Bronze Medal for Tomic and Kent in Poland
Western Australian Institute of Sport teenage duo Josie Tomic and Sarah Kent have won a bronze medal in the women’s team pursuit as members of the Australian team at the UCI Track World Championships in Poland.
Tomic and Kent teamed with NSWIS rider Ashlee Ankudinoff to set a new Australian record in their bronze medal success against the Netherlands, posting a time of 3:24.972min over the three kilometres.
Featuring in their first senior squads, Tomic and Kent showed excellent measure against more seasoned riders, and both girls were delighted to feature on the dais behind gold medal winners Great Britain and runners up New Zealand.
“We made a few errors in the qualifying, just a few little things that we took note of and then corrected in the final,” said Tomic who holds the junior World Record for the 2km individual pursuit. “In the final we rode pretty much perfectly and to come out tonight and ride a 3.24 and an Australian record it’s a really great feeling and we can only get better from here.”
“We came in with high expectations and we came away with what we wanted to achieve,” said Kent. “We probably had a bit more fire in our bellies in the final and we’re really happy to come away with almost a three second improvement (on qualifying time).
Another WAIS athlete in Travis Meyer produced an impressive result, finishing fourth in the men’s scratch race over 15km in his senior track debut.
Following on in the family footsteps of older brother Cameron – who won gold on day one in the men’s points race – Meyer took the race to a quality field, by launching an audacious solo attack 20 laps into the 60 lap event. His efforts forced the pace, with several highly fancied riders required to match his intensity.
Meyer’s gutsy effort left him just short of pace in the final sprint but he joins Cameron in securing a fourth place finish on debut, showing plenty of positives for the future. The gold medal was won by Frenchman, Morgan Kneisky ahead of Argentina’s Angel Dario Colla and Austrian, Andreas Mueller.
Day two proved a successful venture for Australia, with Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch winning gold in the women’s team sprint and rising star Jack Bobridge claiming silver in the men’s 4km individual pursuit.
Meares and McCulloch produced a blistering performance to defeat Great Britain in the final with a quick time of 31.149sec that bettered GB’s 33.380sec.
“After we qualified fastest I knew we were up against the British pair and they have ridden a 33.1 (33.186 at 2008 World Championships) between the two of them so I knew I had to be on my game out of that first gate and that first lap to give Kaarle the best shot for second wheel and we smashed it,” said an ecstatic Meares.
“I tell you what, Anna’s just been absolutely fantastic for me,” said McCulloch who has idolised Meares as she has come through the cycling ranks. “She’s kept me cool, calm and collected and I’m just absolutely amazed to win a world title with her.”
“I was really calm (for the final) although when I saw that we got the fastest time in qualifying my heart was racing and I just had to tell myself ‘calm down, calm down’ and then on the start line I just told myself what I had to do and I did it.”
Bobridge earned his start in the final with a personal best time of 4:17.419min, two seconds off the pace of Phinney who topped the qualifying round in 4:15.160min. But in the final Bobridge took up the challenge staying in contact with Phinney in the early laps before briefly taking over the race lead at the halfway mark. With six laps to go the pair hit the timing tape deadlocked but at that point Phinney found an extra gear and began to draw ahead.
“He’s a big boy and unfortunately he had the power to come home on it and I just didn’t quite have the legs to go with him but we can always build on that from here on,” said Bobridge. “To come out and get a PB by over a second was good for me and next year after a few good road races in my legs we’ll see.”