Sprinter Browning picked in Olympics athletics team
![Sprinter Rohan Browning will run at the Paris Olympics after a tough year on the track. (AP PHOTO)](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-15276271/bfed917eb02b82bcede183930dd18e33527d78fa-16x9-x0y0w1280h720.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
Rohan Browning is defiant, saying it's all a matter of timing after the sprinter made the Australian Olympic athletics team.
The 26-year-old will have the chance to reprise his 100m heroics at the Tokyo Olympics, when he made the semi-finals.
Browning was among 55 athletes named on Monday, the final selections for the Australian Olympic team.
The team of 75 is Australia's second-largest at an Olympics behind Sydney 2000.
It also ends the sport selections, with Australia to send 460 competitors to Paris.
Browning's selection was a close-run thing for the sprint ace, who was 57th - one spot outside the cut-off for the 100m rankings - when the selection period ended on June 30.
He had been unable to better the tough automatic qualifying standard of 10.00 seconds.
Browning has managed a chronic knee problem that has dogged him for much of his career.
He and his coach Andrew Murphy made the call after last month's Oceania championships in Suva that to be at his best in Paris, the smart thing to do was head to their regular training venue at the AIS base in northern Italy.
That meant not going to European meets, trying to chase faster times that would push him up the rankings.
He plans to run the 100m at a low-key meet near Venice next weekend to get back into the rhythm of racing and see where he is at.
"People can have a short memory in this sport. They remember what I did in Tokyo but hardly anyone remembers how the rest of that year went," he told AAP from his training base in Italy.
"It's all about getting it right on the big stage and that's the attitude I'll be taking to Paris."
Browning said he always confident of making the Paris team, but admitted to some nervous moments in the last few days as he monitored rivals' times at various national championships.
"I was casting an eye on what was happening," he said.
"But now that the team has been named and it's official I can concentrate on being at my best for those two days in Paris when it really matters."
Browning was also named in the 4x100m relay squad, despite not going to any of their training camps this year, and said he would understand if his four teammates ran in the event at the Olympics.
As expected, Torrie Lewis won't compete in the women's 100m despite breaking the national record earlier this year.
Instead, she will race in the 200m and will be in the 4x100m relay squad, with Ella Connolly and Bree Masters the individual 100m selections.
The toughest calls for the selectors were in the middle-distance events, where Australia boasts unprecedented depth.
Peter Bol (men's 800m), Claudia Hollingsworth and Abbey Caldwell (women's 800m) and Jessica Hull (women's 1500m) were pre-selected after the national championships in April.
Commonwealth champion Olli Hoare will start in the men's 1500m, while national record holder Catriona Bisset took the last women's 800m berth ahead of fast-improving Bendere Oboya.
Australia will select a maximum three runners in the 800m and 1500m races.
The Olympics opening ceremony is on July 26 and the athletics program runs from August 1-11.
High jumpers Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson, pole vaulters Nina Kennedy and Kurtis Marschall, walker Jemima Montag and javelin thrower Mackenzie Little are among the nation's best medal hopes.
Hull posted the fifth-fastest time in history for the 1500m on Sunday night (AEST), confirming she is Australia's top medal contender in track events.
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