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2006 Commonwealth Games - JR
Melbourne, Australia, March 16-26, 2006
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March 19: Men’s team sprint
Scotland get it from England in close final
By Mal Sawford
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Two impressive rides from the Scottish team of Ross Edgar, Craig McLean and Chris Hoy gave them the gold medal in the team sprint – the first cycling gold to go somewhere other than the Australian or English teams.
England's team of Matthew Crampton, Jason Queally and Jamie Staff set the time to beat in qualifying with a 44.564, but the Scots were up to the challenge, recording 44.265 in the next heat, the second-fastest time by any British team in any competition.
The Australian team saw new lead off rider Shane Perkins, another home town boy, rip out a sub eighteen second lap – something the Aussies have been lacking in recent years, and according to head coach Martin Barras, "Now we really have a team sprint team." Ryan Bayley and Shane Kelly anchored the Australian effort and came agonizingly close to matching England's efforts, but fell short by a mere 0.033 seconds.
Australia had little trouble accounting for New Zealand's Justin Grace, Nathan Seddon and Adam Stewart in the bronze final, and for 19 year-old debutante Perkins, "It was a huge experience for me, I used to go and watch Shane [Kelly] racing at Northcote [velodrome] when I was 10 years old. I've always said I want to be like him. To ride with him is amazing. He takes a lot out of it as well; we push him, he pushes us. And Ryan - what can I say? He's pretty much the best sprinter in the world and he's only 24."
The gold medal match was a much closer affair. The electronic timing showed that Scotland led at every change, but the final result was too close to call by eye, with the winning margin less than three hundredths of a second.
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While a win would have been better, Staff admitted, "I've been sick of watching the TV every day and seeing the Aussies win everything. I'm just glad they didn't win!" On a more serious note, he can still see room for improvement, adding, "This is a brand new team. It shows you the strength of our team sprint and you've got to be happy with that."
Queally agreed: "Both teams did a phenomenal time. We were happy with our ride but we were just beaten by a better team on the day. It's great for Britain as we had two teams in the final and it bodes well for the future. It was an absolute dream final, but one of us had to be a loser."
Speaking for the winning team, Hoy admitted that the final line up for Scotland hadn't been decided until five hours before the session started. Marco Librizzi was the unlucky rider to miss out, but, "Obviously, they made the right decision. We had a trial a week ago and I had a really bad lap, half a second slower than tonight. Going into today I was a little bit tired, so to do a 12.9 was really good."
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by AFP Photo
- The men's team sprint podium (l-r): England, Scotland and Australia
- The Scottish crew flew to a gold medal
- Chris Hoy (Scotland) celebrates gold in the team sprint
Images by Shane Goss/www.licoricegallery.com
- England were pinning their hopes on the three man team sprint final on the final night in the velodrome
- The three man team from Canada in action in the sprint
- The team from England powering down the home straight in their quest for gold
- The boys from Scotland were flying for gold in the three man team sprint
- Chris Hoy (Scotland) throws his bike at the line and claims gold for Scotland in the three-man team sprint
- Chris Hoy (Scotland) flexed his muscle for Scotland in the three-man team sprint
- This was medal row on the infield at Vodafone Arena during the cycling at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games
- The podium from the three-man team sprint (L-R): England 2nd, Scotland 1st, and Australia 3rd
Images by Rob Jones/www.canadiancyclist.com
- England came up a few tenths of a second short
- Hoy celebrates gold for Scotland
- England on the line
- Yannik Morin led out for Canada
- Scots enjoy the moment
- Jamie Staff peels off
- Travis Smith took the second lap for Canada
- Jason Queally hands off to Matthew Crampton
- England, Scotland, Australia the place getters in the men's team sprint
- Scotland lines up
- Team Malaysia
- Hoy takes over from Edgar
- Chris Hoy throws his bike at the line to take gold for Scotland
- New Zealand made the final four
- The first rider peels off
- Australia throws for the line
- Yannick Morin, a former Mr Natural Universe flexes for the crowd - (inset photo: taken in 1998 when he won)
Results
Qualifying 1 Scotland 44.265 (60.996km/h) Ross Edgar Chris Hoy Craig Maclean 2 England 44.564 (60.587km/h) Matthew Crampton Jason Queally Jamie Staff 3 Australia 44.597 (60.542km/h) Ryan Bayley Shane Kelly Shane Perkins 4 New Zealand 46.200 (58.442km/h) Justin Grace Nathan Seddon Adam Stewart 5 Canada 46.246 (58.383km/h) Cameron Mackinnon Yannik Morin Travis Smith 6 Malaysia 46.578 (57.967km/h) Junaidi Mohamad Nasir Mohd Rizal Tisin Josiah Ng 7 Barbados 53.059 (50.887km/h) John Cumberbatch Jason Forde Jason Perryman Final for bronze 1 Australia 44.719 (60.377km/h) Ryan Bayley Shane Kelly Shane Perkins 2 New Zealand 46.366 (58.232km/h) Justin Grace Nathan Seddon Adam Stewart Final for gold 1 Scotland 44.282 (60.973km/h) Ross Edgar Chris Hoy Craig Maclean 2 England 44.309 (60.936km/h) Matthew Crampton Jason Queally Jamie Staff
