Champion Australian cyclists Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch are keeping their eyes on the prize, Olympic gold, despite an upset result at the London velodrome which saw them relegated to a silver medal for their favourite team sprint event.
While the result book will show the Aussie duo finished second to Britain’s Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish on Friday, Meares and McCulloch can forever claim a sweet victory over the home team, as the first athletes to post a world record on the new London track.
Earlier on the first day of competition for the Olympic test event, the Australians clocked a time of 32.828 seconds to beat their own record of 32.923 in the two-woman power event.
However, when it came to the battle for gold, Pendleton and Varnish went one better with a new record of 32.754 to claim victory in front of a loud home crowd.
“We would have loved to have won but we didn’t and to be quite honest it’s not about the outcome for us at the moment,” Meares said.
“It’s about those little stepping stones and ensuring that we can ensure a great path through to the London Olympics and perform at our best on race day,”
McCulloch admitted it was unusual for the pair not to back up for the final, but said she was nervous going into the race for gold.
“I will be better for this, we will be better for this, this is not foreign to me anymore,” McCulloch said.
“When we go out in Melbourne (for the World Championships in April) and we are racing off against who are the fastest pair in the world now, we will be better for this experience. We’re going to take a lot away from this.”
In the women’s team pursuit Australia’s Annette Edmondson, Amy Cure and Josephine Tomic snatched bronze from the Netherlands in a time of 3:19.164, while the British trio of Laura Trott, Danielle King and Joanna Rowsell posted a world record time of 3:18.148 to take gold from Canada.
“This crowd is a lot larger than I’ve ever ridden in front of,” said Edmondson.
“The positivity from everybody inside has really spurred on each rider not just their (British) home team.”
Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer, Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland couldn’t overcome Britain in the race for bronze in the men’s team sprint.
Germany took gold and France silver in the three-lap thigh blaster.
Australia’s sole podium-topping performance on Friday came from Melissa Hoskins in the women’s scratch race.
The beaming 20-year-old from West Australia said she was happy with the result, although the event is not part of the Olympic schedule.
“It was an awesome result to finish the week for me,” she said.
“It’s a good track. It’s quick … I think we’re going to see plenty more world records go, especially come London (Olympic) time.”