Emerging track sprint star Matt Richardson will make his senior World Championship debut at next month’s UCI Track titles in Poland.
Still short of his 20th birthday, Richardson will form part of Australia’s men’s sprint quartet where he will be joined by reigning world champion Matthew Glaetzer and the experienced pairing of Matt Constable and Nathan Hart.
He will be one of three Western Australian members of the senior team, with endurance stars Cam Meyer and Sam Welsford also selected for world championship duty.
Cycling Australia Performance Director Simon Jones said the team would target learning and development in Poland, and use the championships as an opportunity for assessing their Olympic preparations ahead of 2020.
“These World Championships provide a great opportunity to benchmark where we are at against the world’s best.
“However the focus will be about learning rather than winning. As we build towards Tokyo the focus will increasingly be on performance, but performing with aclearstrategy and winning processes.”
The selection news followed closely on the back of a successful campaign at the recent Track World Cup in Hong Kong, where Richardson, Meyer and Welsford were all part of medal winning performances.
Richardson will compete in the team sprint – which is the same event he collected gold in with a youthful Australian line-up in Hong Kong, whilst Welsford will revert his prime focus to that of the team pursuit.
Meyer is chasing a 10th career track world title in Poland and is expected to prioritise the four-event Omnium which is locked-in as one of three endurance events on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic schedule.
Australian Team:
Endurance
Ashlee Ankudinoff
Georgia Baker
Amy Cure
Annette Edmondson
Alexandra Manly
Leigh Howard
Kelland O’Brien
Cameron Meyer
Alexander Porter
Cameron Scott
Samuel Welsford
Sprint
Kaarle McCulloch
Stephanie Morton
Patrick Constable
Matthew Glaetzer
Nathan Hart
Matthew Richardson
The team will finalise preparations in Adelaide before departing Australia on February 20.
-with Cycling Australia (Photo: © Guy Swarbrick/Cycling Australia)
