Josephine Tomic (Australia) prepares for her Individual Time Trial at the Junior World Championships in Mexico. (Image credit: Juan Ramón Piña)
Australian Josephine Tomic has been a known rising talent for some time, the youngster proving her ability at last week's Junior World Championships. Cyclingnews' Greg Johnson caught up with the three time world champion before leaving Mexico to return home.
At 18 years of age, Josephine Tomic is barely on the outskirts of reaching her full competitive potential, yet the Australian is sending shockwaves throughout the international women's cycling scene. For the past week, Tomic's epicenter has been at the Junior World Championships in Aquascalientes, Mexico.
Despite narrowly missing out on a podium position in Sunday's women's road race, where she finished fourth in the lead bunch, Tomic is pleased with her efforts abroad. When Tomic returns to West Australia later this week, she'll bring with her three rainbow UCI Junior Women's World Champion jerseys - the two kilometre individual pursuit, and sprint jerseys for her track efforts in addition to her Time Trial World Championship.
Tomic's Junior World Championships campaign commenced in record setting fashion. In the two kilometre individual pursuit qualifying, Tomic shattered the world record with her time of 2.24.1, only to break her own record in the final with a 2.23.2; nearly seven seconds quicker than fellow finalist and compatriot Sarah Kent.
On day three, Tomic took fifth place in the women's scratch race, before returning to her winning form on day four in the points race. There, Tomic secured the rainbow jersey with an impressive 28 points, a haul more than double that of nearest rival Jenny Rios (Mexico).
"The individual pursuit win at worlds was very satisfying," Tomic told Cyclingnews before leaving South America. "I was reserve for the track team last year, so to make it this year and win was a great feeling as it made up for the huge disappointment I felt last year.
"I was in the road worlds team last year and we went to watch one night of the track racing and it was the night that the pursuit finals were on," she added. "I was very disappointed that I wasn't there racing and I remember saying to myself that that will be me next year. So to do it and to break the world record twice in one day, that was an amazing feeling."
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To read the full interview with Josephine Tomic, click here.
