Seven WAIS Cyclists Named on World Champs Team
A record seven WAIS athletes have been named in Cycling Australia’s Track World Championships team for this month’s event in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.
Headlining the WAIS charge are current world champions Cameron Meyer, Josie Tomic and Sarah Kent, whilst Scott Sunderland will line-up alongside debutants Luke Durbridge, Michael Freiberg and Melissa Hoskins.
The announcement reflects the incredible work that WAIS head cycling coach Darryl Benson has done with the program, with the seven athletes listed equating to 33% of the national team.
Nine members of the team are defending world titles won in 2010 when the Cyclones topped the medal table with a tally of six gold, two silver and two bronze medals from the 19 events contested in Copenhagen.
Cycling Australia’s National Performance Director Kevin Tabotta says the team is well placed for more medal performances in 2011.
“We’re coming off the back of a strong World Cup campaign where we fielded both development and elite squads,” said Tabotta. “We used the series to chase Olympic qualification points and to ensure we qualified all the places we needed for the World Championships and now the team we’re sending to Apeldoorn is the cream of the crop.”
The men’s endurance line-up is one of the strongest Australia has ever fielded led by West Australian Cameron Meyer who won three gold medals last year. In 2010 Meyer also won triple gold at the Commonwealth Games and the Sir Hubert Opperman Medal as the Australian Cyclist of the Year.
“We have options for medals across all the men’s track endurance events with some of the world’s most talented riders vying for starting positions,” said Tabotta.
South Australian Jack Bobridge last month clocked a world record time of 4:10.534 for the 4000m in individual pursuit qualifying at the national titles to eclipse the previous mark set 15 years earlier by Britain’s Chris Boardman riding in the now banned superman position. Fellow South Australian Rohan Dennis rode the third fastest time in history on the same day. The individual pursuit is no longer an Olympic Games event but remains on the World Championships schedule and is one of the sport’s prestige events.
Anna Meares heads to the Netherlands quietly confident of success after a solid lead up to the Championships. Last weekend she claimed victory in the sprint at the final round of the World Cup in Manchester. To do so she handed a straight heats defeat to 2008 Olympic champion and British favourite, Victoria Pendleton, in the semi-finals before winning a third heat decider over China’s Shuang Guo in the gold medal round. Meares contested the sprint at two rounds of this season’s World Cup and won both.
“Anna heads to Apeldoorn in the best position she’s ever been in to deliver a sprint medal but it’s not just Pendleton and Guo she needs to worry about, she’ll need to beat whoever she lines up against all the way through,” said Tabotta of the 27 year old veteran performer who in a stellar career has yet to win a gold medal in the sprint at a world championships.
Her sprint record includes Olympic Games silver (2008) and bronze (2004) medals plus a silver and two bronze medals at the world championships in 2004, 2005 and 2007 respectively and she has publicly stated her desire to add a sprint rainbow jersey to her collection.
In Manchester Meares and Kaarle McCulloch joined forces for the first time this season to win gold in the team sprint. They head to Apeldoorn with their eyes on a hat-trick having won the event in both 2009 and 2010.
Victorian Shane Perkins missed the Manchester round due to the birth of his second child but it hasn’t slowed him down with the 2010 world championship silver medallist clocking a track record for the standing lap at Melbourne’s DISC velodrome on the weekend.
Selector’s have named five riders in a women’s track endurance long team with the final travelling team to be confirmed next week. 21 year old West Australian pair Josephine Tomic and Sarah Kent are hoping to be in the trio that lines up to defend the teams pursuit title they won last year. Also amongst those vying for a seat on the plane is 2004 and 2008 Olympian Katherine Bates, 28, who has returned to the track after recovering from a serious hip injury sustained in a 2009 crash on the road.
Teenager Amy Cure, who won three gold medal at last year’s junior world championships, is also under consideration on the back of solid performances in Manchester and at last month’s national championships where she finished second in the individual pursuit in her first year of elite competition.
Dual junior world champion, Matthew Glaetzer, 18, has also staged a successful transition to the elite ranks to earn a place in the men’s sprint group for Apeldoorn.
“Neither Cure or Glaetzer have been selected on potential, they have earned their place after delivering performances and times that put them into elite class,” said Tabotta who recognises that the step into the senior ranks needs to be handled with care. “It is always important to manage expectations after success at a young age and whilst you can’t hold them back you also need to provide the right support and guidance.
“It’s just as challenging to manage success as it is to deal with disappointment.”
– with Cycling Australia