James has been beset by illness and injury since her double world title win in Minsk, where she also won gold in the sprint.
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“I had maybe one day where I felt it quite significantly; found it very hard to come to training and focus and just felt the pressure and expectation”.
“So I’m really happy with my rides”.
“That’s brutally disappointing to finish that close to an Olympic medal”. But I didn’t hit the panic button, which is what I normally do in competition.
She powered round the final bend and into the medal positions a nd she so almost won, but ran out of time. It was rough and tumble, so many crashes and it can go either way.
It wasn’t as good a result for Stephanie Morton, who came fifth in her keirin heat before narrowly coming second in the repechage to bow out of the medal race.
“I wasn’t sure how I would get on compared to everyone else especially I could feel them right outside me”.
“I will tell you after – I have two goals for these Games”, she said.
The Anna Meares Olympic legend grew even larger in Rio as she powered to the bronze medal in the women’s keirin at the Olympic Velodrome on Saturday.
Ultimately, the Australians produced their best effort the round before their ride-off for bronze, while the German combination recorded their best time when it counted most.
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China broke the world record on the way to beating Russian Federation for the gold medal, with their 31.928 the first sub-32 second ride.
