Three-peat for Meares and McCulloch
By Cycling News
Great Britain takes silver, China tops France for bronze
The Australian duo of Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch claimed their third consecutive gold medal in the women's team sprint world championships. The team which has dominated the post-Olympic years edged out the British pair, veteran Victoria Pendleton and relative newcomer Jessica Varnish, with a 33.237 to the Brits' 33.525.
In the bronze medal final, China bested France, setting a time just shy of Great Britain's, in a 33.586.
For world record holders Meares and McCulloch, however, the times showed "room for improvement", which they will need to remain ahead of the rapidly improving Varnish, who edged out Pendleton's two-time world champion partner Shanaze Reade for this year's event.
"For us it's a matter of achieving specific goals," said Meares. "There's only one competition that's bigger, and that's the Olympic Games. This is where we're going to be able to try things and make mistakes and learn from them in time to ride personal best times in London."
"Even though we're the best in the world right now, I still see room for improvement - there are 16 months till the Olympics and I can pretty much guarantee we are going to break our record again and we're going to go much faster,” McCulloch said.
"[Having Britain] coming up is more motivation for us. I still feel like Anna and I can go faster in both the first and second lap. That will come through specific training we'll do about eight months out from the Games. Although we did target this event, we haven't targeted it enough yet to see the full potential we can ride."
The British team were equally pleased to put in a solid ride, with Varnish excited to prove her mettle in her first world championships, and Pendleton proud of her young teammate's efforts.
"I was doing 19.2 when we got fourth in the world championships [last year]. To do 18.9 now, I'm really happy with that and I'm just going to keep doing it and keep riding and do my best to be here next year," said Varnish.
Pendleton said she is really pleased with the way her form is coming along just in time. "It felt pretty good out there. The conditions are quite heavy here, there is very high pressure which does make quite a big a difference out there, it's not a fast track. For Jess to go sub-19 [18.992 in qualifying - ed.] that's practically an 18.8 in Manchester. I wouldn't be ambitious to say that and it's a great step forward - I'm really excited for the team sprint!"
Women's team sprint final
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
---|---|---|
1 | Australia | 0:00:33.237 |
Anna Meares | ||
Kaarle Mcculloch | ||
2 | Great Britain | 0:00:33.525 |
Victoria Pendleton | ||
Jessica Varnish | ||
3 | People's Republic of China | 0:00:33.586 |
Shuang Guo | ||
Jinjie Gong | ||
4 | France | 0:00:33.731 |
Clara Sanchez | ||
Sandie Clair |
Qualifying
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
---|---|---|
1 | Australia | 0:00:33.342 |
Anna Meares | ||
Kaarle Mcculloch | ||
2 | Great Britain | 0:00:33.356 |
Victoria Pendleton | ||
Jessica Varnish | ||
3 | People's Republic of China | 0:00:33.569 |
Lin Junhong | ||
Jinjie Gong | ||
4 | France | 0:00:33.601 |
Clara Sanchez | ||
Sandie Clair | ||
5 | Germany | 0:00:33.618 |
Miriam Welte | ||
Kristina Vogel | ||
6 | Lithuania | 0:00:33.788 |
Gintare Gaivenyte | ||
Simona Krupeckaite | ||
7 | Netherlands | 0:00:34.151 |
Yvonne Hijgenaar | ||
Willy Kanis | ||
8 | Ukraine | 0:00:34.373 |
Iryna Papezhuk | ||
Lyubov Shulika | ||
9 | Russian Federation | 0:00:34.521 |
Viktoria Baranova | ||
Olga Streltsova | ||
10 | Spain | 0:00:34.909 |
Helena Casas Roige | ||
Tania Calvo Barbero | ||
11 | Colombia | 0:00:35.242 |
Juliana Gaviria Rendon | ||
Diana Maria Garcia Orrego | ||
12 | Hong Kong, China | 0:00:36.033 |
Wai Sze Lee | ||
Zhao Juan Meng | ||
13 | Greece | 0:00:36.087 |
Angeliki Koutsonikoli | ||
Dimitra Patapi | ||
14 | Korea | 0:00:36.216 |
Won Gyeong Kim | ||
Eunmi Park | ||
15 | Japan | 0:00:36.796 |
Ryoko Nakagawa | ||
Kanako Kase |
Latest on Cyclingnews
-
Wout van Aert claims Cyclo-cross World Cup with victory in Overijse
Belgian fends off Mathieu van der Poel in last race before World Championships -
Lorrenzo Manzin wins Classica Comunitat Valenciana
Frenchman outsprints Aristi, Capiot -
Alvarado wins elite women's Cyclo-cross World Cup in Overijse
Branda and Bakker complete podium -
How to watch the 2020-2021 cyclo-cross season – live streams from anywhere
Van Aert, Brand and Betsema headline sandy Zilvermeercross in Mol
Sign up to the Cyclingnews Newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how to do this, and how we hold your data, please see our privacy policy
Thank you for signing up to Cycling News. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.