Meares sends Olympic keirin warning to rivals

Australia's Anna Meares added to the hosts' gold medal tally at the track cycling world championships Saturday with a stunning display of riding to defend her keirin crown. Meares, 28, launched a late charge with one lap to go in the eight-lap event to take the lead before finishing ahead of Russia's Evgenia Gnidenko and Germany's Kristina Vogel. Gnidenko took the silver for her first worlds medal with Vogel taking the bronze, her second medal of the championships after her team sprint victory on the opening day. It was Meares' fifth world gold in an individual event and comes eight years after she took a sprint silver as an up-and-coming 20-year-old racer in the sprint in the same Melbourne velodrome. It also came less than 24 hours after she lost her sprint crown to British rival Victoria Pendleton but less than four months to the event at the London Olympics where she will target three titles. "To win this world title here, in front of my home crowd, is just fantastic," Meares told AFP. "I was really just hoping for one (title) in front of my home crowd and perhaps that's a little bit greedy given how difficult it is to win one world title. "But I really fought hard for that one and I'm so proud that I was able able to cross the line first." As opposed to the sprint, where a series of duels are raced, the keirin is raced with up to six riders being brought up to speed with a motor-pacer before being left to their own devices for the last of the event's eight laps. Despite the fatigue of two days of sprinting, Meares was imperious throughout her tournament, winning all of her series as Pendleton was forced through first round repechages before finishing last in her second-round heat. Meares denied the keirin was an easy affair. "It wasn't," she added, admitting she had sat up until the small hours trying to digest her sprint defeat. "My husband sat with me until late last night, just hugged me, made me feel better and made me realise it's just a bike race in the end. "You can feel disappointed but there was another one to be dealt with today and I needed to prepare myself for that. "I still was feeling disappointed... but I wasn't going to be happy with coming in here and feeling sorry for myself and not performing today. "I'm really pleased I was able to put it together."