Pendleton and Reade claim silver in Pruskow

Posted: Thursday 26th March 2009 | 20:28

GREAT Britain's Victoria Pendleton and Shanaze Reade have seen their team sprint world crown ripped away from them at the track World Championships.

SILVER LINING: Reade and Pendleton forced to settle for silver (Getty Images)

The British double act claimed world gold in both 2007 and 2008 and were favourites to retain their crown, but a stunning performance from Australian duo Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch relegated them to second.

"Having had just four weeks preparation I'm pleased with the result," said Reade. "I know that on the day I could not have done any better so I'm really happy eith the performance and the result."

Pendleton added: "It was tough. Myself and Shanaze sat down after the first race in qualifiying and we new we had to go quicker which we did but it just wasn't quite quick enough.

"We have to hand it to the Australians, they deserved it on the day because they were just too quick tonight. But two medals so far - I can't complain."

Meares, fresh from her 500m time trial silver medal yesterday got Australia off to a flying start - posting 18.692 seconds - before handing over to 19-year-old McCulloch with a sizeable advantage.

Olympic individual sprint champion Pendleton was left with too much to do and, despite closing the gap, McCulloch held on to take gold in a world's best 33.149 seconds - 0.489 secs ahead of Great Britain.

Bronze went to Lithuania - thanks largely to the efforts of 500m time trial champion Simona Krupeckaite, who roared back to pip Clara Sanchez, after Sandie Clair had given France the advantage.