Pole vaulter Hooker and discus thrower Samuels were among eight athletes given early nomination next year's Games on the strength of their deeds this year.

Sally McLellan, the Olympic 100 metres silver medallist, long jumpers Mitchell Watt and Fabrice Lapierre, race walker Jared Tallent and marathon runner Lisa Weightman were also included following strong World Championships performances while 10,000m runner Collis Birmingham met the criteria with his national title win this month.

Athletics Australia says it expects more than 90 athletes to eventually make the team, surpassing the previous largest team for a major meet on foreign soil which was 83 to the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games.

The 2010 team is expected to include 12-18 athletes with a disability, while the 1990 Games team had no athletes with a disability.

Athletics Australia high performance manager Eric Hollingsworth urged athletes to seize the opportunity to qualify in the looming domestic season which culminates in the national championships and Games trials in Perth from April 16-18.

He said: "We'll be taking away the biggest team ever to leave these shores.

"Essentially it encourages everyone to have a go, the standards are within reach of a wide range of athletes and one of the key things we want to emphasise is that we want to take as many athletes as we can to the Commonwealth Games to finalise Athletics Australia's high performance identification process.

"We're encouraging all athletes to get out there and compete during the domestic season and to be a part of it and I'm sure we're going to get over 90 athletes on the team."

Australia's attitude towards the Games is in stark contrast to Britain's

Charles van Commenee, the head coach of UK Athletics, has claimed that the event should be used as a development event and already England's top heptathletes, Jessica Ennis, the world champion, and Kelly Sotherton, the gold medallist in Melbourne in 2006, have said that they will not be taking part and are expected to be joined by Phillips Idowu, the world triple jump champion. 

Hollingsworth said the Australian team was expected to not only be the largest on record, but also the best performed at the Games.

He said: "To be the number one nation in the Commonwealth is the objective.

"Were aiming for 30 medals and that's 20 from our able-bodied athletes and 10 from our athletes with a disability.

"One of the sub-goals is to make sure all the performances that produce medals are of world standard, it's not just about winning the Commonwealth Games but winning them at world standard."


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