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TRACK | Tokyo strategy on target

29/2/2020

Less than twenty four hours after finishing outside of the medals in the team pursuit, Australia’s charge at Olympic gold in Tokyo continued in Germany with Alex Porter and Luke Plapp delivering personal bests in the 1000m time trial and individual pursuit finals. The non-Olympics events were used to help simulate the Tokyo racing schedule, and prepare them for August.

In the women’s omnium, a knee injury sustained after a crash in the elimination race cruelly ended Georgia Baker’s run at the podium.

Men’s Time Trial / Individual Pursuit

After finishing outside of the medals yesterday in the team pursuit, Australia's focus on delivering Olympic gold continued through the punishing 1000m time trial and 4km individual pursuit events.

Despite both events not being on the Olympic programme, Australia used the racing opportunity to simulate the sensations of competing across three consecutive days with the men's team pursuit to be contested across the same duration at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

"The whole process of today was to get up like it was the last day of the Olympics, do a pre-start in the morning, come out to the track, get in that headspace of full gas and execute it on the track," said Alex Porter, who bolted from the gates to cover the four-lap time trial in a personal best time (1:00.960).

"After last night's TP final, I was unsure how I would back up this morning, but on the rollers this morning I felt better than I did yesterday. So to go out and ride a four-second PB [personal best] in a kilo after having raced three team pursuits over two days, it has given me a huge boost of confidence."

Reigning world champions Australia finished fourth in the team pursuit held across the first two days of the Championships. The team narrowly missed the medal rounds and were surprisingly overlapped in the bronze medal final by Italy.

"In the final, we thought we would throw caution to the wind and go full gas and see how it would go, but it ended up hurting us in the back end," said Porter, who fell off the pace in the final few laps of the final. "But that happens, we went out there trying something different, and we are disappointed for sure. We came for our last hit out before the games wanting to put the right foot forward.

"But at the end of the day, as much as it is nice to win a world title, we weren't here to peak for Worlds, or win Worlds.

"The main goal is to win an Olympic gold medal, and this is a stepping stone towards that."

Denmark set a new benchmark in the event after shattering the world record three times, ultimately posting a stunning 3mins 44.672secs. Despite having nearly four seconds shaved off their 2019 world record this week, Porter and the Australian team remain committed to the ultimate target, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

"We have now gone from being the hunted to hunting," Porter said. "We've known it was coming for a long time, everyone has been going fast, and I am glad it has happened here.

"The feeling we all have now, none of us like it. We have taken a hit, but the real sign of a champion is how you get back up in the next fight.

"And as I said to Glenn [O'Shea] on the start line, my 3:42 TP training starts now. That's it, that is the goal now. I personally and all the boys believe it can happen."

Like Porter, Luke Plapp lined up in all three team pursuit rounds on Wednesday and Thursday, and on Friday the nineteen-year-old fronted for the individual race against the clock.

"To ride a PB given the last few days of racing, you can't be disappointed with that," said Plapp who recorded a personal best time (4:18.520) on his way to finishing thirteenth. "I'll be honest. I woke up this morning and felt like I had been hit by a truck, the legs were pretty buckled, but it was good to go through the process and be able to switch off and on."

Plapp came into the team on the eve of the Championships after Kelland O'Brien - a member of Australia's 2019 world champion and world-record-setting outfit - was unable to recover in time after breaking his collarbone in January. The opportunity of riding his maiden World Championships was not lost on the teenager.

"Everything happens for a reason," said Plapp. "Kell will come back so much hungrier for having missed these Championships, and he will come back so much more determined for Tokyo.

"We all will. There are some easy things to fix that will get us where we want to be. The little things just had a domino effect, so once we fix those, everything falls into place.

"I think that what has happened here is a blessing in disguise and we will turn it around for Tokyo."

The individual pursuit World Championship was won by Italy’s Filippo Ganna. He secured the title against Lambie Ashton (USA) after he posted a world record time of 4mins 01.934secs in qualifying.

Cameron Scott (1:01.057) finished fifteenth overall in the time trial which was won by Sam Ligtlee of the Netherlands.

Women’s Omnium

In the women’s omnium, a knee injury sustained after a crash in the elimination race cruelly ended Georgia Baker’s run at the podium.

In the omnium’s opening event, the scratch race, Baker avoided a crash which brought down five riders on the penultimate lap. After finishing eighth, she moved into the top ten after grabbing eleventh in an animated tempo race.

Baker looked strong late in the elimination race before being unable to avoid a rider falling in front of her. The race was neutralised, and Baker impressively rejoined the race before being the sixth-last rider eliminated two laps later.

The sixth-place finish in the elimination race shot her into sixth overall and into medal contention with only the points race to come.

However, with her knee taking much of the impact in the crash, Baker was unable to keep pace in a hectic points race. After losing twenty points halfway through the race after being lapped by the field, Baker fell out of the top ten before gallantly finishing the event in fourteenth overall.

The title was taken out by Japan’s Yumi Kajihara, who finished with 121 points, 12 points clear of Italian Letizia Paternoster.

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