By Hamish Clark
It was a golden moment in 2004 when Olympic darling, Sarah Ulmer, dominated her Australian opponent in the individual pursuit. She won gold and sealed herself into New Zealand sporting history.
“The great thing about the individual pursuit was that it was simple and very pure event… as fast as you could go for 3000 metres - that appealed to me,” explains Ms Ulmer. “[It was] the simplicity and purity of the event that I enjoyed.”
Ulmer retired from the sport in 2007. She left cycling behind her and started a family - something she would never have contemplated during her competitive years.
“Life as a mother is fantastic,” says Ulmer. “[It is] so much better than I could ever have expected… it is cool phase of life.”
Only now do we understand how tough the individual pursuit is - a race over 300 metres that involves travelling faster than 50 km/h. Participants must go flat out to the point of exhaustion.
“To me the pursuit it is such a pure event,” reiterates the individual pursuit world champion, Alison Shanks. “The strongest rider out there and it is a simple event - fastest time wins. The track is my passion.”
New Zealand has a proud history on the track. Gary Anderson won bronze at Barcelona in 1992, Sarah Ulmer won gold in 2004 and Haydyn Roulston won a silver in Bejing.
Now Shanks has taken over the mantel and is the current world champion.
However, the news that the Olympic Committee has dumped the event from the London Olympics in 2012 has left Shanks devastated.
“It’s pretty gutting that I won't be able to go and attempt to even win a medal at the Olympics in the individual pursuit,” explains Shanks.
“It is a shame, not for Alison, but for New Zealand to be able to follow her in an individual event,” says Ulmer. “And obviously, she being the world champion now, she had to be a real favourite for the Olympics and for New Zealand to follow her. There is an opportunity to ride with two other riders - to ride in the team pursuit.”
Shanks dream was originally to be world champion. It was a dream she quickly realised within four years of taking up the sport. Next on her list was to win an Olympic medal. So now that her specialist event, the individual pursuit, has been dropped from the games, the world champion is left feeling robbed of gold in her favourite event.
“Definably in the individual pursuit over the last few years I have got stronger and stronger,” says Shanks. “Come London, I was only going to be stronger. I feel robbed in the individual pursuit, but there is the team’s pursuit option that is going to be there as well.”
“For every person who is going to be disappointed in an event there is going to be a person, or country that is going to be happy with an event introduced,” admits Ulmer. “Unfortunately, for us it is an event that we are really good at that has been eliminated.”
Shanks has plenty to look forward to before London - three world championships and the Commonwealth Games in India next year.
After that she will move to team’s pursuit and hopes she can win an Olympic medal.