Commonwealth Games 2022: Aussies must quit with elitist Covid rubbish

Australia has to get off its high horse and get down with the rest of the Commonwealth. The ridiculous notion that Aussie athletes are at “high risk” by mingling with British folk is elitist rubbish.

Australia's Kelsey-Lee Barber competes in the women's javelin throw finals during the World Athletics Championships.

Australia has to get off its high horse and get down with the rest of the Commonwealth.

The quite frankly ridiculous notion that the Australian team athletes are at “high risk” by mingling with the British population is elitist rubbish.

Australia’s athletes are now confining themselves to their own cohort, tip toeing around Birmingham and wearing masks, even outside lest they bump into one of these foreigners.

In doing so they are the only country here that is missing out on the very ethos of the Commonwealth Games: meeting and learning about other Commonwealth nations.

Australians, who have been closed off from the rest of the world for most of the pandemic, and shut the borders to their own, could learn quite a bit about broadening horizons.

What’s better than bumping into a a team member from Niue, is then deciding to visit the tiny Pacific atoll months later, for what turns out to be a terrific holiday.

Our athletes will proclaim that they aren’t here in Birmingham to make friends, but rather to win gold medals, of which there will be plenty.

But once their competitions are over there should be a relaxation of Australia’s stringent covid rules to allow them to cheer other Australians, and heaven forbid, even get close enough to have a conversation with someone other than a team mate. At the moment they will be sent home within 48 hours of their event finishing.

Organisers could easily relocate those athletes who are finished to near the farmstead where the Australian triathletes are housed: all rural comforts including home cooked English breakfast, and then travel in to mix with the rest of the Commonwealth.

Who knows, by joining the rest of the world they might even have a good time.

COVID-HIT AUSSIE CHAMP WAITING ON OFFICIAL GAMES REQUIREMENTS

New world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber is expected to compete at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games despite testing positive to Covid-19.

Barber, who won her second javelin throw world crown last week in Eugene, Oregon, tested positive at the Australian team camp in Tonbridge on Wednesday.

She is asymptomatic with the women’s javelin final not until the final day of competition on the track on Sunday, August 7.

Barber’s diagnosis comes as it was revealed athletes with Covid-19 will be able to compete in Birmingham after the health of any infected athlete has been delegated to doctors linked with each country’s team.

Australia's Kelsey-Lee Barber has tested positive for Covid.

“Kelsey-Lee Barber is not out [of the Games],” Australia’s high-performance manager Andrew Faichney said. “We are just working through with CGA (Commonwealth Games Authority) what the requirements are for her being able to compete and there are some protocols as far as the Australian organising committee are concerned, but my understanding is she is not ruled out from competing at all.

“I have to reconfirm but I think the organising committee has said that if an athlete is well and healthy enough, then they are going to be able to compete and so that is what we are working through.

“But she has also got it early enough that she might be able to compete anyway.”

The world champion still plans to compete in Birmingham.

Around 12 athletes every day have been found to have coronavirus when they are tested upon arrival at the Games village.

While many of Australia’s athletics team were travelling to Birmingham from the team camp on Thursday, Barber will remain behind in isolation.

Barber’s setback comes as it was confirmed Olympic bronze medal-winning decathlete Ash Moloney has withdrawn from the Games.

Moloney was forced to pull out midway through the decathlon at last week’s world championships because of a knee injury. He has already returned home to Brisbane with a decision on whether he requires surgery to be discussed in the coming weeks.

Olympic bronze medallist Ash Moloney is out of the Birmingham Games. Picture: Matthew Forrest

“We haven’t thought about surgery yet, it’s just so soon. Once everyone is back we will have a good look at it, but he has a great team around him and we will discuss what it is we need to do to get him robust enough that he is able to get through,” Faichney said.

“It’s just a shame he was not able to do it this time around, doubly so because he was looking at coming up here as well as Oregon.”

Moloney, 22, was seen as a strong gold medal chance after Canada’s Olympic champion Damian Warner was ruled out with injury.

Australia’s two other decathletes, Cedric Dubler who finished eighth in Oregon and Daniel Golubovic who came 14th, are both backing up and competing in Birmingham.

The withdrawals come after three other members of the athletics team – hurdler Liz Clay and runners Joe Deng and Riley Day – had already pulled out of the Commonwealth Games through injury.

Originally published as Commonwealth Games 2022: Aussies must quit with elitist Covid rubbish