Olympics-Cycling-Australian great Meares blows sprint medal hopes

By Martyn Herman RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Australian track cycling great Anna Meares will be a spectator when the Olympic sprint gold is decided on Tuesday after failing to qualify for the quarter-finals. Reigning sprint champion Meares, who claimed a sixth Olympic medal when she finished third in the keirin on Saturday, was narrowly beaten by Hong Kong's Lee Wai Sze in the Rio velodrome on Monday. Then she failed to make it through the repechage. It means Meares, 32, will be battling for ninth place later on Monday, rather than a medal 24 hours later. Meares, who made her Olympic debut in Athens in 2004, struggled all the way through the competition and lost her qualifying heat on Sunday to Simona Krupeckaite before surviving the cut by coming through a repechage. The 11-times world champion, who has yet to say whether this will be her Olympic swansong, looked off the pace in Monday's repechage as her medal hopes disappeared -- losing out to China's Tianshi Zhong in the dash to the line. Two British riders, Rebecca James and Katie Marchant, qualified for the last eight as the country's domination of the Rio boards showed no sign of weakening. James will face world champion and Olympic team sprint gold medallist Zhong Tianshi while Marchant faces Lithuania's Krupeckaite. Former world champion Kristina Voegel is also in contention for a first Olympic gold in the sprint. (Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Neil Robinson)