres at a sanctioned event in Perth on Friday.

The party-like atmosphere of thumping electronic music, spotlights and an exclusive guest-list at a disused railway carriage depot was at odds with the enormous pressure Hooker felt as he stared down the runway hoping the painstaking work he had to done to rebuild his shattered confidence would pay off.

“I think for two years, even three years I was in a position where I had momentum, but the momentum was going in the wrong direction and it’s so hard to turn around,” the shaggy-haired redhead said in a conference call from Perth.

“I think in a lot of ways hitting rock bottom had to happen at some point for me to have that point where the only was up and now I feel like I’m on that trajectory and I’m happy that I feel like I can keep building on the things that I’ve been working on.”

Hooker jumped 5.90m at the Beijing Games to become Australia’s first man to win Olympic athletics gold in 40 years and has a personal best of 6.06m set indoors, only bettered by retired Ukrainian great Sergey Bubka.

Hooker’s dominance extended to winning the 2009 world championship and the indoor title in 2010, but injury problems saw him crash out of his rushed world title defence at Daegu last year when he failed to clear 5.50m and make the final.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The surprise decision to chop windsurfing from the Olympic programme has prompted jeers from leading athletes, but is being hailed by kiteboarders whose discipline will be showcased for the first time at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) announced the decision to include men’s and women’s kiteboarding at the expense of windsurfing over the weekend, describing it as a “fantastic addition” for the 2016 Games.

“Obviously we’ve got quite a few young sailors in particular who have been campaigning and building a campaign particularly with 2016 in mind and I guess we’ve been investing via national windsurfing programmes,” Peter Conde, Yachting Australia’s high performance director, told Reuters on Monday.

“Clearly those sailors are pretty devastated. At least at first (glance) it looks like their dreams have been dashed by this decision.

“I guess it remains to be seen as to whether many of those athletes might want to take a fresh look and embrace kiteboarding as a new discipline. I guess we’d be encouraging them to look at it.”

Windsurfing federations have vowed to pressure sailing’s global governing body ISAF to re-instate the sport, with Britain’s Bryony Shaw, Olympic bronze medalist at Beijing’s Games, supporting an online petition.

Britain’s Nick Dempsey, who came fourth at Beijing, said on his Facebook account: “That was a big decision and a very sad day for windsurfing.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The surprise decision to chop windsurfing from the Olympic program has prompted jeers from leading athletes, but is being hailed by kiteboarders whose discipline will be showcased for the first time at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) announced the decision to include men’s and women’s kiteboarding at the expense of windsurfing over the weekend, describing it as a “fantastic addition” for the 2016 Games.

“Obviously we’ve got quite a few young sailors in particular who have been campaigning and building a campaign particularly with 2016 in mind and I guess we’ve been investing via national windsurfing programs,” Peter Conde, Yachting Australia’s high performance director, told Reuters on Monday.

“Clearly those sailors are pretty devastated. At least at first (glance) it looks like their dreams have been dashed by this decision.

“I guess it remains to be seen as to whether many of those athletes might want to take a fresh look and embrace kiteboarding as a new discipline. I guess we’d be encouraging them to look at it.”

Windsurfing federations have vowed to pressure sailing’s global governing body ISAF to re-instate the sport, with Britain’s Bryony Shaw, Olympic bronze medalist at Beijing’s Games, supporting an online petition.

Britain’s Nick Dempsey, who came fourth at Beijing, said on his Facebook account: “That was a big decision and a very sad day for windsurfing.

MELBOURNE, May 7 (Reuters) – The surprise decision to chop windsurfing from the Olympic programme has prompted jeers from leading athletes, but is being hailed by kiteboarders whose discipline will be showcased for the first time at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) announced the decision to include men’s and women’s kiteboarding at the expense of windsurfing over the weekend, describing it as a “fantastic addition” for the 2016 Games.

“Obviously we’ve got quite a few young sailors in particular who have been campaigning and building a campaign particularly with 2016 in mind and I guess we’ve been investing via national windsurfing programmes,” Peter Conde, Yachting Australia’s high performance director, told Reuters on Monday.

“Clearly those sailors are pretty devastated. At least at first (glance) it looks like their dreams have been dashed by this decision.

“I guess it remains to be seen as to whether many of those athletes might want to take a fresh look and embrace kiteboarding as a new discipline. I guess we’d be encouraging them to look at it.”

Windsurfing federations have vowed to pressure sailing’s global governing body ISAF to re-instate the sport, with Britain’s Bryony Shaw, Olympic bronze medalist at Beijing’s Games, supporting an online petition.

Britain’s Nick Dempsey, who came fourth at Beijing, said on his Facebook account: “That was a big decision and a very sad day for windsurfing.

MELBOURNE, April 30 (Reuters) – Wallabies playmaker Will Genia has made a stunning U-turn by deciding to re-sign with the Queensland Reds two days after the Super Rugby team announced he would join Western Force next season.

The Reds said in a statement on Monday Genia had signed that morning until the end of 2015, scuppering the Perth-based Force’s bid to recruit the 24-year-old scrumhalf at the eleventh hour.

On Saturday, the Reds had announced that Genia was leaving the team at the end of the season to play for Force after not being able to provide a competitive enough offer.

Genia said he had told the Reds’ title-winning coach Ewen McKenzie after Friday’s win over the Auckland Blues that he was set to defect to the Force, but had a change of heart over the weekend.

“Ewen asked me after the game on Friday whether I was going to be staying with the Reds and I told him I was going to join the Western Force at the end of the season,” he told reporters.

“But when I considered my options over the weekend I realised it really didn’t sit well with me and my heart was in Queensland and that’s where I want to play my rugby.”

Genia added the caveat that the new Reds deal was subject to a “top-up” by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU).