Day two of the World Track Championships saw a remarkable three world records being set in the Women's Team Pursuit: Australia snatched the record from GB in qualifying, only for GB to grab it back minutes leter in their heat. GB then smashed it again by over a second in winning the final.
In the Women's Sprint, Victoria Pendleton booked her place in Friday's semi-finals where she will meet defending champion Anna Meares, who broke the world record in the 200m Time Trial qualification. GB's other representative, Jess Varnish, went out in the first round.
WOMEN'S TEAM PURSUIT
Great Britain's Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell won the women’s Team Pursuit with a perfectly judged and paced race against Australia. Starting at a frenetic pace, the Aussies moved into a half second lead after two laps. That went out to 1.3 at the kilometre point.
However, during the second kilo GB began to come back and had reduced the margin to 0.8 seconds at two kilometres. For a few seconds the race hung in the balance, but with three laps to go the Australians cracked and GB suddenly reeled them in turning that deficit into a 1.2 second winning margin at the line, with yet another world record, 3:15.720, the icing on the cake.
In the bronze medal final, Canada held a small lead of about a tenth of a second going right into the last kilometre, before opening it to just over three tenths at the finish.
two world records in the space of a few minutes meant that the Women's Team Pursuit was making the headlines from the off on day two of the championships. First the Australians took a second off GB's old mark and then Great Britain's Jo Rowsell, Laura Trott and Dani King came back to knock another two tenths of a second off the new mark, setting up another Australia v GB Team Pursuit final in the process.
Early pace setters were Belarus from the sixth heat, with a time of 3:22.509. They held on till the Canadians, who had impressed at the Manchester World Cup in February, blew that away with 3:19.494, the third fastest ride of all time. But that was only the warm-up show as Australia's trio Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic, who followed them onto the track, smashed GB's old world record of 3:18.148 by over a second with 3:17.053. Great Britain had to go inside the Canadian time to qualify for the gold medal final, but they did far more than that, clipping two tenths off Australia's time to set yet another world record with 3:16.850.
Looking at the qualification lap times, Australia set off at a slightly faster pace, recording 21.7s for the first lap and then going through the next five laps all under 16 seconds. Their final six laps were, however, all over 16 seconds and they generally slowed a little every lap throughout their ride. GB opened with a 21.8 and then reeled off ten sub 16 second laps, before slipping over that mark for just the final lap. Head-to-head, Australia actually led until 3 laps from the end, but from then on GB's consistency was what clinched their record.
Results
Women's Team Pursuit Qualification 1 GBR Great Britain 3:16.850 2 AUS Australia 3:17.053 3 CAN Canada 3:19.494 4 NZL New Zealand 3:20.598 5 USA United States 3:21.765 6 BLR Belarus 3:22.509 7 CHN China 3:23.083 8 GER Germany 3:24.145 9 UKR Ukraine 3:24.227 10 RUS Russia 3:24.644 11 LTU Lithuania 3:25.656 12 JPN Japan 3:31.165 13 HKG Hong Kong 3:37.952 POL Poland DSQ
WOMEN'S SPRINT
Australia's Anna Meares qualified fastest in the 200m Time Trial, breaking the world record with a time of 10.782s. GB's Victoria Pendleton qualified fifth fastest and team-mate Jess Varnish eighth.
In the first round of the competition Jess Varnish exited after a defeat at the hands of China's Lin Junhong. Pendleton then beat Lin Junhong in the second round.
In the Quarter Finals, Meares took a physical first heat against Guo: they clashed through the final bend, but Meares, on the inside, seemed undisturbed as she took the win. In the second heat Meares showed her pace with a stunning late bust over the top of her rival to go through to Friday's semi final.
In her Quarter Final, Victoria Pendleton won her first heat against French rider Cueff, coming round her opponent with some ease. The second heat saw Pendleton leading it out and she comfortably held off her opponent to go through to a semi final against arch-rival Anna Meares.
Shulika and Krupeckaite also made their way through to the semis in relatively straightforward straight rides.
Results
Women's Sprint Quarter Finals
MEARES Anna AUS beat GUO Shuang CHN 2-0 SHULIKA Lyubov UKR beat GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB 2 - 0 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU - WELTE Miriam GER 2 - 0 PENDLETON Victoria GBR - CUEFF Virginie FRA 2 - 0
Women's Sprint Second Round Repechage (winners into quarter finals)
Heat 1 1 GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB 2 LEE Hyejin KOR 3 LARREAL CHIRINOS Daniela Grelui VEN
Heat 2 1 GUO Shuang CHN 11.821 60.908 2 JUNHONG Lin CHN 3 CLAIR Sandie FRA
Women's Sprint Second Round (winners into quarter finals)
MEARES Anna AUS beat GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB SHULIKA Lyubov UKR beat GUO Shuang CHN WELTE Miriam GER beat CLAIR Sandie FRA CUEFF Virginie FRA beat LEE Hyejin KOR PENDLETON Victoria GBR beat JUNHONG Lin CHN KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU beat LARREAL CHIRINOS Daniela Grelui VEN
Women's Sprint First Round
MEARES Anna AUS beat GAVIRIA Juliana COL GUO Shuang CHN beat GNIDENKO Ekaterina RUS WELTE Miriam GER beat MAEDA Kayono JPN CUEFF Virginie FRA beat LEE Wai Sze HKG PENDLETON Victoria GBR beat HIJGENAAR Yvonne NED LARREAL CHIRINOS Daniela Grelui VEN beat VOGEL Kristina GER KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU beat ZHONG Tianshi CHN JUNHONG Lin CHN beat VARNISH Jessica GBR LEE Hyejin KOR beat SULLIVAN Monique CAN CLAIR Sandie FRA beat MCCULLOCH Kaarle AUS SHULIKA Lyubov UKR beat BARANOVA Viktoria RUS GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB beat HANSEN Natasha NZL
Women's Sprint Qualifiction 200m TT
1 MEARES Anna AUS 10.782 2 GUO Shuang CHN 11.004 3 WELTE Miriam GER 11.033 4 LEE Wai Sze HKG 11.067 5 PENDLETON Victoria GBR 11.076 6 VOGEL Kristina GER 11.078 7 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU 11.079 8 VARNISH Jessica GBR 11.090 9 SULLIVAN Monique CAN 11.101 10 MCCULLOCH Kaarle AUS 11.105 11 SHULIKA Lyubov UKR 11.131 12 GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB 11.150 13 HANSEN Natasha NZL 11.166 14 BARANOVA Viktoria RUS 11.170 15 CLAIR Sandie FRA 11.186 16 LEE Hyejin KOR 11.228 17 JUNHONG Lin CHN 11.244 18 ZHONG Tianshi CHN 11.252 19 LARREAL CHIRINOS Daniela Grelui VEN 11.267 20 HIJGENAAR Yvonne NED 11.302 21 CUEFF Virginie FRA 11.386 22 MAEDA Kayono JPN 11.402 23 GNIDENKO Ekaterina RUS 11.458 24 GAVIRIA Juliana COL 11.469 25 MUSTAPA Fatehah MAS 11.487 26 BREZHNIVA Elena RUS 11.508 27 ISHII Hiroko JPN 11.800 28 LOHVINAVA Maryia BLR 11.984 29 PAPEZHUK Iryna UKR 12.135
WOMEN'S POINTS RACE
Anastasia Chulkova of Russia won the Women’s Points Race, picking up three points in the final sprint which took her clear of Glaesser of Canada, with whom she was tying. Third was Ryan of Ireland, who along with the gold and silver medallists and Wong of Hong Kong lapped the field mid-race. Bronzini of Italy was arguably the most active rider in the race and despite missing that group, she still almost scraped into the medals, picking up 23 points from sprints alone.
Results
1 CHULKOVA Anastasia RUS 31 2 GLAESSER Jasmin CAN 28 3 RYAN Caroline IRL 24 4 BRONZINI Giorgia ITA 23 5 WONG Wan Yiu HKG 22 6 OLABERRIA DORRONSORO ESP 11 7 MACHACOVA Jarmila CZE 10 8 PAWLOWSKA Katarzyna POL 8 9 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR 7 10 CURE Amy AUS 6 11 DRUYTS Kelly BEL 6 12 TABATA Maki JPN 4 13 NAGIRNAYA Anna UKR 3 14 BUCHANAN Rushlee NZL 2 15 HIGGINS Cari USA 1 16 GONZALEZ VALDIVIESO Yumari CUB 1 17 GONZALEZ GARCIA Angie VEN 0
