Women's 500m Time Trial

 

2008 World Track Championships - Day 1

Cuba's Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez took the gold medal in a tightly contested Women's 500m Time Trial, grabbing the title with the last ride.

In the absence of the awesome world record holder, Aussie Anna Meares, who is injured, there was a sense that a world title was up for grabs in the 500m Time Trial. Meares had moved the record to a new level in 2007, but there is little to choose between the next four or five riders in the world.

The first rider to dip under the 35 second barrier was Miriam Welte of Germany and she held the lead with 34.666s, before the second of the Chinese riders, Jinjie Gong knocked a couple of tenths off her time to go into the hot seat. A superb second lap then took Frenchwoman Sandie Clair (below) to the top of the standings with a very competitive 34.253.

Young British rider Anna Blyth (below) then put in a great ride to record a p.b. with 34.792s, more evidence of her continued development.

It was then into the real big guns, with Willy Kanis of Holland, who had a great World Cup campaign in this event, but although she looked smooth throughout, she missed out on the lead by just one thousandth of a second.

Shanaze Reade (above) gave the home crowd something to shout about, getting off to a visibly muscular start, absolutely blasting through the first 100 metres and putting in the fastest first lap of the competition so far. However, she faded on the second lap and came in with 34.702s, a fraction slower than she recorded last year on her debut in the event.

 

Afterwards Shanaze Reade spoke to us saying “I'm pleased with the ride. I could not have asked for more. I went out there to see how fast I could go for the lap and did a 19.1, the second fastest lap that was posted behind the girl breaking the world record for the lap so I could not have asked for more with that gear on, only a tenth slower than my PB”.

Simona Krupeckaite of Lithuania (above) than ripped round the track in 34.066 to grab the lead very convincingly - her second lap was much the fastest so far and she came very close to dipping under the magic 34 second mark.

Former champion Natalia Tsalinskya was well off her "A" game, recording a poor first lap and recovering only a little on her second lap to miss out on a medal by a good margin.

The final ride off, Cuba's Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez (below), dipped under 34 seconds twice during the winter, but although unable to quite match that form, she just had enough to claim the gold by some four hundredths of a second. Her winning ride was built on a stunning first la, some four tenths faster than all her rivals.

 

 

 

Results

1. GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB 34.021
2. KRUPECKAITE Simona LIT 34.066
3. CLAIR Sandie FRA 34.253
4. KANIS Willy NED 34.254
5. GONG Jinjie CHN 34.449
6. WELTE Miriam GER 34.666
7. READE Shanaze GBR 34.702
8. TSYLINSKAYA Natalia BLR 34.725
9. BLYTH Anna GBR 34.792
10. HIJENAAR Yvonne NED 34.896
11. ZHENG Lulu CHN 34.992
12. MCCULLOCH Kaarie AUS 35.026
13. SHULIKA Lyubov UKR 35.267
14. GARCIA ORREGO Diana Maria COL 35.505
15. CUEFF Virginie FRA 35.520
16. MANEEPHAN Jutatip THA 37.545

 

Shanaze is interviewed on television after her ride by Jill Douglas.