World Team Pursuit Championship (Colombia)
1-Aug-1995

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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