A former high school sprint champion is set to make her Australian rugby sevens debut in the opening round of the new-look world series, taking place in Dubai on the weekend.
Queenslander Kaitlin Shave, 22, will make her first appearance for the team less than 12 months out from the Olympic Games after being named in a 12-player squad for the UAE opener.
Rugby sevens star Madison Ashby, a member of the Australian side that finished fifth at Tokyo 2020, flagged Shave as a youngster to watch in an interview with Wide World of Sports last week.
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“Australia produces some of the best wingers and she has unreal speed. I feel like this season she will get a good shot and mark her name on the world series. She has unbelievable speed, she’s so fast,” Ashby told Wide World of Sports.
“Australia produces very good wingers, like Maddi Levi and Faith Nathan, and I think under their learning she will gel into the ultimate athlete and learn a lot off them.”
Shave was a star in the 100m, 200m and 100m hurdles in her high school days, hauling in national titles in individual and relay events.
She has a 100m personal best of 12.06 seconds, a 200m personal best of 24.71 and a top 100m hurdles time of 14.55.
She was a relay teammate of Ella Connolly, who represented Australia in the 200m and 4x100m at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
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“In the world series we try to find our wingers to open it up and get some easy runaways. It’s the same thing with Kaitlin,” Ashby said.
“We’ve got a very good development pathway and they’ve really done well with her.
“One day Maddi Levi could be winning the races at training, then the next day it could be Faith Nathan, then the next day it could be Kaitlin Shave. It’s a really big competition there. It’s good; they challenge each other to be better every day. That’s the best thing about it.”
The women’s squad is captained by Charlotte Caslick, a member of the Australian team that won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The men’s squad is skippered by Nick Malouf.
Australian women’s squad
2. Sharni Smale 3. Faith Nathan 4. Dominique Du Toit 5. Teagan Levi 6. Madison Ashby 7. Charlotte Caslick (c) 8. Kaitlin Shave* 11. Demi Hayes 12. Maddison Levi 22. Bienne Terita 55. Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea 65. Sariah Paki
*Denotes potential debut
Australian men’s squad
2. Ben Dowling 3. Henry Palmer 4. Dietrich Roache 5. Tim Clements 7. Josh Turner 8. Dally Bird 9. Matt Gonzalez 10. Nick Malouf (c) 11. Maurice Longbottom 12. Nathan Lawson 13. Ben Dalton 14. James Turner 25. Hayden Sargeant