Ferris Wheels To Fastest Time
The Age
Saturday March 21, 1998
ADELAIDE
Top sprinter Michelle Ferris proved her bona fides as the World championship and Commonwealth Games contender with a scorching 200 metres flying time trial at the national cycling championships yesterday.
The Victorian could be joined by South Australian junior world champion Alayna Burns in Kuala Lumpur. Burns has shown she is capable of making the step up from junior ranks with a near world record under-19 time in the 2000 metres individual pursuit yesterday.
Burns, 18, will have to add another 1000 metres to her distance to compete against the calibre of Lucy Tyler-Sharman and Karen Barrow in the pursuit at the Commonwealth Games, but her blitzing time of 2 minutes 25.59 - just three tenths shy of a six-year-old world mark - shows she is ready for top-level international competition.
"Lucy and Karen would be hard to beat, but if I get a chance to go to the Commonwealth Games, even if I go as a reserve . . . I could see what a big competition like that is all about," said Burns, who was picked out of a talent identification scheme four years ago.
Australian selectors have previously fast-tracked the careers of juniors like Dean Woods and Bradley McGee into the senior ranks, but if Burns is selected for the Games she will be the first women to be given such treatment.
Already this year Burns has slashed 10 seconds off her triumphant world championship time, clocked at Capetown last year.
Ferris demonstrated her power in the flying 200 metres - a new event that awards medals for the sprint qualifying round.
Ferris clocked 11.51s, just short of her best time clocked at the world championships last year in Perth, where she picked up a silver medal behind the current Australian record-holder and world champion Felicia Ballanger.
"My time was a track record and I did everything right," Ferris said. "But just because I am the fastest qualifier doesn't mean I can take it easy - I have to be ready for everything.
NSW rider Felicia Myers finished second to Ferris, with pursuit star Tyler-Sharman third.
© 1998 The Age