Sprinters Match Wits With Rivals
Sun Herald
Sunday February 19, 2006
BEFORE the Commonwealth Games come the mind games. Today, in Perth, Australia's sprint squad will match wheels and wits with their English and Scottish opponents at the SpeedDome in a pre-Games clash.
Looking at an event which is bound to reveal as much psychologically as physically about the riders from the three nations less than a month out from the Games, Australian track cycling coach Martin Barras said he believed all the riders were likely to play "a few mind games" on the velodrome.Athens Olympic gold medallists Ryan Bayley and Anna Meares, Shane Perkins, Commonwealth champion Kerrie Meares, multiple world champion Shane Kelly, and Bayley's sister Kristine, will line up against Scotland Olympic gold medallist Chris Hoy, as well as English sprinters Victoria Pendleton and Ross Edgar, and Sydney Olympic gold medallist Jason Queally at the Perth International Track Cycling Grand Prix.Having had little news of how their English and Scottish rivals are progressing in their preparations for Melbourne, Barras said it was a good opportunity to catch up and check out the opposition."Absolutely. It's two-fold and it's going to be the last hit-out before the Commonwealth Games [for some] before we get into preparation just to sharpen the guys up," Barras said."We were always going to do the same as well, have a good final look at what we're getting ourselves into. And we like a few mind games as well. Mind games are always good. The only information that we have is what we've seen from them throughout the course of the European summer and World Cup. Considering how much we've seen already, I'm not sure we want to see anymore. We're going to be up against it."It was as much for the value of the track racing as the chance to have a hit-out against next month's rivals that has the sprint group in Perth, but "the nature of modern sprinting - it's a two-edged sword" means all will be seeking a psychological edge for the Games.
© 2006 Sun Herald