By Reece Homfray, AOC
Australia has broken the Men’s Team Pursuit world record in Paris, awakening the sleeping giant of Australian track cycling, with a Lilydale local among the riders.
The four-man team of Kelland O’Brien, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Oliver Bleddyn stunned the crowd at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines National Velodrome when they broke the world mark to storm into the final against arch rival Great Britain.
Their time of 3:40.730 obliterated the previous benchmark by more than a second as they disposed of reigning Olympic champions Italy to progress to the gold medal ride at 2.33am AEST on 8 August.
The Men’s Team Pursuit has breathed new life into the national track team and has its best shot at an Olympic gold medal in the event since Athens in 2004.
Sam was part of the team that lost to Great Britain in the final in Rio in 2016 by a whisker, and both he and Kelland were there in Tokyo three years ago when a broken handlebar and subsequent crash in qualifying robbed them of a shot at gold.
“I think it will be the biggest rivalry there is (in track cycling) for us to take on the Brits again, and for me there’s that redemption from the 2016 Olympics when they beat us by 0.7 in the final,” Sam told the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC).
“So for us to go against them is a really nice opportunity and all the boys are really hungry for it.
“We’ve shown today we have some good form and know how to produce fast times so I’m really excited for tomorrow.
“The faster we go the more confident we get.”
After setting the fastest time in qualifying, the quartet came up against defending champions Italy and their time of 3:40.730 lowered the Italians’ previous best of 3:42.032.
“The plan was just to get the job done really and ultimately the goal is to win on the third day which is tomorrow, the world record is a massive bonus for us,” Kelland said.
“We were just trying to be ready for whatever it took to win the race and fortunately it was a world record and we’re really happy with that so far.
“The guys on this team have put in a massive amount of work to try to get this.
“There are probably a couple of things we can do to try and improve one more time for tomorrow, because it’s all learning every time you go out, so I’m happy with what we have adjusted since yesterday but there are a few more things to go.”
