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Great Britain dominated on day one of the track World Championships in Melbourne with gold medals in the men’s 4km team pursuit and the men’s 15km scratch.
However there was an unlikely gold medal for Australia in the men’s sprint final after two of the favourites, Great Britain and Germany, were disqualified ahead of the medal races.
Australia’s gold followed silver medals in both the men’s team pursuit and women’s team sprint for coach Ian McKenzie’s riders.
The first final of the first evening session at the Hisense Arena pitted Australia against their big team pursuit rivals Great Britain in what was billed as the first test of ‘The Ashes on Two Wheels’.
With Australia recently getting the better of the Olympic champions in the London World Cup round in February, the scene was set for a thrilling showdown at the last major event ahead of the London Olympics this July.
Entering the competition with the upper hand after some phenomenal training performances, Team GB’s foursome of Geraint Thomas, Ed Clancy, Peter Kennaugh and Andrew Tennant set the fastest time in qualifying on the way to setting up a final with the host nation.
Slower out of the start, Australia’s quartet of Jack Bobridge, Glenn O’Shea, Rohan Dennis and Michael Hepburn closed the gap on the 1500m mark before edging ahead over the next 1000m. But the Brits held a slender advantage inside the last kilometre before powering to the line to break their own world record set at the Beijing Olympics four years ago.
Britain’s world record time of 3:53.295 will give them the edge going into the Olympic Games and will repair the damage after losing out on home soil to the Australians in February in London’s new Olympic velodrome.
Remarkably, British pair Clancy and Thomas have now featured in the three fastest team pursuit rides in history.
In the bronze medal race, New Zealand came from behind to beat a Russian team which started fast but faded in the second half.
There was disappointment too for the Australian ladies who were beaten by Germany in the women’s team sprint. Three-time world champions Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch were favourites heading into the event but were outdone in astonishing fashion by Germany’s Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel, who set two new world records on the way to securing an unexpected victory (with a final time of 32.549).
In a clear wake-up call ahead of the London Olympics, British pair Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish lost out to China’s Jinjie Gong and Shuang Guo in the bronze medal race.
In the third race of the evening, Great Britain’s Ben Swift made up for the personal disappointment of not being selected for David Brailsford’s team pursuit four with a commanding victory in the men’s 15km scratch race.
Swift powered ahead on the penultimate lap of the 60-lap race and held on despite a late surge by South Africa’s Nolan Hoffman. Wim Stroetinga of the Netherlands completed the podium.
With the local supporters looking set to go home without a gold medal to cheer about, the night’s biggest drama was left to the final race. Following qualification it looked like the best Australia could do in the men’s team sprint was a bronze medal – but a controversial decision saw the hosts upgraded from the bronze medal ride-off after both Great Britain and Germany were relegated for transitioning outside the designated area on the track.
The decision meant that instead of battling against old rivals Great Britain for the bronze medal, Australia’s Shane Perkins, Scott Sutherland and Matthew Glaetzer – a former pole vaulter – were promoted to a clash against the French favourites for gold.
In a nail-biting race, Australia were slightly down on France until the final lap when young gun Glaetzer overturned the deficit against Michael D’Almeida to clock a time of 43.266 – a win by just 0.001. It was a huge upset – and gave the host nation a first world title in the event since 1996.
With 25-year-old Perkins competing just days after injuring his wrist following a collision with a car in training, it was a remarkable turn of events and sent the crowds at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena into a frenzy.
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