Anna Meares believes she found a new level on her way to setting up a much-anticipated women’s sprint semi-final with arch-rival Victoria Pendleton.
Indeed, the defending champion reached a level no female cyclist has ever been when she broke the world flying 200m record at the world track cycling championships in Melbourne.
Meares says she stunned herself with her time of 10.782 seconds for the 200m during the sprint qualifying rounds on Thursday, a day after setting the two fastest opening laps in the team sprint.
“I was thinking to myself ‘this doesn’t feel good, go, go, go, go harder, go harder, go harder’,” she said.
“I probably should do that every time I do a 200 because I ended up breaking the world record.
“For me, that’s a new benchmark. It’s a new level I’ve reached and I’m really proud of that, but speed’s only one part of this (sprint) game.”
It was a decisive 0.22 of a second faster than the next-fastest qualifier, Chinese rival Shuang Guo.
The Queenslander then easily accounted for Guo in two heats in their quarter-final to set up Friday’s semi against Pendleton, the Briton who beat Meares to gold at the Beijing Olympics and has won five world titles.
The fierce and, at times, bitter rivals have, in Meares’ words, “turned each other inside out” many times since Beijing, including a taxing victory to the Australian in the semis at the February World Cup meeting in London.
Friday night’s semi should be just as combative, despite Meares’ clear advantage so far at this meeting over Pendleton, who qualified fourth fastest for the semis.
Four months out from the London Olympics, Meares says she’s in the form of her life, but her coach believes there’s more to come.
“Clearly she’s found a new level. She continues to astound us, but this is a unique athlete we’re dealing with,” said Australia’s sprit coach Gary West.
“There’s still more growth for Anna. The world titles was always going to be a rehearsal for Anna … I anticipate she’ll be even faster in London.
“Clearly it’s been demonstrated in the last couple of days she’s in the form of her life. She’s just getting better and better.”
Friday’s other semi final features the former 200m world record holder, Lithuania’s Simona Krupeckaite, against Ukranian Lyubov Shulika.
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