Northern Ireland’s Wendy Houvenaghel took silver in the 3,000 individual pursuit to add to her ever expanding collection of silver wear. Houvenaghel has been missing out on the top spot over the past two years and today saw her settle for second behind Alison Shanks of New Zealand.
Houvenaghel started strong but was unable to keep the momentum as Shanks came through to claim gold with a winning time of 30:875. Their last meet in 2009 saw Shanks snatch the top spot at the World Track Championships, with Houvenghel having to settle for silver.
Speaking after the race, the cyclist commented: “I was conservative in my first ride, held something back for the final. I was confident going into the final and I rode the race as I’d normally ride it, but when I realised I was down I had nothing left to get it back.”
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Houvenaghel has voiced her criticism over the UCI’s decision to remove the individual pursuit from the Olympic programme, arguing the sprint events are being favoured too heavily compared to endurance competitions, feelings that are echoed by Olympic champion, Rebecca Romero.
Houvenaghel’s individual pursuit career now appears to be over as she turns her attention on the women’s team pursuit which has now been added to the Olympic schedule. “I think this is probably my last individual pursuit, unless the UCI change their scheduling at the World Championships and put the individual pursuit after the team pursuit. From this competition I will be focussing all my efforts of the team pursuit with regards to qualification to London 2012.”
Houvengahal looks back positively on her individual pursuit career, admitting, “I know I can take solace from the fact I’ve given every competition 100 percent focus.” In light of 2012, things are shaping up pretty nicely in the velodrome and we’ll hopefully be seeing Houvengahal amongst the bunch that represent Team GB on two wheels.
Kirsty Page, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
Image credit: http://www.nicgc.org/
