Ferris Wheels Away To Sprint Silver
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday August 29, 1997
Olympic champion Felicia Ballanger confirmed her status as the world No1 with an authoritative victory over Australian Michelle Ferris in the women's sprint at the world track cycling championships in Perth last night.
Ferris, 20, took Ballanger to a deciding third heat in the gold medal rideoff after winning the initial encounter but had to settle for the silver medal after the Frenchwoman dominated the next two heats.
"I was feeling pretty confident and I gave everything I could but she was powerful and I ran out of legs," said Ferris, who finished bridesmaid to Ballanger at the Atlanta Olympics last year.
"It was my highest finish at the worlds so I have to be happy, but it was a lot of hard work to narrowly miss out (on the gold medal)."
In the first heat, Ferris, who had vowed to ride aggressively, survived an intense scrutiny of her final sprint, with Ballanger sitting up and claiming she had been forced out of the sprinter's lane.
But the commissaires ruled that Ballanger, 25, had been below the blue sprinting line and had no claim, despite being clearly hampered by Ferris.
In the second heat, Ballanger snuck underneath Ferris in the back straight and led home, with Ferris unable to come over the top.
In the men's sprint, Australians Darryn Hill and Anthony Peden progressed to the second round after winning their heats.
But in the repechage, Sean Eadie was controversially disqualified for forcing Greek opponent Lampros Vasilopoulos outside the sprint line.
Earlier, a flu-ravaged Australian foursome failed to qualify for the quarter-finals of the teams pursuit, the worst outcome in a decade.
The result was inexplicable - the teams pursuit is the longestablished flagship of the Australian team, with world championship successes in 1993 and 1995, and Olympic medals at every Games since 1984.
Team member Stuart O'Grady, who only 13 months ago collected the bronze medal in the event in Atlanta, was shocked.
"It is the first time I have ever competed in the teams pursuit where we have not got a medal, so to not get to the quarter-finals is devastating," he said.
Australian head coach Charlie Walsh said sickness had played a part but some of the cyclists had not ridden to expectations.
Walsh withdrew the key member of the team, Tim Lyons, after the morning warm-up because he was extremely distressed with the effects of flu. His place was taken by Nigel Griggs.
Riding first in the qualifying rounds, the team of Baden Cooke, Griggs, O'Grady and Luke Roberts clocked 4min 17.905s. Only Poland, who finished a further three seconds behind, were slower.
The NSW team was seven seconds faster in winning the Australian title.
The national team last night was also six seconds slower than in the World Cup round in Adelaide last week.
France, the fastest qualifiers, clocked 4:10.040.
Walsh said: "We moved quick enough early, a 2:08 split is not too bad, but obviously we fell away badly from there. The basics are there. I had the team on a 4:12 schedule, which we were quite capable of, and I thought we would actually go a bit quicker."
But the team obviously suffered from the raw inexperience of the young members, as well as losing Bradley McGee last month because of fatigue.
The result was a disappointment for O'Grady, who also performed well below par in the individual pursuit.
He will now consider whether riding the road season with the GAN team in Europe in combination with track events is worthwhile, particularly for the Commonwealth Games next year and Sydney 2000.
"I don't want to make a decision now based on the disappointment of the last week," said O'Grady, who still hopes to make an impression in today's points race, another event in which he won an Olympic bronze medal.
PAGE 58: Ill wind blows for track supermen.
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald