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Jones set to give Australia a golden start to Olympics
SYDNEY, Aug 25 (AFP) - Australia's Michellie Jones is poised to seize the spotlight on the opening day's competition of the Olympics' newest sport triathlon. Australia is the dominant nation in the photogenic event and is expected to dominate the women's triathlon, which will be the first medal decided in Sydney on September 16. Australia's other contenders are former dual world junior champion Nicole Hackett and world No.2 Loretta Harrop. If world rankings and the form guide hold true, Advance Australia Fair will be the first national anthem played at the Sydney Olympics. Jones has already been successful twice on the Olympic course. World champion in 1992 and 1993, the 31-year-old California-based triathlete remains in peak condition and admits to being advantaged by not having any doubts surrounding her Games participation. Jones followed up her Sydney World Cup win in April with a third placing behind Hackett at the world championships in Perth and has spent much of the year improving her swimming to complement strong cycle and run legs. Triathlon, first staged in San Diego in 1974, was included in the Olympic program for the Sydney Games in September, 1994. The Olympic course consists of a 1500-metre swim off the Opera House steps into Sydney Harbour, followed by a 40-kilometre cycle leg through city parklands and concludes with a 10-km run before finishing back at the Opera House. Jones prepares for the rigorous event by running 50-60kms each week, cycling four or five a week for periods of between one-and-a-half hours to four hours and swims 20-25 kilometres weekly. Although not as much training as some of her rivals perform, it is the intensity of her workouts that makes her a winner. She pushes herself hard in short bursts. "I train for three days in a row, then I take one day off and so on. "I don't think the body can train hard for six days in succession without a break, but that is what suits me." Her great strength in the gruelling event is consistency across the three disciplines of triathlon. "I am rarely first in any of them but by being well-placed in all three of them, I can do well," she says. Jones' main overseas rivals for the gold medal are Canadian run specialist Carol Montgomery, who claimed second place in this year's world championship. Swiss pair Brigitte McMahon and Magali Messmer proved themselves over the Olympic course when they filled the minor placings at the Sydney World Cup. Others include Japan's Horuna Hosoya, Frenchwoman Isabelle Mouthon-Michellys, Americans Jennifer Gutierrez and Sheila Taormina, British pair Stephanie Forrester and Sian Brice, and Belgians Mieke Suys and Kathleen Smet. But Jones, a qualified teacher, aims to give them a lesson on the course she first competed on in 1988.
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