Jongewaard appealing to keep dream alive

Max Bennett

03Jul08

Chris Jongewaard in action

THE battle to keep his Olympic dream alive has started for Chris Jongewaard after the Centralian lodged an appeal against his omission from the Beijing Olympics team.

The Adelaide-based rider lodged his appeal before the 5pm deadline on Tuesday.

Jongewaard declined to comment on the issue preferring to wait for the verdict of his appeal.

After the traumatic experiences of qualifying for the Athens games only to be replaced on appeal, Jongewaard will be keen to avoid a repeat.

The rider is currently embroiled in a court case after an alleged hit-and-run incident with then training partner Matthew Rex, which left the rider in a coma for 12 days.

The Australian Olympic Committee have the final say on which athletes will travel to China as part of the Olympic team with performance not the sole criteria.

It is believed Cycling Australia did not nominate Jongewaard because he would have been rejected by the AOC.

It seems Jongewaard's non-selection could not have been performance related, with the 29-year-old the highest-placed Australian at the recent world titles (29th).

The 2006 Commonwealth Games competitor has been in the form of his career in the past two years, winning his back-to-back Australian cross country championships, seeing his world ranking soar to 30, some 21 places ahead of Beijing-bound Dan McConnell (51st).

Jongewaard will now head to Melbourne on Wednesday, where his appeal will be heard by a three-member panel.

If the rider's appeal is unsuccessful, he can make an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

With the Olympics starting in August, Jongewaard admitted he faces a sleepless two months.