Mactier crowned World Champion

Australian medal total hits seven

Victorian Katie Mactier finally broke the bridesmaid voodoo to claim the 3 km individual pursuit crown at the World Championships in Los Angeles. Her win along with a silver and two bronze medals on day three puts Australia on top of the medal tally with a total of seven. It also moved the Cyclones up to third on the medal table behind Britain and the Netherlands.

Mactier, who was the silver medallist at the 2003 and 2004 World Championships and again at last year's Olympic Games in Athens, had to defeat World Championship room mate, Kate Bates, 22, in an all-Australian final. She blasted out of the gate for her trademark fast start and was more than two seconds faster at the one kilometre mark. She maintained her pace with Bates unable to make headway on the deficit. Mactier posted 3'38"720 for gold with Bates claiming silver in 3'42"848. The bronze medal went to Switzerland's Karin Thurig.

After the medal ceremony, Mactier rode a lap of honour side by side with Bates with each rider holding a corner of the same Australian flag. "We were joking before the race about the whole thing with me telling her I'd sabotage her knicks by putting hot cream in he chamois," Mactier laughed. "But we're good mates. We've been training together for the last month - blood, sweat and tears - and that brings you very close.

In the women's sprint, sisters Anna and Kerrie Meares faced off for the bronze medal, and the training partners used every trick in their collective arsenals to try and outfox each other. Anna, the Athens Olympic sprint bronze medallist, versus Kerrie, the Commonwealth Games champion on the comeback from a major back injury, was a battle worth seeing. Sprint coach Martin Barras had a few words with each and then left them to it.

"It wasn't so much a scare as a wake up that I shouldn't have done that," said Anna of her first heat defeat, as Kerrie helpfully suggested 'Oops' might explain it. "I made sure I didn't do it twice," she said, crossing the line first in the next two heats to secure bronze. "It was really hard because we knew each other so well and neither of us wanted the front," said Kerrie, proudly watching her younger sister receive her bronze medal. "We train together practically every day and know each other's strengths and weaknesses so it's tough to try and figure out something like a plan."

Australia scored another bronze medal in day three racing through the teams pursuit combination of 2004 World Champions Stephen Wooldridge, 27 and Ashley Hutchinson, 25 who were joined by Tasmanian youngsters Mark Jamieson, 20, and Matthew Goss, 18. In their first outing as a team at World Championship level, the quartet dealt with the pressure of Australia being the Olympic Champions, world record holders and World Champions since 2002 and simply delivered their best in what is a rebuilding year for the program.

"With Ash (Hutchinson) and me as World Champions in the team and now with these two young guys Australia has some great talent coming through so it (the winning tradition) will continue," said Wooldridge. "It certainly takes a lot to get into this team because Australia has an incredible amount of depth," said Hutchinson, who despite being a member of the 2004 World Championship gold medal team did not get a start in Athens. "It just shows you how motivated we are because with two new guys in the team we come away with a medal the first year after Athens."