Opals ready to chase elusive gold 27 July 2012

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• Members of the Australian women's basketball team after travelling via the Euros... © Olympics.com.au

BASKETBALL: After winning medals at the past four Olympics as well as the 2006 World Championship, Australia’s women’s basketball team is chasing the only thing that has eluded them over the past 20 years – an Olympic gold medal.

The Aussies have won a hat-trick of silver medals over the past three Olympics, and have a positive lead up to the 2012 London Games.

“Preparations are good,” said four-time Olympian Kristi Harrower.

“I think the preparations have been great. We’ve been getting better with every game and look forward to the Olympics that are ahead.”

In each of the last three Olympics the United States has defeated Australia in the gold medal game. With the likes of Harrower, Lauren Jackson and Suzy Batkovic possibly competing at their last Olympics, the team knows that this could be the best chance to claim the elusive gold.

“This will be probably be my last, along with some of the seniors, and we believe this is the best time for us to win a gold medal,” Harrower said.

“We have some great young kids coming though and we have a lot of depth.”

Head coach Carrie Graf has been pleased with the lead in and has confidence in the mix of experienced and first time Olympians.

“We’ve had tough opponents and great games and it’s been great for us to throw our emerging talent in the mix,” Graf said.

“We had some close games and but all in all the preparations have been great for us. The team is in a good positive head space and we can do something special if we just approach it the right way which is game by game.

“Our preparation is over other than a few practices. It’s time to put it out on the floor and see if we can do something unique.”

Since arriving in Europe ahead of the Games, the team has beaten the likes of France, Great Britain, Angola, China and Brazil.

They enter the Games as one of the favourites, a position they have been in since first winning a medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

The Opals take on Great Britain on Saturday 28 July and also face France, Russia, Brazil and Canada in the pool matches. The opening game sees the Opals come up against their former coach Tom Maher who is now coaching Great Britain.

Apart from gold medal favourite USA, the likes of Russia, Brazil, and the Czech Republic are likely to battle for the medals.