Anna Meares and Stephanie Morton the perfect pairing for women’s team sprint
ANNA Meares, the greatest female track cyclist in history, and Steph Morton, a Paralympic gold medallist on Olympic debut, open their Rio campaigns Saturday.
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SEVEN years ago Anna Meares signed the peak of a cap for a then 18-year-old Stephanie Morton with the words ‘maybe one day you’ll beat me’.
Back then Morton was only just finding her way into the sport but now having beaten Meares – most notably at the 2014 Commonwealth Games – they are now teaming up to take on the world.
The combination of Meares, the greatest female track cyclist in history, and Morton, a Paralympic gold medallist on Olympic debut, will open their Rio campaigns with the women’s team sprint early tomorrow morning (Saturday AEST).
Two riders, two laps, fastest wins.
Meares is the starter who explodes out of the gate and Morton is the engine who sits on her wheel until the time comes for her to unleash in the final lap.
“We broke the Australian record in Colombia (last year) so we know we can ride fast,” Morton said.
“We’re going to do what we know, stick to our processes and if that’s good enough we should medal, we’re technically riding well.
“I just want to go faster than ever before, this is the first proper taper that I’ve ever done so I’m coming in quite fresh.
“And I’m actually finding the nerves are settling the closer we get to racing, it feels like it’s been a long time coming after four years of preparation.”
Morton was a pilot rider for her visually impaired teammate Felicity Johnson at the London Paralympics, then focused fulltime on the single bike where she won the sprint at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
On the eve of her Olympic debut, she said the nerves had settled and she was ready to race.
“I was quite nervous before we got here, but you get in here (velodrome) and this becomes normal, having the media and teams around starts to be your comfort,” Morton said.
“You’ve got no control over what they’re (opposition) doing, we just focus on ourselves, we do this nearly every day, we know what we’re doing and it’s just transferring it onto the track on race day.”
Their coach Gary West said both riders were in better shape physically and mentally since London four years ago.
“We have great expectation and great hope, Anna is better now than she was in London and she needed to be,” West said.
“She was about 85 per cent in London, she’s much better now.
“Come race day she’ll be in the best shape she can be.
“But more importantly there’s been an awful amount of work done with Steph Morton, particularly in technique, and by her own account she was a bit deficient in technique.
“She’s a very powerful, strong athlete, very competitive, and she can deliver a very fast second lap.
“So with the combination of Anna who has been the fastest first lap in the world and will be close to again, and Stephanie who has improved, again I’m quite bullish and optimistic about our chances.
“It’s enormously competitive across the board, you won’t see a more competitive track sprint program than the next week.”
Originally published as Anna Meares and Stephanie Morton the perfect pairing for women’s team sprint
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