Rio Olympics turning into the ‘Bad Luck Games’ for Tasmanian athletes

TASMANIA’S Olympic campaign is crashing down – in some cases literally.

Tasmanian Amy Cure looks on after the crash involving teammate Melissa Hoskins, left, during a training session at the Rio Olympic velodrome. Picture: AP/Patrick Semansky

TASMANIA’S Olympic campaign is crashing down – in some cases literally.

Following the horrific crash that put Tasmania’s Tour de France hero Richie Porte in hospital on Sunday, gold medal hopes Amy Cure and Georgia Baker had a bone-jarring training accident with the women’s team pursuit squad of five riders on the Olympic velodrome yesterday.

The high-speed smash by the reigning world record holders put West Australian Melissa Hoskins in hospital. She was later released on crutches with a badly bruised hip and some skin missing.

Cure, 23, and Baker, 21, were shocked, bruised and had “track burn”. Australian officials said the girls were shaken but not stirred.

“Both Amy and Georgia are fine,” said national cycling coach Matthew Gilmore, from the Tasmanian Institute of Sport. “There’s a bit of skin off and a few bruises, but they will be back on the track tomorrow morning.”

Cure’s parents Delwyn and Graeme are in Rio and said Amy and Georgia would bounce back ahead of their qualifying rounds starting at 5.20am on Friday.

“We don’t feel the need to be at all concerned at this stage,” Delwyn said. “They are strong both mentally and emotionally and won’t be too disturbed about this.”

The pace was on when Hoskins came down.

“For those watching it would have been spectacular,” Hoskins said.

“We certainly weren’t on a Sunday stroll, we were doing high-speed race pace efforts.

“When you crash at those speeds it is never nice, especially when four came down but I am counting us very lucky. We will be OK, luckily we have four girls who are firing and who will fly the flag if we can’t.”

Tasmania has 11 athletes at the Rio Games.

Porte, 31, has a broken shoulder blade and badly bruised hip and ribs after he crashed trying to avoid a fallen rider on the final descent of the gruelling men’s road race.

MORE: PORTE SUSTAINS SERIOUS INJURY IN ROAD RACE FALL

At the time, Porte was well-placed to challenge for an Olympic medal. The accident ruled out the unlucky rider from tomorrow’s time trial.

Tasmania’s “Bad Luck Games” continued when Australia’s most capped women’s rower, Kerry Hore, 35, missed the final of the quad sculls by the blink of an eye — sixth one hundredths of a second.

Tasmanian’s Eddie Ockenden, 29, and Tim Deavin, 32, are part of the gold medal favourite and world No.1 Kookaburras hockey team that is fighting for survival in Group A. To advance to the quarter-finals, the Kookas must win at least two of their next three games, starting with Belgium today at 9.30am, Great Britain tomorrow and Brazil on Saturday.

The Olympic fairytale of Tasmanian Meaghan Volker is still alive as the 25-year-old competes tomorrow night (10.50pm) with the Aussie women’s eight for a place in the final.

The Aussies were gifted a spot at the Games when the Russians were thrown out. They arrived in Brazil only two days before their first race on Monday in a borrowed boat from a local Rio rowing club.

Tasmanian basketballer Chris Goulding has had game time as part of the undefeated Boomers.

Marathon runner Milly Clark is putting final prep­arations on her race at 10.30pm on Sunday, and athlete Hamish Peacock is a medal chance in the javelin on Thursday next week.