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2012 UCI Track World Championships

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Day 2 Finals - British Team Pursuit break World Record again.

Melbourne, Australia

Race Writeup

Points Race

Russian Anastasia Chulkova secure the rainbow jersey for herself with a tactical race that saw her in many of the moves, including taking a lap on the field. Canadian Jasmin Glaesser secured another medal this time a silver ahead of a very surprised Caroline Ryan, Ireland, who secured the first ever senior track medal for her country.

Team Pursuit Final

Great British trio, Laura Trott, Danielle King and Joanne Rowsell, broke the world record again in the ride for gold. Riding consistent tempo throughout the early part of the race against the Australians, the team managed to pick up the pace with the tiny Laura Trott on the front to finish in a time of 3 minutes 15.720 seconds. The Australians went quicker than they had in qualifying but lost touch in the second half of the race. They finished 1.223 seconds back. 

In the battle for Bronze the Canadians out paced the New Zealanders. The Canadians were ahead right from the start and never looked troubled finishing in 3 minutes 19.529 seconds.

Sprint Quarterfinals

The sprint competition reaches the semi-final stage and the anticipated clash between Anna Meares (AUS) and her arch-rival Vicki Pendleton (GBR) comes in the semi finals tomorrow after both won easily to move through their quarter final heats.  

China's Shuang Guo tried to unsettle Meares and was warned for moving into the sprint line of Meares after her elbow hit Meares. The knock unbalanced Meares a little but she recoved quickly to win the first race.  In the second race, Meares attacked first on the back straight. She quickly speeded up and moved round Guo.    

In the other quarterfinals, Pendleton had a relatively easy path, beating Virginie Cueff (FRA) easily.  

Former World recorder holder, Simona Krupeckaite (LTU) dominated her two races against Miriam Welte (GER).

In the final race the former junior world champion Lyubov Shulika (UKR) easily out paced Lisandra Guerra Rodrigues (CUB) to place herself up against Krupeckaite tomorrow.

Dave Brailsford (Performance Director GBR) was very happy with the performance of this team at this point in the season, “We focus on the outcome, if you start thinking about the consequences of what happens, you get yourself in trouble. What happens if we win, what happens if we lose, is pointless, it is just emotional. They just have to go through the process and let the outcome look after itself. You can only do your best that is the way we deal with these situations,” said Brailsford

“Team Sprint is a new event and everyone is finding their form and there are four or five teams that can win the gold in London,” he added

Dani King, Laura Trott and Jo Rowsell (GBR) delivered a world record time and gold medal. “ We came out to win, the girls rode amazingly and I am just over the moon, it is awesome,”  said King

Laura Trott played a huge part in the win, “ I don’t know where the power comes from, I think I am so small that I am more aero-dynamic than the rest of them,” smiled Trott

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