FROM
the moment they finished their qualifying ride, there was never any real
doubt that Australia would win back the title they took in 1993 but surrendered
last year in a surprise semi-final defeat by the United States.
Giving Brad McGee extra time to recover from the stomach problem which
forced him to pull out of the individual quarter-finals, their starting
quartet of Rod McGee, Tim O' Shannessy, Dean Woods and Stuart O'Grady
clocked 4-06.436 to lead the last eight qualifiers by over four seconds
- a huge gap at this level. There was a slight hiccup in their semi-final
against the Americans when Woods began to hyper-ventilate and suffer muscle
spasms in his hands and lower arms, forcing him to drop off inside the
first two kilometres.
But they were three-and-a-half seconds up at the time and the remaining
trio had no problems staying clear. The other semi-final was extraordinary
for the way that Germany, the defending champions, cracked and handed
victory to surprise packets Ukraine.
The defending champions were 2.9 seconds clear at half distance and looking
good. But Robert Bartto dropped off in the third kilometre and with two
laps to go, Andreas Bach lost contact with the other two. Jens Lehmann
and Guido Fulst eased as the roar of the crowd told them what had happened.
A lead of two seconds became just 0.026 at the bell as the Germans regrouped,
and the Ukrainians stormed on to snatch a dramatic victory, 4-12.460 to
4-13.165.
The Americans had gone half-asecond faster than Germany in losing to
the Australians, so there wasn't even the consolation of a bronze medal
for Lehmann and company. Rod McGee came back in for the final, while Woods
sat in the centre of the track, head in hands, unable to watch. `I've
done everything right up to here and then I blow it,' he said. `I've done
it all for nothing.'
It was all decided on the start, the Australians going through the first
kilometre in 1-05.130 to lead by over two seconds. The gap stayed fairly
constant and both finished in their best times for the series - Australia
in 4-05.010 and the Ukraine 4-07.906. The winners took 59.262 seconds
for their second kilometre. Only half-a-second covered the next three
qualifiers - United States, Ukraine and Germany - behind Australia, while
Britain's Matt Illingworth, Simon Lillistone, Chris Newton and Bryan Steel
finished in eighth place with a British record of 4-13.552, one second
better than the time in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Among the teams they
beat were France, Denmark, Russia and Holland, who all finished above
them in the top eight last year.
It was down to pace judgement, and the British quartet overhauled four
teams in the second-half to reach the quarter finals for the first time
since Barcelona. It earned them the dubious reward of a match against
Australia a few hours later, and a heavy defeat as they went back three
seconds.
`We came here to do three things - firstly to get in the top 12 and qualify
for the Olympics, secondly to get into the quarter-finals and thirdly
to break the British record,' said Simon Lillistone. `We've managed all
three so we've justified the time and effort that's been put in.'
Said Matt Illingworth: `I've ridden 10 seconds quicker than ever before
in five weeks. It felt good and it might sound ridiculous, but it was
one of the easiest pursuits I have ridden. We were all pleased with the
time and felt it was a good ride. We beat a lot of good teams - look at
the French, they were fourth last year and they blew their heads off here.
We are going to get faster. We have only been together for a couple of
months - in another year of training we can only get better. We were all
going well on the day, and if Rob had been there he might have added another
injection of speed.'
Qualifiers
1. Australia 4-06.436
2. United States 410.439
3. Ukraine 4-10.815
4. Germany 410.933
5. Italy 4-12.396
6. Spain 4-12.914
7. Lithuania 4-13.517
8. Great Britain 4-13.552
Quarter-finals
Germany 4-11.360 bt Italy 412.237
Ukraine 4-09.607 bt Spain 4-10.533
United States 4-12.013 bt Lithuania 4-16.571
Australia 4-07.799 bt Great Britain 4-16.808
Semi-finals
Ukraine 4-12.460 bt Germany 413.537
Australia 4-08.987 bt United States 412.530.
Bronze medal
United States (Zach Conrad, Dirk Copeland, Mariano Friedick, Matt Hamon).
Final
Australia (Bradley McGee, Rod McGee, Stuarf O'Grady, Tim O'Shannessy)
4-05.010 bt Ukraine (Bogdan Bonarev, Andre latsenko, Alexandre Simonenko,
Dmitri Tolstenkov) 4-07.906
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