>From http://www.sportscentral.com.au - It's not XC but... ATHS: FIRST US WAVE ARRIVES FOR GAMES By Dale Paget GOLD COAST, Aug 21 AAP - The first wave of the formidable United States athletics team arrived in Australia for the Sydney Olympics today and set up camp at Ron Clarke's island resort on the Gold Coast. About a dozen athletes as well as coaches and support personnel flew into Brisbane and later travelled by ferry to Couran Cove on South Stradbroke Island. US men's head coach, John Chaplin said the warmer weather had attracted the Americans to Queensland. "No offence to Sydney but it is a little colder than Brisbane and we've come from our late summer so the change to weather here is a little easier at first before we move into the village in Sydney," he said. "This is just a little warmer." The team will train at Clarke's Super Sports Centre on a certified IAAF Olympic-standard Mondo track, identical to the surface at Sydney's Olympic stadium. "The facilities are excellent," said Chaplin. "There's no better place in the world." US athletes will also conduct workouts from August 29 to September 12 at Nudgee College in Brisbane. However, American gold medal favourites like Michael Johnson, Marion Jones and Maurice Greene are competing in Europe. They are expected to arrive with either the second wave of athletes on September 3 or 4 or with a final group scheduled to fly into Sydney on September 10. Long jumper Savante Stringfellow said the team had been travelling for almost 24 hours and most were feeling jet lagged and looking forward to catching up on sleep. "My main business is to jump but I plan on getting a little sightseeing in, maybe see a kangaroo or two," he said. The US team will have their final tune up before the Olympics at an international race meet on September 10 to mark the official opening of the Sports Centre on the Gold Coast. Athletes from the US, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Trinidad and Tobago, Morocco, Denmark, Belgium and Australia are scheduled to compete. Regards - GT - http://homepages.go.com/~oztrack/
