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Excitement gets the better of disappointed Bobridge

published 26 March 2010

Bronze medallist holding his head high

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Jack Bobridge (Australia) on his way to third place in the men's pursuit qualifying. (Image credit: AFP Photo)

Jack Bobridge entered the UCI Track World Championships with gold medal expectations, but his excitement cost him a place in the gold medal final. Bobridge hit out hard in the 4km individual pursuit qualifying, but far too hard for the South Australian to sustain the effort and he subsequently faded towards the end and failed to qualify for the gold medal final.

"I always come to the worlds thinking to stand on top of the podium for first," said Bobridge. "I'm not going to lie, definitely disappointed with my effort this morning - a bit carried away and a bit excited. I'll learn from my mistakes and you never know after a few years on the road I might be able to start that fast and finish that fast as well.

"But to stand on third, I still got a medal and I got on the podium and [I have my] head held high," he added.

The 20-year-old was so determined to register a strong qualifying time that his second kilometre of 1:01.483 had him on track to better Chris Boardman’s world record time, set in 1996 using the now banned superman position. Bobridge while disappointed was able to joke about his mistake afterward, acknowledging that the excitement had impacted his performance.

"I was travelling to beat Boardman by nearly two seconds at the 2k mark," said Bobridge. "The day when I can finish at that pace will be the day I can get the world record, until then [I'll] go back to the basics and control my first k and second k and see what I can get out of it."

America’s Taylor Phinney won the gold medal race from New Zealand’s Jesse Sergent. Bobridge took a comfortable victory in the bronze medal race, more than three seconds up on Russian Alexander Serov.

The second day of racing in Copenhagen, Denmark was still a successful outing for the Australian squad, which added another two gold medals to its tally. Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch defended their team sprint world title before the women’s team pursuit squad of Ashlee Ankudinoff, Sara Kent and Josephine Tomic added a second gold for the day, taking Australia’s tally to four.