Maddy Moore and Janet Birkmyre get together to ride the Team Sprint at the World Masters Track Championships.

It is a little known fact that the hippo can run at 30 mph for short distances. This means that the hippo/hare tactic is well suited to the Team Sprint. The aim is that the fast accelerating hippo takes the first lap, so as to shelter the little hare as he/she gets up to speed. Then, when the hippo pulls off, the hare is catapulted on to ride the final 250m and finish the race.

This is how the TORQ duo of Maddy and Jan went into the Team Sprint race at the World Masters. On paper they should have been the fastest by some margin, as their combination included a World Record breaking hippo (Maddy) with a finely tuned and slightly ageing hare (Jan). However, in the qualifiers, the TORQ duo were pipped to the post by the slimmest margins (a mere six one hundredths of a second), by superior team skills.  

The final, in the evening session, was billed as the “race of the evening” and TORQ had it all to play for. Nerves were high, as both riders knew they had to ride their absolute best in order to win against a truly fantastic sister pairing, but the hippo and hare pulled it off and were victorious!

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