First Individual Senior Title for Super Kent
WAIS cyclist Sarah Kent kick-started WA’s push for medals at the 2010 National Tack Championships in Adelaide yesterday when she claimed gold in the women’s individual pursuit.
Kent collected her first senior individual Australian title with victory over fastest qualifier Ashlee Ankudinoff (NSW). Ankudinoff had knocked nine seconds off her personal best to ride 3min34.769sec in the afternoon session against Kent’s 3min37.442sec, but in the final Kent’s stamina proved superior as she wore down her rival over 12 laps to win the gold medal in the time of 3min36.981sec with Ankudinoff crossing the line in 3min38.033sec.
WAIS scholarship holder Josephine Tomic rounded out a successful event for WA by claiming third place in the bronze medal ride-off.
Kent described the win as a career highlight following the event and will now be a hot favourite to retain her team pursuit title when she combines with Tomic and fellow WAIS athlete Melissa Hoskins.
“I’m very happy, I guess last year I was pretty close, so to finally do it after six years coming, I couldn’t be happier,” Kent said. “This title it is at the top, as there has been such good competition, and I knocked four seconds off my personal best today.”
WAIS Coaching Group Manager and former Great Britain head cycling coach Simon Jones commented that Kent’s result was as much a “coming of age”.
“It’s a really impressive result for Sarah, because she’s really struggled with her back injury in the past few months,” he said. “To go faster in the final than she had in qualifying is equally impressive, and it’ll give her a lot of confidence going forward.”
Jones also highlighted the bronze medal ride of Travis Meyer in the highly competitive men’s individual pursuit. Meyer posted a time of 4min22.845sec to fend off the challenge of Queensland’s first year senior, Michael Hepburn.
“Meyer’s qualifying time of 4:18 was world class, and would have medalled at last year’s world championships,” Jones said.
“There is such incredible depth in Australian men’s pursuit ranks at present, and for Travis to put his name up after recently winning a national road title is very promising.”
In a sign of things to come, WAIS junior cyclists also produced a flurry of medals on day one of competition with Michaela Anderson winning silver.
Anderson was only a whisker from gold, after Amy Cure’s (TAS) time of 2mins23.661seconds was just 14 thousandths of a second faster than reigning U19 World Champion.
Anderson crossed the line in 2min25.675seconds, whilst WAIS training partners Isabella King and Jess Allen capped off a strong WA showing with bronze and fourth place respectively.
Tasmanian Cure, was proud to have reversed the narrow loss to Anderson at last year’s junior world championships and admitted she pushed through barriers to get there.
“I felt a bit sick at the start but overcame that and it was a great race with Michaela,” Cure said. “The last couple of laps were really hard, and I knew it was going to be tight, so I just gave it my all and was happy to come home with the win.”
In qualification for the men’s sprint, WAIS cyclist Scott Sunderland was third fastest with a time of 10.373sec for the flying 200m.