“Happy” Michaela a Junior World Champ
West Australian Institute of Sport young gun Michaela Anderson has given WAIS a second gold medal at the UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships in Moscow, after she won the gold medal ahead of her team mate, Amy Cure of Tasmania, in the 2km individual pursuit.
Anderson, who turns 17 on Friday, posted a time in the final of 02min26.282sec to win the crown in the showdown with Cure, 16, who rode 2min27.207sec for the silver medal.
“I am so excited right now I still can’t believe I’m World Champion- it’s an early birthday present,” said Anderson. “I’m happy with the time and so happy with the result, in fact I’m just a really happy person.”
Both Anderson and Cure posted personal best times to qualify for the gold medal final with Cure setting her mark of 2min25.983sec early in the qualifying round while Anderson was in the tenth heat.
“Amy did a good time and I knew she’d be up there but I thought if I could match her time or do better then hopefully I’d make it into one of the finals (gold or bronze rides),” said Anderson. “I did my usual warm up and it was all good up until the last ten minutes before qualifying when I started to get really nervous and began to realise this is what I’ve been training for, this was the ‘big event’.”
By the end of her ride Anderson, with a time of 2min25.929sec, had slotted into the top qualifying spot and Cure was sitting in second but the Australian pair had a nervous 40 minute wait to see if any other riders would better their times.
“Then when we realised we were in the final we celebrated but then we realised we had to actually race each other,” said Anderson. “So it was great to begin with but then ‘Oh not too good’.”
Despite this being their first outing at a World Championships the pair handled the pressure well in the lead up to the final.
“It was pretty nerve wracking because we’re in the same team together but we were just chilling out and trying to relax and probably not talking much but you don’t talk much anyway when you are focussed,” said Cure. “As the final approached I was pretty nervous because this was everything I’ve trained for and it comes down to this moment.”
Anderson admits she was also feeling the pressure.
“Timmy (coach Tim Dekker) came up to me and said’ you’ve worked so hard and I know you want it but you’re going to have to fight really hard for this’,” explained Anderson. “Amy and I have been racing together for so long we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses so it was a bit like the past four years of nationals when we’ve raced each other.
“Rolling up for the final I have never been so nervous in my life but so excited at the same time,” said Anderson adding that during the race she lost track of Dekker’s signals. “I didn’t really see where Tim was standing so I was not entirely sure how I was going against Amy but I just gave it everything and at the end it was amazing to realise I’d actually pulled it off.”