Great Britain lowers team pursuit world mark again to win gold

A close fight for the rainbow jersey in the women's team pursuit was expected, and that's exactly what the crowd at Melbourne's Hisense Arena got with the two teams which broke the existing world record in qualifying, Great Britain and Australia, pushing each other all the way until the visitors prevailed.

Great Britain - Danielle King, Joanna Rowsell, and Laura Trott - again set a new world mark in the 12-lap event of 13:15.720, bettering their time from earlier in the afternoon (3:16.850), as Australia was forced to settle for silver (3:16.943) with a new PB.

The final mirrored the team's performances in qualifying, with Australia going out hard early, so much so that they were running ahead of their schedule. Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic had quickly built an advantage of just over one second by lap four. The Australians lead over their opponents maxed out on lap five (01.48) and gradually fell away until Great Britain took a slender, two-tenths of a second lead on lap 10.

Great Britain motored home, to win by 01.223.

Roswell said that she and her teammates were never perturbed by the Australian tactics.

"The Australians went out fast, but we stuck to our plan to go out steady and hold pace," she explained.

Both teams have been spurred on in recent times by internal competition for places within the team, Roswell one rider who fought her way back after missing out on a place within the line-up which won the rainbow jersey last year in Apeldoorn, after being part of the winning teams in 2008 and 2009.

For the Australian team, Ashlee Ankudinoff and Sarah Kent were both involved in a tough tussle to claim a spot in the current line-up but were unsuccessful with 20-year-old newcomer Edmondson holding her place.

Roswell went on to explain that the internal rivalries should only spur faster times.

"The event as whole is still developing and we're seeing faster and faster times every time it's ridden at international level," she said. "I don't think the absolute limit's quite been found yet. We did 3:15 and I'm definitely sure we can go faster than that again.

"All the countries are going to keep pushing each other," Rowsell continued. "Australia was such good competition ... we'll see come the Olympics, but I think we're going to see some faster times."

In the bronze medal ride-off, Canada produced a comprehensive victory over New Zealand.

Qualifying report:

The world mark, held by Great Britain since the London World Cup in February, was lowered twice in less than 10 minutes in qualifying for the women's team pursuit on Thursday afternoon.

Australia, with Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic first knocked 1.095 off the time before Great Britain, last team out of the gate in qualifying, took aim.

Although trailing the new mark for over half of the three kilometre, 12 lap event, Danielle King, Joanna Rowsell, and Laura Trott powered home to clock 3:16.850 to set up a thrilling gold medal match up during the evening session.

Canada and New Zealand will fight it out for the bronze medal.

