Kent in pursuit of World Cup gold

The 20-year-old will team-up with fellow world champion Josie Tomic and Kate Bates in this morning’s qualifiers before what she hopes will be a gold medal ride off tonight.

Kent and Tomic together with Ashlee Ankudinoff rode a solid 3:21.748 in the gold medal final at the track world championships in Denmark earlier this year ahead of Britain and New Zealand.

Bates has replaced Ankudinoff, who has taken a hiatus after the Commonwealth Games, for the December 2-4 titles that offer qualification points for the London Olympic Games.

Kent said the experience of 28-year-old Bates would put the team in good stead against rivals from New Zealand, America, Germany and Holland.

The New Zealand trio of Rushlee Buchanan, Lauren Ellis and Alison Shanks set a world record of 3:21.552sec in the bronze medal ride off at the track world championships in March but will be without Shanks in Melbourne.

“It’s going to be different but I think she’s got the experience to be able to come in with us,’’ Kent said.

“We’ve spent the last month with her so it’s been really great having her here and I still think that there’s going to be no difference to the strength of the team.”

Kent struggled with fatigue at the Oceania track championships in Adelaide last week, which she entered on the back of a rigorous three-week training block.

But the Olympic Games hopeful will enter this morning’s team pursuit qualifying rounds fresh and motivated to honour the rainbow stripes.

“I’ve definitely had what I’d call the biggest couple of weeks I’ve ever had,’’ she said.

“Work load we’ve really been put under the pump and doing that and going straight into Oceanias it was a tough time but we’ve had enough recovery to freshen up for this competition.

“We’ll have a bit of pressure on our back tomorrow but we’re going to use that as an incentive not so much as a negative thing. It’s a great honour to be lining up in the world champ stripes so I think that’ll give us a buzz as well racing in front of a home crowd.

“I’m pretty confident going into the team pursuit. I guess if I wasn’t confident I’d probably be having second thoughts about starting coming from an Australian background we always strive to do our best and come out on top so I really think tomorrow we can do it again. We’ve had great preparation, if we just trust in ourselves and Gary Sutton our coach we can really come away with a win.’’

Kent hopes to race the third round of the track world cup classics in Beijing from January 21-23 and use it as preparation for both the national and world championships.

In addition to the women's 3000m team pursuit, British cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy and Australian sprinter Shane Perkins will face off in the three-man sprint.

Australian World Champions Cameron Meyer and Leigh Howard will contest the madison. Other day-one events are the men's omnium and the women's team sprint.