Anna Meares of Australia reclaimed her 500 metre time trial crown at the world track cycling championships on Wednesday.

Meares, who won Australia’s only track medal — a silver in the sprint — at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, set a personal best of 33.381sec to claim her third world title in the discipline.

Defending champion and reigning world record holder Simona Krupeckaite of Lithuania finished second to take the silver in a time of 33.462, with Olga Panarina of Belarus winning the bronze in 33.779.

Meares last won the 500m event, which is no longer an Olympic discipline, at Los Angeles in 2007, three years after her maiden world gold in the event at Melbourne in 2004.