The London Olympian traded in her spikes for a gorgeous wedding dress as she tied the knot with Heath Wells at the popular House of Reps Rose Garden at Old Parliament House on Saturday.

The pair met three years ago after they were introduced by Heath’s sister Meredith, who works with Lauren. Heath popped the question during last year’s London Olympic Games, where Lauren took to the track in the 400m hurdles.

Heath is a sporting star in his own right, having won world championships in softball with the Australian junior and senior men’s team.

More than 90 guests retreated last night to the reception at the Federal Golf Club. Locker Room wishes the happy couple all the best.

Australian cricket great Dean Jones believes “heads will roll” if the Test team fails to fire in the Ashes, but the champion batsman is adamant they can beat England 2-1 in the series. Jones also implored Cricket Australia to fork out more cash to recruit past greats as consultant coaches to boost team morale.

The Ashes starts in Brisbane on November 21 and the lead up has been dominated by Ricky Ponting’s criticism of current captain Michael Clarke with former skippers Mark Taylor and Shane Warne firing back. Jones is backing Australia, but said if Australia lost a fourth consecutive Ashes, “there will be blood”.

“If we don’t do well against England this year, there will be a lot of blood,” Jones said. “If we get pumped 3-0, there could be captaincy changes, the coach will be questioned and there will be questions at the top. But if we can lift our batting by 15 per cent, we can give England a hiding.” Jones also called on former players to stop bickering and said Cricket Australia should employ them as coaches.

“The biggest problem we have is that our batting and bowling coaches get $125,000 a year and they’re away 279 days of the year. The game turns over $240 million ... if I was at Cricket Australia I’d have 15 past greats on contract to work 60 days each.”

Jones was in Canberra for the Federal Amateur Open and played in the sponsors event on Thursday. His best cricket years might be beyond him, but Jones showed he’s got some class on the golf course when he holed-out from 80 metres. For the record, Jones’ Australian XI for the first Test is: 1. David Warner, 2. Chris Rogers, 3. Shane Watson, 4. Michael Clarke, 5. George Bailey, 6. Steve Smith, 7. Brad Haddin, 8. Mitch Johnson, 9. Ryan Harris, 10. Peter Siddle, 11. Nathan Lyon.

Canberra BMX star Caroline Buchanan is riding high after the biggest year of her career. But Cycling Australia’s athlete of the year’s hunt for more adrenaline was ruined by weather on Saturday morning.

Just hours after becoming the youngest winner of Cycling Australia’s highest prize – the Sir Hubert ‘Oppy’ Opperman Medal & Trophy as the Australian cyclist of the year - Buchanan planned a skydive. Melbourne’s notorious bad weather and rain meant she missed her chance and the adrenaline junkie had to settle for a quiet morning.

In less than a year she has won two world championships (in BMX and four cross), was named as Australia’s female mountain bike and BMX cyclist of the year and collected the SBS people’s choice award. Buchanan also met Prince Harry on his visit to Australia last month and was an ACT young Australian of the year finalist. It will be hard to top 2013, but Buchanan’s still aiming for Olympic Games gold.

One’s an Olympic Games legend and the other is a rugby league coaching guru. United States sprinter Michael Johnson and Wayne Bennett have almost nothing in common. But the AIS is calling in sporting royalty for the “world class to world best” high performance conference in Canberra this week.

Johnson is a track and field great - a four-time Olympic gold medallist, eight-time world champion and still the 400 metre world record holder.

Bennett has won seven rugby league grand finals and spent 21 seasons with the Brisbane Broncos. The odd couple might seem like a mismatch. Johnson used to wear gold shoes in his races while Bennett is cagey and reserved in the media. But they’re two respected minds and the Australian Sport Commission hopes their insight will benefit all sports in Australia.

The high performance conference is designed to address strategies to support Australia’s sport systems and there will be sessions running on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

The AIS will also have its awards night on Thursday. Author David Epstein, Commandant of the Royal Military College Birgadier Dianne Gallasch and AIS director Matt Favier will also be at the conference.

Canberra cricketer Ben Oakley went the extra mile, literally, in getting himself a Big Bash League contract with the Adelaide Strikers.

The 31-year-old left-arm paceman will make the step up to the national Twenty20 competition after catching the eye of Strikers coach Darren Berry. “Ben really impressed me a couple of weeks ago when we were in Sydney for the Ryobi Cup,” Berry said.

“I phoned him up to see if we could fly him up to Sydney so he could train with us one day so we could have another look. Ben jumped in his car, drove to Sydney and trained for two hours and drove home. To me that showed a pretty good commitment.” Oakley will join ACT Comets teammate Jono Dean at the Strikers this summer.

James Crawford, “The Alabama Slammer”, will be inducted into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame later this month. But it’s tough to gauge how Canberra basketball fans would remember him.

Crawford played one season with the Canberra Cannons when he and the NBL club were at their peak, in 1986, wowing crowds at The Palace with his athleticism above the rim. But others will not forget when he came out of retirement, in his early 40s to play a one-off match with the Cannons when they were going broke in 2003. Crawford was part of a Newcastle consortium that bought the Cannons licence that year and transferred the NBL team to the Hunter.

For those who choose to remember the good times, Crawford played 504 games over 18 years in the NBL, and at the time of retirement sat top five all-time for points (2nd), rebounds (3rd) and blocks (2nd).

Seven-year-old Matilda Sullings could be Canberra’s next golfing star and she will get some tips off world No.6 Rory McIlroy in Sydney on November 27.

Matilda, daughter of Mix106.3 presenter and ActewAGL sponsorship guru Cam Sullings, won a competition to go to a junior clinic with McIlroy at Royal Sydney before the first round of the Australian Open. Matilda started playing to join Cam on the course and was a regular at the free kids clinic at the Federal Golf Club this year. And after McIlroy’s fall from the world No.1 spot, maybe Matilda can give the 24-year-old Irishman some tips.

Earlier this year, Matilda went within three inches of scoring her first hole-in-one at the Narrabundah pitch and putt. Her tee shot on the 14th hole looked as if it dropped in the hole and dad Cam was already celebrating. When they got to the green, they found the ball agonisingly short.

Unfortunately, Matilda inherited Cam’s putting skills. She missed the tap in when she hit too hard.