15 July 2008
NSWIS athletes Ashlee Ankudinoff, 17, Megan Dunn, 16, combined with Sarah Kent, 18, to ride to claim the gold medal overnight in the women's team pursuit, in record time, at the 2008 Junior Track Cycling World Championships in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Australians went in as clear favourites with Ankudinoff claiming gold ahead of Kent in the previous day's individual pursuit while Dunn had begun Australia's gold medal rush on day one with her win in the scratch race
The trio were the last to ride in the qualifying round clocking 3min41.486 to go in as the top seed for the gold medal final against New Zealand.
" We just had to beat the time to get into the ride for the gold medal so we sat on the schedule our coach (Tim Decker) set down for us," Dunn told cycling Australia, of the qualifying round.
It was a different story in the final with the Australians putting in an all or nothing effort that saw them clip more than four seconds off their qualifying time and lead from start to finish over their Kiwi rivals.
The Australian's winning time of 3min37.138sec is also a World Record for the event which made its debut at this year's Championships.
New Zealand collected silver in 3min44.805sec. Belarus defeated Russia for the bronze medal.
"My personal feelings going into it were that we defintely had the horsepower and fitness but it comes down to technique and getting the small things right," Dunn said.
"In the final we had nothing to lose by going all out and Tim (Decker) told us not to look at the New Zealanders but to concentrate on what he was calling out to us during the race."
"I'm pretty rapt because I came into this Championships not expecting anything and with no pressure," said Ankudinoff who, while a second year junior, has only been racing on the track since 2007.
She was the silver medallist behind Kent at the Australian Championships in February but outpaced her team mate in Cape Town on day two of competition to win the individual pursuit gold.
"When I won the IP I just wanted Sarah to experience what I had so in the teams it was great to get the win so everyone could have that gold medal feeling," she said.
Both Kent and Ankudinoff have finished their racing for the week but will be on the fence tonight cheering on Dunn when she contests the points race in a bid to claim a third gold medal.