The beginning of the end

The end of the championships that is. This morning we had Kieran and Scott competing in the Men's Tandem Sprint, Sue, Andrew and Michael in the Team Sprint and both women's tandems competing in the Pursuit.

Unfortunately, this is the first post where I can't report on amazing successes, which is not say that everyone didn't ride very well.

Kieran and Scott looked good for a spot in the quarter finals of the sprint until the big hitters from the UK and a couple of other countries came out to play. For world record holders in the pursuit, they did well to qualify 9th in the sprint. Only the top eight qualifiers go through so they missed out, but by finishing top 10, they accrued more UCI points for Australia.

In the women's tandem pursuit our sprinters, Steph and Flick went out easy and built through to the end of the 3km journey - no mean feat when they normally only go 1km and this was their first attempt. They ended up qualifying 11th out of 15, so no embarrassment there.

Brandie and Kerry rode well to the schedule for the first 2km but the cold in the velodrome (it's been raining since yesterday evening) got the better of them in the last kilometre. They finished with a 3.44, which is not quite as good as their PB set in Sydney a month ago, but still makes them the 6th fastest women's tandem pairing in the world over the distance and again, more valuable UCI points in the bank. Not too shabby for their first World Championships.

Our team sprint team qualified 8th and as far as I can ascertain at the moment, was one of only two teams that included a woman on the roster. This didn't see them reach the ride offs but was a good warm up for Sue for the TT which comes up a bit later this afternoon.

While we didn't win any medals this morning, everyone rode well and we accrued more valuable points, so it was still a successful session.

Check in later for a final update on the competition. Our remaining events are the women's C4 500m time trial featuring our "get out of jail at the last minute" legend Alex, and our pursuit world champion Sue. Jayme will also be riding her C1 500m time trial this afternoon.