Jason Queally

 

15th of March, 2006; by Larry Hickmott

Home Nations for Commonwealth Games

 

 

Olympic champion in Australia in 2000, and second to Chris Hoy in Manchester 2002
England's Jason Queally has spent the last two months and more in Perth where he has spent time before preparing for a major competition. "Its been nice and warm, sometimes a bit too warm but certainly better than the ice and snow back home."

"The transition from Perth to here has gone well and it hasn't taken too long to get used to the different shape Velodrome here" he explained before confirming the two events he'll be doing are the Kilometre and Team Sprint.

On the kilometre, he says "I have prepared as well as I can for that. I struggled a bit getting in some consistent training coming up to Christmas but I knew I could do that here which I have done. In all honesty, I have probably surpassed where I would be so I am pleasantly surprised how well things have gone for the last six or seven weeks".

"I don't think I am on par with what I had in Los Angeles because I don't think the base conditioning I've had has been as good as its been in the past. My final taper phase though seems to have gone well so although its not as good as LA, I am at least going better than what I felt I would be going."

"This for me is the big taper, the big event and the last kilo I'm going to get to ride at the Commonwealth Games. We got medals in Manchester, we just didn't get any golds," said the 35-year-old Chorley-based cyclist. "Australia were going very well that year. But I think we can win at least half a dozen medals on the track this time and I hope we'll get a clutch of golds here as well."

Queally shot to fame in 2000 when he became Olympic Kilo time trial champion in Sydney, but he has never won a Commonwealth Games gold medal, despite claiming two silvers in Kuala Lumpur eight years ago and another in Manchester when his British team training partner, friend and rival Chris Hoy beat him to the Kilo title by just 0.221 seconds. Hoy also succeeded Queally as Olympic champion in Athens in 2004 and will be cycling for Scotland again in Melbourne, resuming the pair's friendly rivalry when the time trial final takes place tomorrow (Thursday). The two were training together in Perth for six weeks before arriving in Melbourne so Queally knows better than anyone how tough his task will be.

"Chris is going exceptionally well at the moment," he said. "He'll be the boy to beat in the kilo. I'm not quite where I was last year [when he set a personal best to claim silver at the Los Angeles World Championships], but I'm pretty close.

"At the end of the day we both want gold and will be going to win. But there are others as well so it's not a foregone conclusion that it will be one of us. I just want to go across the line knowing I've used every ounce of energy out of my system - if that only brings me silver, so be it.

Team Sprint
The other major challenge for the England team is the Team Sprint with Jason Queally, Jamie Staff and Matthew Crampton and all three are said to be firing on all cylinders. "Its going to be a real close event between ourselves, Scotland and Australia vying for that top spot. Jamie has come along as always and all credit to him as he's achieving some amazing times and with Matthew and myself, its going to be an exciting race."

Although Queally made his name in the individual time trial event, he insists he's more of a team player and that winning the team sprint on Sunday is his main aim.

"For me personally, the pressure of an event like this has become less because I've learned to deal with it," he said. "But what's exciting is we've got a good clutch of young riders coming through who'll do the business for us in the future. Since Sydney cycling has snowballed and is now one of our key sports. It's helped us all flourish."

"I am a better rider now than I was in Sydney. After those Games my life changed and it was difficult to cope for a while. But I love it now; I really enjoy what I'm doing."

Thanks to Jason for talking to us and we wish him lots of luck in his two events for Melbourne 2006.