Discus star Samuels earns Olympic selection

Three of Australia's five modern-day track and field world champions are locked in for London after discus star Dani Samuels was one of a dozen athletes added to the Olympic team on Tuesday. The Athletics Australia selectors saw enough in Samuels' solid throw of 61.30m - just 70cm short of the automatic qualifying mark - in dreadful weather at the trials on the weekend to give her the nod. Reigning 100m hurdles world champion Sally Pearson headlines a squad that numbers 25 and should eventually rise to more than 40. Nathan Deakes, the 50km champ from the 2007 world titles, is among a strong walking contingent that also includes dual Beijing Olympic medallist Jared Tallent. The focus will shift to two of the very biggest names in Australian athletics, defending Olympic champ and 2009 world championships pole vault gold medallist Steve Hooker and Jana Pittman, who has twice topped the world in the 400m hurdles. Hooker is training well but won't return to competition until he is over the yips, while Pittman has only just gone back to the track after overcoming another foot injury. They have until June 11 to meet the qualifying standard and force their way into the squad. Samuels is the first to admit she is still well short of the form that won her a shock gold medal at the 2009 world titles in Berlin. But she is adamant that things are finally on the up after a mediocre 2011, during which time she just scraped into the final of the world championships in Daegu. "I see myself as really gaining momentum and building confidence with each throw," she said on Tuesday. "After the competition on the weekend, I'm starting to feel a little bit like my old self, being determined to throw further and be better, rather than just hoping that the next throw will be better. "I'm getting back to feeling bullet-proof. "I know it's coming along very slowly, but it is coming along and this is another step in the right direction." All three women's discus medallists in Daegu threw further than Samuels' gold-medal effort of 65.44m in Berlin and she knows it will likely take a personal best effort to get onto the podium in London. "The girls have definitely gone up to another level," said the 23-year-old. "We've got a lot of work to do - it's five months from yesterday until my Olympic final." Henry Frayne received the nod in the long jump from the selectors on Tuesday after previously earning automatic selection in his favoured triple jump. New national pole vault record holder Alana Boyd was surprisingly beaten into second place by training partner Liz Parnov at last weekend's trials in Melbourne. But the selectors took into account Boyd's recent stellar run of form and the wet conditions in selecting her alongside Parnov who, at 17, is the youngest member of the squad. The other Australians to book their tickets to London at the selectors' discretion were Collis Birmingham (5000m), Ben St Lawrence (10,000m), Lauren Boden (400m hurdles), 1500m duo Zoe Buckman and Kaila McKnight, 20km walkers Regan Lamble and Beki Lee and discus thrower Julian Wruck. Craig Mottram (5000m), Brendan Cole (400m hurdles), Youcef Abdi (3000m steeplechase) and Jeff Riseley (800m) claimed automatic qualification by virtue of their victories in the trials at Lakeside Stadium, while Claire Tallent won the women's 20km walk trial last month in Hobart.