Meares wants last dance with Pendleton in London - euronews

Reuters, 06/04 19:02 CET

By Ian Ransom

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Victoria Pendleton's sixth sprint title was a fairytale end to a glorious decade of world championships but her victory left humbled arch-rival Anna Meares burning to send the Briton into retirement without the Olympic gold medal.

The pair's stunning semi-final duel rendered Pendleton's title decider with Lithuania's Simona Krupeckaite a side-show that fizzled out with the gold medal announced over the loud-speaker at the Melbourne velodrome.

"I think this is a book that hasn't finished being written yet and the big dance is in London in a few months time," Meares told reporters.

There is no love lost between the two riders and they have barely spoken since Meares cut off Pendleton in a race in Bordeaux over five years ago.

Pendleton described Meares as a rider who "pushes the rules" in the leadup to Melbourne and said she felt sad they were unable to get together for a drink.

Meares responded by saying the rivalry was too intense to allow for friendship but they embraced off track on Friday and lavished each other in praise.

"I do feel very proud that I have a rival who pushes me to such limits, who in the end I have to work with to raise the bar of women's sprinting in the world and to bring attention to our sport in our country," said Meares.

"We're two very strong, very powerful very independent women and we hold ourselves in that manner and we're very proud of that."

Meares might comfort herself knowing she has a history of overcoming adversity.

The daughter of a coal miner raised in a remote Queensland town, Meares was driven 300 kilometres every weekend to ride at the nearest velodrome by her father who was on hand at Hisense Arena to comfort his daughter.

A time trial champion at the 2004 Athens Games, Meares broke her neck seven months before the Beijing Olympics but managed to qualify and lost out to Pendleton in the final.

That defeat proved the catalyst for another bid at the gold in London and she broke Pendleton's run of four straight sprint world titles at Apeldoorn last year.

The 31-year-old Pendleton, who plans to retire after London, was left under few illusions about the threat to her Olympic title from the Australian.

"We were both pushing ourselves to the limit," she told reporters after recovering from a bruising crash in the opening round of the best-of-three semi against Meares.

"With Anna's qualifying time being so exceptional yesterday, I knew I had to race a lot better than I ever had before."

Meares set a world record in qualifying to the surprise of her coaches and she was brimful of confidence as she entered the semi-final.

But her relegation in the second round after storming to victory and an apparent 2-0 lead rocked her composure and she conceded her ice-cool demeanour "wavered" in the decider.

A tactical mistake allowed Pendleton a last-ditch sprint to the line that she won by the width of a tyre.

"I feel probably more disappointed because I know I'm capable of winning and unfortunately I wasn't able to achieve that tonight," a teary-eyed Meares said after regaining her composure to take the bronze medal.

"This has been a big challenge for me tonight to know that I'm capable especially coming off of the qualification ride that I had and feeling good and that's probably what's the most irritating is, I felt so good and I just couldn't convert it."

(Editing by Alison Wildey)

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