Australian Olympic taekwondo, badminton teams announced

SYDNEY, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The Australian Olympic Committee has announced its taekwondo team for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The squad includes Safwan Khalil, who will become the first Australian male taekwondo athlete to compete at three Olympic Games. He finished in the top eight in both his previous Olympic campaigns. The other three athletes are Olympic debutants Stacey Hymer, Reba Stewart and Jack Marton.

The four athletes secured quota places for Australia by winning their division at the qualifying event in February 2020.

The AOC also announced its four-person badminton team on the same day, including Rio Olympian Wendy Chen, who will return for her second Games, and Olympic debutants Gronya Somerville, Setyana Mapasa and Simon Leung.

Boasting more than 30 Oceania championship gold medals between them, the team of four all qualified for Tokyo thanks to their international rankings in singles (Chen); doubles (Mapasa and Somerville) and mixed doubles (Leung and Somerville).

Team coach Stuart Brehaut said the selection was a great reward for the effort and dedication shown by the four players throughout this Olympic cycle.

Table tennis player Lay Jian Fang was also selected to an historic sixth Australian Olympic Team, replacing Stephanie Sang who withdrew from the team.

The announcement brings the number of selected athletes in the Australian Olympic team to 291 of an expected 450-480. Enditem