Nothing personal: steeplechaser LaCaze thrilled to wear the green and gold

Posted: July 24, 2012 at 5:13 pm


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Settled her differences ... Genevieve LaCaze. Photo: Getty Images

The athlete and the coach who said she shouldn't be on the team have finally met and shaken hands at the athletics team's camp south of London.

Steeplechaser Genevieve LaCaze met team high performance manager Eric Hollingsworth and spoken briefly to remove the awkwardness of her arrival on the team after Hollingsworth had taken a hard line that she should not be selected as she had achieved the A-standard time for the 3000 metres steeplechase after the Athletics Australia cutoff date.

Just like any other team member she is a member of the team and she is treated as such and I have no problem with Genevieve whatsoever and the focus is on this Australian team doing well and that is how we will set up

LaCaze ran her sought-after time two days after that deadline but still more than a week before the Australian Olympic Committee's deadline. AA initially refused to consider her time as Hollingsworth said should be the case, but the sport's body was pushed into overturning that decision by the AOC which insisted all athletes be given the most time possible to qualify and they didn't want an athlete to be punished by an arbitrarily early deadline.

Eric Hollingsworth, right, pictured here with John Steffensen, says he has no issue with LaCaze. Photo: Jason South

"He [Hollingsworth] did introduce himself when I collected the uniform the other day. I have been introduced and that's all it's been so far," LaCaze said.

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Hollingsworth said he had never had a problem with LaCaze personally but he had been adhering to strict rules on selection in order to be fair to all athletes.

"Just like any other team member she is a member of the team and she is treated as such and I have no problem with Genevieve whatsoever and the focus is on this Australian team doing well and that is how we will set up," he said.

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Nothing personal: steeplechaser LaCaze thrilled to wear the green and gold

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July 24th, 2012 at 5:13 pm




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