Great Britain has taken the Team Pursuit double at the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships after the Women’s team of Laura Trott, Dani King and Joanna Rowsell broke two World records on the way to defeating Australia in a thrilling final.
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Event Press Release – Result at Tissott
The effort matched the performance of their male counterparts 24 hours ago and puts the World on notice ahead of their home Games late this year. Despite the Australian trio of Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic getting out to their customary fast start, Great Britain’s Danielle King, Laura Trott and Joanne Rowsell pegged them back with an even more impressive final 1000m to stop the clock at 3:15.720.
Earlier in the evening, the two nations set up the perfect final, the Australians breaking the World record set by Britain in February this year with a 3:17.053 before the Brits quickly snatched it back posting a time of 3:16.850 just minutes later.
But it was Olympic and World champion Anna Meares who broke the first World record of the day stopping the clock at 10.782 seconds in the flying 200m sprint qualifying, shaving 11 thousandths off the previous mark of 10.793 set by Lithuanian Simona Krupeckaite in Moscow in May 2010. Meares will meet rival Victoria Pendleton of Great Britain in the semi-final tomorrow evening.
Germany’s Stefan Nimke won the men’s kilometre time trial World championship to join Frenchman Arnaud Tournant and Sir Chris Hoy of Great Britain as a four-time World ‘kilo’ champion. The women’s points race was taken out by Anastasia Chulkova of Russia with 31 points, whilst Australia’s Glenn O’Shea (10 points) leads the men’s omnium after the first three of six events – the flying lap, points race, elimination. The men’s omnium wraps up tomorrow evening, along with the women’s sprint finals, women’s scratch race and the first rounds of the men’s sprint.
A full summary of each event follows:
Women’s team pursuit
Great Britain has won the team pursuit double after its women’s trio broke the World record in beating Australia at the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne. The win follows the triumph by the British against Australia in the men’s team pursuit, also in World record time, at Hisense Arena on Wednesday. The British trio of Joanna Roswell, Laura Trott and Danielle King rode the 3000 metres in 3 minutes 15.720 seconds to slice 1.13 seconds off the record they had set earlier on Thursday.
It continues Great Britain’s domination in this event as it’s the fourth World title of the five competed since 2008. King said it was good to beat the Australians on their home turf. “We came to win and I’m over the moon, it was just awesome. The girls were absolutely amazing out there and were incredibly strong,†King said.
“It’s just so good to come out here and beat them on their home track. A lot of Australians were commenting after the World cup that it was all the home town support. Well, they’ve got that here and we’ve still beat them, so we’re really happy.â€
Australia’s Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic set a national record, 3 minutes 16.943 seconds, in claiming silver. It is the third fastest time in history. After only just a few rides together, Hoskins was looking forward to finding the improvement needed to go one step further at the Olympics. “It’s only going to get quicker. London, the Brits are going to have a home crowd there and I think the home crowd pushed us today, so we’ve got to step up so I can definitely see it going sub 15 seconds,†Hoskins said.
“There’s three to four months to find those extra few seconds on the Brits and the World record, so it’s motivated us as it shortens.â€
The Canadian trio of Tara Whitten, Jasmin Glaesser and Gillian Carleton were too strong for New Zealand’s Lauren Ellis, Jaime Nielson and Alison Shanks for the bronze medal, their first medal since the events inception in 2008.
In this afternoon’s qualifying, Great Britain’s posted a World best time of 3 minutes 16.850 seconds over the 3000 metres at Hisense Arena. They knew the time to qualify for the final after watching 15 minutes earlier that Australia had broken the World record set by the British trio in London six weeks ago.
Women’s individual sprint
Reigning World champion Anna Meares recorded the first World record of the day in the flying 200m sprint qualifying to secure herself the ultimate path to the finals of the women’s Individual Sprint. The Australian rode 10.782 seconds in qualification to slice 11 thousandths of a second from the previous record set by Lithuania’s Simona Krupeckaite in May 2010.
