Cycling: World championships round-up

• Tweet
• Pin It

Anyone lucky enough to have got tickets to the velodrome at this summer’s Olympic games must be feeling more than a little excited after watching last week’s World Championships held in Melbourne, Australia.

The rivalry between Great Britain and Australia was only fuelled further after Australia topped the medal table with six golds, six silvers and three bronzes, with Britain totalling six golds, four silver and three bronzes. However Great Britain won five out of the ten Olympic events, two more than Australia, and therefore putting them as favourites for the top medal haul this summer.

One of the biggest rivalries is set to be between Great Britain’s Victoria Pendleton and Australia’s Anna Meares. In Melbourne, Mears came out on top with two golds, a silver and a bronze and even though Pendleton pipped her in the sprint event the Brit is still a little off the unbeatable form that we’ve seen from her previously. But you should never under estimate the steely determination of Pendleton, as we saw when she picked herself up after a crash in the sprint event, and as London 2012 looks set to be her final event before retiring there is no doubt she will give it everything she has got and then some more.

However the real star of the female riders for Britain in Melbourne was 19 year old Laura Trott. She came home with two golds – one from the multi-race Omnium and the other in the team pursuit alongside Jo Rowsell and Dani King – both Olympic events. Another youngster, Jess Varnish, is likely to round off the women’s team in London, competing with Pendleton in the team sprint.

GB’s team coach Dave Brailsford said after the event; “We’ve got more to come. There’s no reason why we can’t step up again, but then again everybody else is going to be improve. Form’s going to decide what happens at the Olympics now.”

Louise Hudson, Sportsister

The Women’s Sports Magazine

• Tweet
• Pin It

You must be logged in to post a comment Login