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2012 UCI Track World Championships

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Day 2 Qualifying- World Records fall

Melbourne, Australia

Race Writeup

Wrap up, two new World record holders going the second part of the day in the hunt for the rainbow jersey.

Team Pursuit Qualifying- British break World record after Australians had already broken it.

Australia set new world record in qualifying and then the British trio go faster. The British trio of Danielle King, Laura Trott, Joanne Rowsell were behind the World record time set by the Australians until the final 500m. The tiny Laura Trott set a blistering pace and moved them into the lead with 250m to go. It is a dream final, British against the Australians. A capacity partisan crowd should make it an exciting evening. The times should be fast too with temperatures sitting at 29 degrees in the velodrome.

Canada and New Zealand were just outside the time set by the British in the London World Cup and looked a little out of sync. The New Zealanders qualified 4th and will ride off against the Canadians for Bronze.

Sprint 1/8th Finals

In the sprint finals, the top seeds made it through to the next round. Meares (AUS), Shulika (BLR), Welte (GER), Cueff (FRA), Pendleton (GBR) and Krupeckaite (LTU) all made it through to the next round. Guo (CHN) and Guerra Rodrigues (CUB) had to fight their way the last 8 from the repecharge round. 

Sprint 1/16th Finals

Anna Meares (Australia) was first to ride and never looked troubled by Juliana Gaviria (COL) to secure her plac in the /8th final.

Shuang Guo (CHN) had a smooth ride against Ekaterina Gnidenko (RUS) to move herself to the next round. 

The newly crowned Team Sprint world Champion Miriam Welte (GER) set a fast time against The Japanese rider  Kayono Maeda to move to the next round.  

Vicki Pendleton (GRB) qualified 5th fastest and despite being pushed up on to the top of the boards managed to come round Yvonne Hijgenaar (NED) to move to the 1/8ths.

The first upset of the sprints came when Kristina Vogel (GER) was beaten by Daniela Grelui Larrea Chirinos

Sprint Qualifying

Anna Meares (Australia) set a new world record time in the 250m sprint qualifying to start the sprint campaign. 

Viktoria Baranova (RUS) set the early pace under warm conditions in the Melbourne velodrome. In the end though her ride was only 14th fastest.

The next fastest time was produced by Natasha Hansen (NZL) but it was beaten when the Miriam Welte (GER) finished her ride. She completed the 250m in 11.033 seconds. Despite solid rides from Kaarle McCulloch (AUS), Jess Varnish (GBR), Wai Sze Lee (HKG), Shuang Guo CHN) and Kristina Vogel (GER) no one could match the speed set by Meares.

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Comments

Anna Meares (AUS) was not expecting to go so fast in the qualification rounds of the sprints, "No. I was no where near expecting that. I would have been really pleased with a low nine (10.9) high eight (10.8) which is right around a PB (personal best) mark for me. Anything in the eight (10.8)  would have been perfect. 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,"  said Meares

Asked if she could hear the crowd get behind her at the halfway mark, Meares added "I noticed it. It's not distinct, it's a loud muffle and the pitch changes so knew I was either close or up on the mark from the riders before so just tried to hang on."

Thinking about the next rounds, Meares said, "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."  

Gary Sutton (Endurance Coach Australia) was very proud of his riders. “ Before the start it was always about doing a personal best. I had them on a schedule of 3.19 and they were always up on that. What I was impressed with is that things have not gone that smoothly in the run up to these championships . I am really pleased with how they handled the pressure, they way they concentrated on the job in hand. More importantly they stuck together as a team. They kept each other motivated and that is important. We know we can improve in a few areas, we have a few things up our sleeve,” said Sutton

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