Olympics hurdles champ Sally Pearson falls out with Eric Hollingsworth

FEUDS are splintering Australia’s Commonwealth Games team, with Sally Pearson the latest athlete to fall out with their coach.

FEUDS are splintering Australia’s Commonwealth Games team, with Sally Pearson the latest athlete to fall out with their coach.

Olympic hurdles champion Pearson is reportedly no longer speaking with head athletics coach Eric Hollingsworth, swimmer Melanie Schlanger is fuming over being overlooked for the 4x200m freestyle relay final and squash is racked with selection turmoil.

Team chief Steve Moneghetti, however, is staying out of the ­disputes.

Moneghetti won’t intervene in Pearson’s dispute and says the two squash players questioning selections were not his responsibility.

“My total responsibility is to how this team performs,” he said. “I leave the politics out of my role.

“I’m happy to chat to anybody about that outside of Games time. We’ve got enough to focus on right here, we’ve got some really strong challenges as a team rising above those external issues.”

Pearson is known to have been upset after some of her funding was cut for missing a pre-Games camp in favour of racing at a meet in London and last week said she had to “bite her tongue” on the topic.

“They had some issues leading in with the funding and that situation,” Moneghetti said.

“I think she’s frustrated because she wants to get the competition going.”

Reports have emerged that Pearson’s relationship with Hollingsworth has broken down and she has approached Athletics Australia president David Grace to complain about what she perceives as a lack of support from the sport’s bosses.

Schlanger was said to have had a heated exchange with head coach Jacco Verhaeren and high performance director Michael Scott over the relay selection and has also reportedly complained to Swimming Australia chief executive Mark Anderson.

Her parents said they believed she was snubbed because she was outspoken.

Schlanger appeared the obvious choice for a 4x200m relay spot after hitting form at Glasgow but missed selection, and the gold medal, with an out of sorts Alicia Coutts shocked to be chosen ­instead.

“I’m still feeling very comfortable with how we approached this relay,” Verhaeren said.

“People can agree and disagree. This is a combined decision with all coaches together and this came out of this process and we’ll continue doing this process over and over again.

“It is not about favouritism, it is nothing personal.”

Squash Australia admits two selection dramas have created a challenging environment for the team.

Days after player Zac Alexander was forced to leave the athletes village following Matt Karwalski’s last-minute appeal win, a lawyer representing Donna Urquhart has hit out at the decision to take her out of the Games singles competition and play lower-ranked youngster Sarah Cardwell instead.

“We trust that people will get by those things, get on the court and do what they can for Australia,” Squash Australia chief executive Gary O’Donnell said.

AAP