After an Olympic cycle littered with setbacks and controversy, the Australian women's triathlon team might have timed their run perfectly.
Erin Densham's outstanding surge of form over the last few months and Emma Moffatt's solid training block on the Gold Coast have team officials confident ahead of the Games triathlon on August 4.The word out of the Australian camp is also that Emma Jackson is over the health trouble that forced her to pull out of the international race in Hamburg last month.
Densham won that sprint-distance event and Moffatt was second.
The Australians are not reading too much into Hamburg, given many of their top rivals did not compete, but it was a timely confidence boost.
Australian women have won medals in each Olympic triathlon since the sport's debut at Sydney - their male counterparts are yet to win any.
There have been a host of issues since the Beijing Games, with Densham overcoming a heart condition and Snowsill struggling to find her best form.
Snowsill, the reigning Games champion, was a controversial omission from the three-woman team for London.
Snowsill appealed her non-selection, but Jackson retained her place.
"Our women, on history, are dominant and leading up we can see some really encouraging performances, so we are actually really confident in our women," said head coach Shaun Stephens.
Jackson so far has not been able to repeat her breakthrough form last year, which took her to fourth in the world championship series and put her in the selection frame.
Illness also interrupted her Olympic preparation, but Stephens said she had recovered well.
"The mental strength she's shown through the selection process and some minor (health) hiccups ... she's excelled in that environment," Stephens said.
"Whether she's good enough, we'll find out."
Stephens added that Snowsill was in London to support her German partner, reigning Olympic men's triathlon champion Jan Frodeno.
The coach said she was having the rest of the year off, but is confident Snowsill will keep racing.
"She's in a good head space, she just needs a break from the sport to allow her longevity in the sport," he said.
"I'm super-confident she'll come back."
