World Track Championships - CM

Copenhagen, Denmark, September 25 - 29, 2002

Event program and results    Qualifying    First Round     Finals

Men's 4000m Team Pursuit

Australians home comfortably against Germany

Photo©: Mike Gladu

The Australian pursuit quartet followed on from its gold medal in the Manchester Commonwealth Games last month with a win in the World Championship even at Ballerup's Siemens Arena tonight. Having qualified fastest yesterday, they exchanged Mark Renshaw for Luke Roberts (silver in the IP) to progress through the first round in a time of 4.00.628, catching opponents Russia in the process. Australia faced Germany in the final, who recorded the second best time in the first round.

The Australians lost a man before the final kilometre, but were well up on Germany by that stage. They could see the Germans in the same straight as they powered home in 4.00.362 for the gold medal, with Germany finishing in 4.07.384. Third place went to Great Britain in 4.02.839, who easily accounted for the Ukraine in 4.08.151.

The entire Australian team shed tears of joy after their win which came only six weeks after they set the world record of 3min59.583seconds in Manchester to claim Commonwealth Games gold. (Mark Renshaw (NSW) 20, and Graeme Brown (NSW) 21, were in the world record breaking team instead of Lancaster and Wooldridge).

For Wooldridge the win was even more special as he had ridden the early rounds in Manchester and sat out the final race for gold.

"It's funny to say but although most people thought I would have been very disappointed that I missed that ride I actually used it to push myself and ensure I gave myself every opportunity to make sure I was on the start line here," said Wooldridge breaking into tears for a second time minutes after speaking on the phone with his father, John in Sydney.

"This year has just been so emotional for me because my mum, Janice (64) died in June from cancer and she had always been behind me all the way so this means so much to me," he said.

Dawson, a member of the Australian junior world champion team in 1999, was also wiping away the tears as he rang off from his call home to Perth.

"My grandfather, Bill Fitzpatrick, was buried the day after the Manchester Commonwealth Games but his dying wish was for me to stay in Europe and not come home until I had the World Title," Dawson said. "So I've done it all right this week and put my all into it for him."

Lancaster, a junior world champion in teams pursuit in 1997 and a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, came into team after missing selection for Manchester but says that disappointment only made him more determined to be here.

"I made a decision to try and get my road career up and running this year and that meant I wasn't able to set the time I needed to get in the team for the Commonwealth Games," said Lancaster who has been signed with the Italian Panaria team for next season after racing with the Australian iteamNova.com squad this year. "After Sydney some people wrote me off because I had six months off to get my head around it all but Shayne (Bannan – National Head Coach) had faith in me coming back and I have."

"It's just been a great year and has finished with a bang!"

Roberts, with a pedigree of three junior teams pursuit and one individual pursuit world crowns and two Commonwealth Games teams pursuit gold medals, was literally pinching himself when asked how he felt after the victory.

"I came here thinking maybe I'd go home with a medal in the teams event but now I have a gold and a silver from the individual pursuit," (won by compatriot Brad McGee on day one of competition) said Roberts who holds the distinction of being the reigning world record holder in both the senior and junior teams pursuit (junior record set in Adelaide in 1994).

"The whole feel of the team is relaxed and because we only come together for specific training camps we're always fresh and don't have time to get on each others nerves," said Roberts. "This has been amazing because after fifth at the Sydney Olympics and falling off last year at worlds (the Australian team crashed out of contention in the qualifying round) we've developed to the point where no one is within three seconds of us."

"Plus the team is full of youngsters except for me and you have to have at least one old guy," he laughed.

Renshaw, who rode the first two of three rounds the Australians contested and will be awarded a gold medal as well, didn't know who to hug first when his team mates came off the track after their victory.

"There was a lot of pressure on us as world record holders but we really expected to be challenged here and in no way thought we were ‘a walk up start'," Renshaw explained.

"Even when we were clearly faster in the early rounds we didn't get complacent but we never imagined we'd get in the same straight as the Germans in the final," said Renshaw of the teams pace which saw them make visual contact with their rivals in the final kilometre giving them a tangible target to chase.

For his part National Track Endurance Coach, Ian McKenzie, remained as inscrutable as ever although a broad smile spread across his face as his boys delivered the gold.

"The world record never entered my mind this week," said McKenzie when asked if the pressure of the expectation Australia would win made his job more difficult.

"My hardest task has been managing the six riders we have in the squad," he explained of his role in deciding who rode which rounds and which rider didn't get a start at this Championships.

Asked how he would be celebrating the victory McKenzie responded - "I'm not a party animal so I'll just go to bed and get up tomorrow and keep working."

