Anna Meares off to her twelfth World Championships
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Alex Edmondson, Glenn O’Shea, Jack Bobridge and Luke Davison on their way to a sub-4 minute time(Image credit: Cycling Australia)
Shane Perkins (VIC) overcame a sore back to win his first title of the meet(Image credit: Cycling Australia)
Anna Meares (SA) claimed her seventh national sprint crown(Image credit: Cycling Australia)
Jess Mundy and Annette Edmonson with their gold medals(Image credit: Cycling Australia/John Veage)
With the 2014 2014 UCI World Track Championships to take place later this month in Cali, Columbia the Australian team set to challenge for the rainbow jersey's on offer has been announced. The team contains a balance of experienced and up and coming riders who are proven at the highest level.
The final five-member sprint team will be led by ten-time world champion Anna Meares (SA) who will contest her twelfth World Championships, and dual world champion Shane Perkins (VIC) who will line up for the eighth time.
2012 team sprint world champion Matthew Glaetzer (SA) and 2013 keirin national champion Steph Morton (SA) have also been are confirmed to take part while while 2008 Olympian Daniel Ellis (SA) continues his rapid return to the sport with selection.
Two six-rider 'long teams' have been selected for both the men's and women's endurance events, with riders to participate in a pre-Worlds camp in Adelaide before final selections are made.
Three of Australia's reigning world champion team pursuit quartet in Glenn O'Shea (SA), Alexander Edmondson (SA) and Alexander Morgan (VIC) have all been nominated, in addition to 2013 World Championship bronze medallist Luke Davison (SA) who is currently racing the Jayco Herald Sun Tour..
The women's endurance squad nominations include triple 2013 World Championship medallist Annette Edmondson (SA), who was the rider of the recent national championships in Adelaide, plus fellow medallists Amy Cure (TAS), Melissa Hoskins (WA) and Ashlee Ankudinoff (NSW).
"We will assemble a really solid team with genuine podium ambitions in Columbia for the World Championships," said Kevin Tabotta who is the National Performance Director of the High Performance Unit (HPU), Cycling Australia.
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"We have a great mix of experienced and emerging talent and preparations have gone well.
"Both will provide great leadership to a team that will now start to shape itself for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and then also onto Rio for 2016," Tabotta said.
The Australian team claimed two rainbow jerseys (men's team pursuit and men's individual pursuit – Michael Hepburn) in an eight-medal haul at the 2013 UCI Track World Championships in Belarus to finish third in the nation rankings.
The 2014 UCI Track World Championships will be held from February 26 to March 2 in the Cali Velodrome, Cali, Colombia.