Cruising through the early finals, Meares had a shaky first quarter-final match against Guo Shaung when the two clashed, but managed to recover to progress to the semi final tomorrow night against arch rival, Great Britain’s Victoria Pendleton.
Pendleton, a five-time World sprint champion, defeated France’s Virginie Cueff 2-0 in her quarter-final to set up the semi-final matchup with Meares. Ukraine’s Lyubov Shulika will race Krupeckaite of Lithuania in the second semi final.
Meares was surprised by her World record in qualifying after a less than ideal start. “I was surprised during the effort because I remember when I sat down I was thinking to myself ‘this doesn’t feel good. Go! Go! Go!, Go harder! Go harder! Go harder!’ I probably should do that every time I do a 200 because I ended up breaking the World record,†Meares said after posting the World’s fastest time in qualifying.
“For me that’s a new benchmark it’s a new level I’ve reached and I’m really proud of that but speed’s only one part of this game. It’s down to tactics, it’s down to nerves, it’s down to decision making and speed doesn’t win it for you. I’ve got to get it right across the board if I want to come home with that World title.â€
Men’s Kilometre time trial
Stefan Nimke joined an elite group to win four individual kilometre time trial gold medals after the German’s win tonight. As defending champion, Nimke rode last of the 27 cyclists and he clocked one minute 0.082 seconds for the 1000 metres at Hisense Arena. He joins Frenchman Arnaud Tournant and Sir Chris Hoy of Great Britain as a four-time World ‘kilo’ champion.
The German started slowly but gained on each lap to be only 0.078 seconds behind France’s Michael D’Almeida at 750 metres before increasing his pace for a 0.427 second winning margin. His previous World titles were in 2011, 2009 and 2003, while the 34-year-old’s first World championship medal was a bronze in Perth 15 years ago. “It means an enormous amount to me because this is my last World championship in the sprint discipline, maybe even for my general sporting career, you never know what’s to come, but I’ve been saying after the Olympics I’ll stop with sprint. Hence this will be my last appearance in the World championship,†Nimke said.
“In that respect, it’s a golden finish beating my own personal record, setting new German record, and World champ title. I started my career here in Australia in ‘97 in Perth as third in 1000m, and today I’ll end my sprint career at the World champs, again in Australia, again in the 1000m sprint, and this time as number one.â€
Steven Burke from GB was 10th.
Women’s points race
Anastasia Chulkova’s dash in the final sprint of the women’s 25km points race has won Russia’s first gold medal at the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne. Chulkova broke clear at lap 54 of 100 before Canada’s Jasmin Glaesser, Ireland’s Caroline Ryan and Hong Kong’s Wong Wan Yiu joined the Russian in the decisive move of the race.
The quartet gained a lap just after the sixth sprint to add 20 points to each of their total. Glaesser and Chulkova were tied on 28 points heading after the penultimate sprint but the Russian placed second in the final dash to claim the gold medal with 31 points.
It was Russia’s first victory in the women’s points race since Chulkova’s compatriot Olga Sliusareva won the event in Melbourne eight years ago. Glaesser held on to secure silver while Ryan won bronze.
Men’s omnium
Ed Clancy.
Great Britain’s Ed Clancy took the first scalp in the men’s omnium taking out the flying lap in 12.881 ahead of New Zealand’s Shane Archibold and Australia’s Glenn O’Shea. The second event, the 25km points race, was full of drama after Chinese rider Liu Hao took out the race leader Elia Vivian in the final two laps on his second fall for the event. Vivian was awarded the victory with 43 points despite not finishing the event. Bryan Coquard of France was the last man standing in the elimination round, proving too fast for Australia’s Glenn O’Shea over the final lap.
After the first three events, O’Shea leads the overall standings with 10 points but Clancy has his favoured events to come although the lead of the Australian may prove too much.
The men’s omnium wraps up tomorrow evening with the 4km individual pursuit, the 15km scratch race and the kilometre time trial.
For more information on the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, visit www.2012trackWorlds.com.au
