ST GEORGE endurance rider Ashlee Ankudinoff is close again to representing Australia at a world championships.
Ankudinoff, pictured right in Adelaide before another training run, is part of Australia's two six-rider "long teams" who have been selected for both the men's and women's endurance events, with riders to take part in a pre-Worlds camp in Adelaide before final selections are made for the 2014 UCI World Track Championships in Cali, Columbia (February 26 to March 2).
The women's endurance squad nominations include triple 2013 World Championship medallist Annette Edmondson (SA) and fellow medallists Amy Cure (TAS), Melissa Hoskins (WA) and Ankudinoff (NSW).
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FIVE weeks away gives a man plenty of time to digest the best of sport. And while earnest supporters of rugby league and other football codes might attest to "the winter of our discontent," summer always seems to provide a wider range of glorious sporting triumphs to enjoy and savour.
Only those who have experienced the highs and lows of actually taking part in the bluewater Sydney to Hobart can properly describe the professionalism of skipper, crews and yachts.
Flying to Hobart and following friends, not on the multi-million dollar maxis but the much smaller yachts, who have to experience the full gammut of wind, ocean and currents, provides an insight into a sport both physically and psychologically demanding.
Yet, it is only well after the race do the participants reveal the unwritten stories: of men almost washed overboard; of navigating waves up to 10-metres tall; deciding to plough on or not with broken rigging and equipment, not to mention broken bones and bent bodies.
Ocean racing is not for the faint-hearted.
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CRICKET success stirs the hearts and minds of Australians like nothing else.
And so we enjoyed a season like no other ... a remoulded Dennis Lillee "lookalike" in Mitchell Johnson, who pulverised the English into submission, just like Lillee and Thompson had done almost 40 years ago.
And an Aussie team which refused to take a foot off as England tried unsuccessfully to recover from the initial onslaught before bowing 5-0 to new Ashes holders, Australia.
Five-zip! No wonder then, that our fair-skinned friends couldn't fire back in the limited overs series.
And no one could tame Western Australian batsman Craig Simmons, who hit the fastest Big Bash century eve before backing it up with a record-equalling 11 sixes — and another century.
A decade after another Western Australian, Adam Gilchrist, showed why he was considered the cleanest hitter of a cricket ball, a larger version can now prepare for the riches that await him in the Indian Premier League.
And with a bat bought at Kingsgrove Sports!
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TENNIS and the Australian Open showcased the usual run of triumphs and heartaches over two weeks, with the best asked to perform at their best on another furnace-like Melbourne surface.
And as, one by one the top seeds fell, another young Swiss with a serve like a rocket — Stanislas Wawrinka — rose above them.
Who will forget an emotional Rafael Nadal, injured but refusing to quit the final when many others would have easily tossed in the towel.
Or the sportsmanship both exhibited at the end of the match after Wawrinka prevailed in four sets.
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AND now we have Sochi Olympics to savour, and all the thrills and spills of snowboarding and skiing, skating and hurtling down mountains.
Yet, our own winter hasn't started, and the league trials are upon us.
The headline writers are having a field day as Sydney FC try to turn around indifferent form to keep themselves in the hunt for the A-League finals.
Yes, its still February ... and sport never ends.