Results

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Team Pursuit Finals - Gold medal round
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Great Britain0:03:15.720
Row 1 - Cell 0 Dani King (Great Britain)Row 1 - Cell 2
Row 2 - Cell 0 Laura Trott (Great Britain)Row 2 - Cell 2
Row 3 - Cell 0 Joanna Roswell (Great Britain)Row 3 - Cell 2
2Australia0:03:16.943
Row 5 - Cell 0 Annette Edmonson (Australia)Row 5 - Cell 2
Row 6 - Cell 0 Melissa Hoskins (Australia)Row 6 - Cell 2
Row 7 - Cell 0 Josephine TomicRow 7 - Cell 2
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Team Pursuit Finals - Bronze medal round
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
3Canada0:03:19.529
Row 1 - Cell 0 Tara Whitten (Canada)Row 1 - Cell 2
Row 2 - Cell 0 Jasmin Glaesser (Canada)Row 2 - Cell 2
Row 3 - Cell 0 Gillian Carleton (Canada)Row 3 - Cell 2
4New Zealand0:03:19.847
Row 5 - Cell 0 Lauren Ellis (New Zealand)Row 5 - Cell 2
Row 6 - Cell 0 Jaime Nielsen (New Zealand)Row 6 - Cell 2
Row 7 - Cell 0 Alison Shanks (New Zealand)Row 7 - Cell 2
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Qualifying
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Great Britain0:03:16.850
Row 1 - Cell 0 Danielle King (Great Britain)Row 1 - Cell 2
Row 2 - Cell 0 Laura Trott (Great Britain)Row 2 - Cell 2
Row 3 - Cell 0 Joanna Rowsell (Great Britain)Row 3 - Cell 2
2Australia0:03:17.053
Row 5 - Cell 0 Annette Edmondson (Australia)Row 5 - Cell 2
Row 6 - Cell 0 Melissa Hoskins (Australia)Row 6 - Cell 2
Row 7 - Cell 0 Josephine Tomic (Australia)Row 7 - Cell 2
3Canada0:03:19.494
Row 9 - Cell 0 Tara Whitten (Canada)Row 9 - Cell 2
Row 10 - Cell 0 Jasmin Glaesser (Canada)Row 10 - Cell 2
Row 11 - Cell 0 Gillian Carleton (Canada)Row 11 - Cell 2
4New Zealand0:03:20.598
Row 13 - Cell 0 Lauren Ellis (New Zealand)Row 13 - Cell 2
Row 14 - Cell 0 Jaime Nielsen (New Zealand)Row 14 - Cell 2
Row 15 - Cell 0 Alison Shanks (New Zealand)Row 15 - Cell 2
5United States of America0:03:21.765
Row 17 - Cell 0 Sarah Hammer (United States Of America)Row 17 - Cell 2
Row 18 - Cell 0 Dotsie Bausch (United States Of America)Row 18 - Cell 2
Row 19 - Cell 0 Lauren Tamayo (United States Of America)Row 19 - Cell 2
6Belarus0:03:22.509
Row 21 - Cell 0 Alena Dylko (Belarus)Row 21 - Cell 2
Row 22 - Cell 0 Aksana Papko (Belarus)Row 22 - Cell 2
Row 23 - Cell 0 Tatsiana Sharakova (Belarus)Row 23 - Cell 2
7China0:03:23.083
Row 25 - Cell 0 Fan Jiang (People's Republic of China)Row 25 - Cell 2
Row 26 - Cell 0 Wenwen Jiang (People's Republic of China)Row 26 - Cell 2
Row 27 - Cell 0 Jing Liang (People's Republic of China)Row 27 - Cell 2
8Germany0:03:24.145
Row 29 - Cell 0 Charlotte Becker (Germany)Row 29 - Cell 2
Row 30 - Cell 0 Lisa Brennauer (Germany)Row 30 - Cell 2
Row 31 - Cell 0 Madeleine Sandig (Germany)Row 31 - Cell 2
9Ukraine0:03:24.227
Row 33 - Cell 0 Svitlana Galyuk (Ukraine)Row 33 - Cell 2
Row 34 - Cell 0 Elizaveta Bochkareva (Ukraine)Row 34 - Cell 2
Row 35 - Cell 0 Lesya Kalitovska (Ukraine)Row 35 - Cell 2
10Russia0:03:24.644
Row 37 - Cell 0 Evgenia Romanyuta (Russian Federation)Row 37 - Cell 2
Row 38 - Cell 0 Venera Absalyamova (Russian Federation)Row 38 - Cell 2
Row 39 - Cell 0 Victoria Kondel (Russian Federation)Row 39 - Cell 2
11Lithuania0:03:25.656
Row 41 - Cell 0 Vilija Sereikaite (Lithuania)Row 41 - Cell 2
Row 42 - Cell 0 Ausrine Trebaite (Lithuania)Row 42 - Cell 2
Row 43 - Cell 0 Vaida Pikauskaite (Lithuania)Row 43 - Cell 2
12Japan0:03:31.165
Row 45 - Cell 0 Kanako Kase (Japan)Row 45 - Cell 2
Row 46 - Cell 0 Maki Tabata (Japan)Row 46 - Cell 2
Row 47 - Cell 0 Minami Uwano (Japan)Row 47 - Cell 2
13Hong Kong0:03:37.952
Row 49 - Cell 0 Zhao Juan Meng (Hong Kong, China)Row 49 - Cell 2
Row 50 - Cell 0 Wan Yiu Wong (Hong Kong, China)Row 50 - Cell 2
Row 51 - Cell 0 Xiao Juan Diao (Hong Kong, China)Row 51 - Cell 2
DSQPolandRow 52 - Cell 2
Row 53 - Cell 0 Katarzyna Pawlowska (Poland)Row 53 - Cell 2
Row 54 - Cell 0 Malgorzata Wojtyra (Poland)Row 54 - Cell 2
Row 55 - Cell 0 Eugenia Bujak (Poland)Row 55 - Cell 2

 

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As a sports journalist and producer since 1997, Jane has covered Olympic and Commonwealth Games, rugby league, motorsport, cricket, surfing, triathlon, rugby union, and golf for print, radio, television and online. However her enduring passion has been cycling.

 

Jane is a former Australian Editor of Cyclingnews from 2011 to 2013 and continues to freelance within the cycling industry.


 

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