Australia's leading track and field athletes will be given every chance to stake an early claim for the London Olympics after a surprisingly large team was named for the Berlin world championships.
But new Athletics Australia national performance manager Eric Hollingsworth warned that selection for the August15-23 world championships came with a caveat.
''At the start of a new Olympic cycle we need to blood athletes,'' Hollingsworth said yesterday at the team announcement. ''If we were an AFL club all we would be doing is having a look at a lot of players and we're having a look at a lot of athletes.
''We need to have a look at them under a more stressful situation because one of the things I've identified over the years is that Australian athletes have the quality, but they tend to fail under the pressure.
''Obviously the 2010 Commonwealth Games team will be reasonably big as well.
''From then on it's about raising the bar to performance and making sure that the athletes we do take away to the world championships and Olympics are of the very finest quality.''
And Hollingsworth had one other warning for the squad turn up for the pre-championships training camp in tip-top shape or else.
''If an athlete isn't up to the standard we want, we will be sending athletes back home,'' he said.
The 39-strong Australian squad named at the conclusion of the national selection trials in Brisbane was more than double the size of the one that went to the 2005 world titles the last time the biennial event was held in a post-Olympic year.
It could swell to 50 once the marathoners are included in May and if further athletes produce standout performances in the next four months.
Among the more surprising selections were pole vaulter Paul Burgess who chose not to compete at the trials high jumper Petrina Price and 1500m runner Jeremy Roff.
In a change of approach by Athletics Australia, a men's 4x100m relay team was named, after being overlooked for the Beijing Olympics.
But Hollingsworth made it clear that the likes of Josh Ross and Patrick Johnson would not be allowed to contest the individual 100m at the expense of their relay preparations.
''We will select a relay team and that team will have a very definite preparation line,'' he said.
''Those athletes will not be allowed to go straying about with their own individual plans.
''It will be strictly a relay-team plan and that's it.''
Tamsyn Lewis, the standout performer at the national trials with her dual victories in the 400m and 400m hurdles, has been named in both events, although Hollingsworth said she would only contest one in Berlin.
Given Lewis's stunning improvement in the 400m hurdles an event she has only run six times it seems the more likely choice.
Seven athletes including 18-year-old Canberra sprinter Melissa Breen, the youngest member of the squad have never represented Australia before at senior level.
The squad includes one reigning Olympic gold medallist, pole vaulter Steve Hooker, and two defending world champions, Jana Rawlinson (400m hurdles) and Nathan Deakes (50km walk). AAP