Olympic gold medalist Anna Meares will have her final test to determine if she will go to Beijing on June 12 at the Revolution 3 in Melbourne. The 24 year-old was well on her way to qualifying for the games before a crash in the Los Angeles World Cup round in January nearly shattered her dreams.
"It is a gettable time, yes, considering my personal best is 11.10," she told The Age Wednesday. "But in saying that, I haven't done a time trial since I crashed and I've only been working on my strength phase at the moment, so the speed aspect is lacking, and that is something that I'm going to need to work on in the next four weeks to make sure that 11.77 does get done."
The injury was an undesirable setback, and Meares has been determined to make up for it. She has been undergoing rigorous training, and has begun to put out impressive results. "I'm definitely faced with a challenge and I've given my opponents a head start. But my expectation for Beijing is to go in there and get it right and if I get it right the result should follow," she said. "Two months post that June competition, I'll be flying."
Australian High Performance Sprint Coach Martin Barras has laid out all of the requirements for Meares, and believes the Olympic 500m time trial champion will leave it all out on the track at Revolution 3.
"Anna will be put to the test in a flying 200m sprint at Revolution 3. Her time must convince selectors that she has sufficiently recovered from her injuries and will be ready to compete at her best come August," explained Barras.
"She's a tough and determined girl, and I have no doubt she will come out firing."