Cycling: Shanks reels in world track title

Trading in the netball court for the cycling track paid off handsomely for Dunedin's Alison Shanks yesterday when she won the 3000m individual pursuit at the world track cycling championships in Poland.

The 26-year-old beat Britain's Wendy Houvenaghel by more than 2 seconds in a personal best time of 3min 29.807sec, and attributed her success to hard work and thorough planning with her coach and partner, Craig Palmer.

"Craig and I have taken a very scientific approach," Shanks said. "Everything is done for a reason and every training session has a purpose.

"We are constantly looking for ways to improve, whether it be a new training method, new equipment or better tactics. It is that constant challenge and desire to go faster that has led to that continued improvement."

Shanks made the switch from netball to cycling in 2005.

After making the New Zealand road team later that year, she switched to the track and finished fourth in the pursuit at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, a placing she repeated at last year's Beijing Olympics.

The ability of Shanks to keep improving underlined her potential, Bike NZ high performance manager Mark Elliott said.

"In every major competition in the last four years bar one she has actually done a PB [personal best]. That's what we are looking for athletes to do. I don't think she will be happy until she pushes Sarah Ulmer's time."

Ulmer broke her own world record with her gold medal ride at the Athens Olympic.

Her time of 3min 24.537sec is a distant goal for Shanks, as are the 2012 London Olympics.

"You've got to have challenges to work towards," she said.

Houvenaghel, a Beijing Olympics silver medallist, set the quickest time during qualifying (3min 29.4sec) in Pruszkow and went out fast in the final.

She led by more than half a second at the first kilometre but Shanks reeled her in to win by more than 2 seconds.

"I just wanted to ride my own race and, to tell you the truth, I didn't even know where she was in relation to me during the first half of the race. I knew if I did that I'd have a good chance to race her in that second half and the plan worked."

With three laps to go Shanks knew it was just a matter of "holding on".

Palmer said a world track title was "a big deal . . . and to do it in such a fast time is just fantastic."

"Every time she competes at a major meet she seems to do a personal best. But I think there is still more to come," he said.

Elliott agreed.

"This performance is the result of hard work and detailed planning by Alison and Craig and the rest of the team," Elliott said.

"Great athletes don't just pop out. They have to do the hard graft and in Alison's case that has been what has been happening."

The gold medal was New Zealand's second in successive years.

Hayden Godfrey, of Christchurch, won the five-event omnium at last year's championships.

Otago's Greg Henderson claimed gold in the scratch race in 2004 and silver in the same event the following year.

Ulmer won the women's individual pursuit in Melbourne in 2004, Karen Holliday won the points race at the 1990 world championships in Japan, and Madonna Harris won a silver medal in the individual pursuit, also in Japan in 1990.

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