Photos

Images by Mike Gladu/www.velodrome.com

• Australia down to three
• Germany in full flight
• Great Britain finishes up with Brad Wiggins at the front
• Ukraine led in by Oleksandr Symonenko

Images by AFP

• The French team rides during the team pursuit qualifiers
• A commissaire times the Colombia's team during the team pursuit qualifiers
• Great Britain's team rides during the team pursuit qualifiers
• The German team fly past in the Team Pursuit
• The Australian team celebrates their Team Pursuit win
• The Aussies on their way to gold
• Great Britain takes home the bronze
• One high, three low
• The start of Australia's gold medal run
• Great Britain is overtaken by Australia
• Sean Eadie with his aerodynamic beard

Images by Rochelle Gilmore

• Clear winners in the Team Pursuit
• Gold Medallists in the Team Pursuit
• Some very happy Australians

Results

Qualifying (8 best qualify)

1 Australia                                          4.02.633 (59.348 km/h)
(Peter Dawson, Brett Lancaster
Mark Renshaw, Stephen Wooldridge)
2 Great Britain                                      4.05.060
(Stephen Cummings, Tony Gibb
Paul Manning, Chris Newton)
3 Germany                                            4.07.223
(Christian Bach, Guido Fulst
Christian Lademann, Jens Lehmann)
4 Ukraine                                            4.07.267
(Sergiy Chernyavskyy, Roman Kononenko
Vitaliy Popkov, Oleksandr Symonenko)
5 France                                             4.07.849
(Philippe Gaumont, Fabien Merciris
Franck Perque, Fabien Sanchez)
6 Colombia                                           4.09.257
(Arles Castro Laverde, Leonardo Duque
Alexander Gonzalez Petta, Jose Serpa Perez)
7 Netherlands                                        4.10.447
(Jens Mouris, Peter Schep
Robert Slippens, Wilco Zuijderwijk)
8 Russia                                             4.10.673
(Sergey Klimov, Alexei Markov
Alexander Serov, Denis Smyslov)
9 Spain                                              4.11.593
(Sergi Escobar Roure, Guillermo Ferrer Garcia
Cristóbal Forcadell Garcia, Asier Maeztu Bilalabeitia)
10 Poland                                            4.12.707
(Robert Karsnicki, Marcin Mientki
Jaroslaw Rebiewski, Pawel Zugaj)
11 Belarus                                           4.14.132
(Dzmitry Aulasenka, Vasil Kiryienka
Viktar Rapinski, Yauhen Sobal)
12 Czech Republic                                    4.15.592
(Martin Blaha, Libor Hlavac
Milan Kadlec, Petr Lazar)
13 Italy                                             4.15.871
(Angelo Ciccone, Alessandro Mazzolani
Massimo Strazzer, Maicol Valgiusti)
14 Lithuania                                         4.16.094
(Sergejus Apionkinas, Linas Balciunas
Aivaras Baranauskas, Raimondas Vilcinskas)
15 Greece                                            4.21.701
(Aggelos Armenatzoglou, Basileios Gianniosis
Elpidoforos Potouridis, Kostantinos Rodopoulos)
16 Denmark                                           4.23.772
(Morten Christiansen, Jimmy Hansen, 
Jens-Erik Madsen, Dennis Rasmussen)

First round
 
Heat 1
 
1 Ukraine                                            4.04.638  (58.862 km/h)
(Volodymyr Dyudya, Roman Kononenko, Lyubomyr Polatayko, Oleksandr Symonenko)
 
2 France                                             4.07.615
(Philippe Gaumont, Cyril Bos, Franck Perque, Jérôme Neuville)
 
Heat 2
 
1 Germany                                            4.03.801  (59.064 km/h)
(Christian Lademann, Guido Fulst, Sebastian Siedler, Jens Lehmann)
 
2 Colombia                                           4.10.384
(Arles Castro Laverde, Leonardo Duque, Alexander Gonzalez Petta, Jose Serpa Perez)
 
Heat 3
 
1 Great Britain                                      4.03.886  (59.043 km/h)
(Stephen Cummings, Bryan Steel, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Newton)
 
2 Netherlands                                        Caught
(Jens Mouris, Peter Schep, Robert Slippens, Wilco Zuijderwijk)
 
Heat 4
 
1 Australia                                          4.00.628  (59.843 km/h)
(Peter Dawson, Brett Lancaster, Mark Renshaw, Luke Roberts)
 
2 Russia                                             Caught
(Sergey Klimov, Nikita Eskov, Alexander Serov, Denis Smylsov)
 
Finals
 
For Gold and Silver
 
1 Australia                                          4.00.362  (59.909 km/h)
(Peter Dawson, Brett Lancaster, Stephen Wooldridge, Luke Roberts)
 
2 Germany                                            4.07.384
(Christian Bach, Guido Fulst, Sebastian Siedler, Jens Lehmann)
 
For Bronze
 
3 Great Britain                                      4.02.839  (59.298 km/h)
(Paul Manning, Bryan Steel, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Newton)
 
4 Ukraine                                            4.08.151
(Volodymyr Dyudya, Roman Kononenko, Lyubomyr Polatayko, Oleksandr Symonenko)