Australia has opened it's medal tally at the 2007 Track Cycling World Championships with a bronze medal in the women's teams sprint in Palma Majorca, Spain.

Queensland's Anna Meares, 23, and West Australian Kristine Bayley, 23, combined to post a time of 33.810sec, almost a second faster than their French rivals.

Great Britain won the gold in 33.631 with silver going to the Netherlands in 33.974.

"You can't be too disappointed with a World Championships bronze medal and yes we could have gone into final and picked up silver but the fact of the matter is we didn't and we raced really well for the bronze medal so I'm really happy with how we went," said Meares, noting their time was faster than the Netherlands who rode against Great Britain for the gold medal.

"I slipped a bit in the first round which cost us a place in the (gold medal) final but in the second ride I came out and posted one of the fastest first laps of the competition so I'm pretty pleased with that," said Bayley.

Both riders have a full program of events at this Championships with three more events to come.

"Yes it's a very full program and you'll see a lot of me because I'll be here every session, every day," laughed Meares.

"Sprint qualifying is on tomorrow morning through to Saturday and on Saturday night there's the 500m time trial and then the keirin on Sunday.

"It's disappointing to see the programming put the two finals (sprint and 500m) so close together because both are very specific events and often it's the same riders on the podium," said Meares who is the Olympic Champion and world record holder in the 500m event but since it has been dropped from the Olympic program will focus on the sprint for Beijing.

"It will be interesting to see if all the sprint finalists will run in the 500 but I certainly will if I make the sprint finals."

Earlier in the night Shane Perkins, Mark French and Ryan Bayley were disappointed to miss the medal round in the men's team sprint after posting their fastest time of the season in the qualifying round to place fifth.

The trio rode a time of 44.589sec for the three lap event with Bayley riding the fastest final lap of any rider in the qualifying round but it wasn't enough to get them into medal contention.

"It was a little bit disappointing because the team's been training really, really well but we can push on for next year," said Bayley.

"I think the other two played a round a little with their warm up and thought they had one that would bring them out onto the track a lot better but I think they maybe underestimated it a bit.

"It was the fastest time the Australian team has done for quite a while and I'm sure we can shave a lot off our time for the future."

Sydney's Ben Kersten, 25, withdrew from the omnium competition after needing an intravenous drip to treat dehydration after this morning's first three races of the five race event.

The reigning Australian Omnium Champion had spent the previous 48 hours in bed battling gastroenteritis and despite his best efforts in the morning's racing was too sick to continue tonight.

Illness also dealt a blow to Australia's hopes in the men's 4km individual pursuit with the reigning Australian Champion, Phil Thuaux, unable to start.

The 27-year-old was struck down with gastroenteritis during the team's final training session on Wednesday night and did not recover in time for Thursday morning's qualifying round.

Australia's other two starters, Mark Jamieson and Zakkari Dempster, finished eighth and 16th respectively.

Cycling Australia