A fantastic climax to a thrilling – and, occasionally, surprising – Men’s Sprint competition in the velodrome. No point in trying to keep up the suspense when there’s a picture of the final alongside; Bauge took the Gold from Kenny… All that plus the Women’s Individual Pursuit, the start of the Men’s Omnium and the Women’s Sprint and the Men’s Points Race – which was an absolute belter.
trackcycling’s coverage of the World Track Championships is supported by SL Carbons – The Fabric of Your Success
trackcycling’s coverage of the World Track Championships is supported by SL Carbons – The Fabric of Your Success
Sarah Hammer looked strong on the front of the US Team Pursuit squad yesterday and she carried that form into today’s Individual Pursuit quaifying session. Marlies Mejias of Cuba – off in Heat 1 – set a time of 3:42.158 which kept her on top of the scoreboard until Heat 7 when Jaime Neilsen of New Zealand finally went four seconds quicker. The Cuban was still in the medal rides until the last Heat, too – with Neilsen, Ellen van Dijk of the Netherlands and Vilija Serekaite passing her, but none by more than a couple of seconds.
If she had any ambitions of a medal ride, though, they were shattered when Hammer and Alison Shanks of New Zealand stormed round a couple of tenths apart – and 5 seconds ahead of Sereikaite in 3rd. Hammer’s time – 3:33.522.
1 Sarah HAMMER USA 3:33.522
2 Alison SHANKS NZL 3:33.789
3 Vilija SEREIKAITE LTU 3:38.073
4 Jaime NIELSEN NZL 3:38.921
5 Ellen VAN DIJK NED 3:40.751
6 Marlies MEJIAS GARCIA CUB 3:42.158
7 Pascale SCHNIDER SUI 3:42.764
8 Lauren ELLIS NZL 3:44.165
9 Caroline RYAN IRL 3:44.264
10 Aksana PAPKO BLR 3:45.348
11 Verena JOOS GER 3:45.636
12 Cari HIGGINS USA 3:49.616
13 Alena DYLKO BLR 3:51.314
14 Egle ZABLOCKYTE LTU 3:55.130
15 Chanpeng NONTASIN THA 3:56.653
16 Mei Yu HSIAO TPE 3:59.477
Sarah KENT AUS DNS
Josephine TOMIC AUS DNS
Men’s Omnium Round I – Flying Lap
Defending World Champion – and winner of the World Cup Omnium round in Cali – Ed Clancy Great Britain was ill in the run up to his Team Pursuit qualifier on Wednesday and made way for Sam Harrison in the Bronze medal ride. Harrison – who was a Junior last year, but also has a World Cup Omnium win to his creditin Beijing this winter – replaced him again this morning.
Also on the start list were Shane Archbold of New Zealand – winner of the World Cup rounds in Melbourne and Manchester – and Zak Bell of Canada, whose consitency won him the World Cup series title, despite him not winning an individual round.
He got off to a flying start in the Flying Lap in Apeldoorn, though – knocking long-time leader Bryan Coquard off the top of the timing charts. Archbold was 4th and Harrison 6th, which augurs well for a close competition.
1 Zachary BELL CAN 13.320
2 Bryan COQUARD FRA 13.362
3 Alois KANKOVSKY CZE 13.378
4 Shane ARCHBOLD NZL 13.457
5 Tim VELDT NED 13.517
6 Samuel HARRISON GBR 13.612
7 Martyn IRVINE IRL 13.628
8 Gijs VAN HOECKE BEL 13.677
9 Elia VIVIANI ITA 13.724
10 Lasse ANSEN Norman DEN 13.740
11 Bobby LEA USA 13.742
12 Michael FREIBERG AUS 13.761
13 Erik MOHS GER 13.799
14 Alexey MARKOV RUS 13.839
15 Eloy TERUEL ROVIRA ESP 13.877
16 Rafal RATAJCZYK POL 13.904
17 Juan Esteban ARANGO CARVAJAL COL 13.943
18 Ioannis TAMOURIDIS GRE 13.999
19 Luis MANSILLA CHI 14.106
20 Kazuhiro MORI JPN 14.173
21 Ho Ting KWOK HKG 14.263
22 Vladimir TUYCHIEV UZB 14.929
Women’s Sprint 200m Time Trial Qualifying
Sarah Hammer wasn’t the only one on a roll. After taking the 500m Time Trial Gold on Wednesday, Olga Panarina of Belarus was fastest in the 200m qualifying for the Women’s Sprint. Or, rather, she was the fastest in the first 100m of the 200m; Anna Meares set exactly the same time but Panarina was given the top seeding by virtue of having been quicker over the first half of the effort.
There were a few suprises – if no real shocks. Lyubov Shuloka of the Ukraine as a superb 3rd – just three hundredths behind the leaders – and Victoria Pendelton of Great Britain could only manage 6th – just one placte and six hundredths ahead of her young team mate Rebecca James.
1 Olga PANARINA BLR 11.120
2 Anna MEARES AUS 11.120
3 Lyubov SHULIKA UKR 11.152
4 Shuang GUO CHN 11.188
5 Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU 11.291
6 Victoria PENDLETON GBR 11.299
7 Rebecca Angharad JAMES GBR 11.365
8 Kaarle MCCULLOCH AUS 11.368
9 Kristina VOGEL GER 11.387
10 Sandie CLAIR FRA 11.398
11 Jessica VARNISH GBR 11.401
12 Virginie CUEFF FRA 11.424
13 Lisandra GUERRA RODRIGUEZ CUB 11.456
14 Lin JUNHONG CHN 11.494
15 Monique SULLIVAN CAN 11.502
16 Jinjie GONG CHN 11.514
17 Wai Sze LEE HKG 11.522
18 Emily ROSEMOND AUS 11.546
19 Viktoria BARANOVA RUS 11.563
20 Yvonne HIJGENAAR NED 11.594
21 Miriam WELTE GER 11.733
22 Gintare GAIVENYTE LTU 11.736
23 Gyeong KIM Won KOR 11.748
24 Eunmi PARK KOR 12.022
Men’s Omnium Round II – 30km Points Race
Nobody could accuse Day 3 of being pointless with the Omnium Points Race in the afternoon session and the ‘full’ Men’s Points Race in the afternoon. And what a pair of races they were. Run at a hectic pace, the Omnium Points Race was fragmented and characterised by breaks and lap taking. By the end no less than seven riders had taken a lap on the field – among them Colombian Juan Arango. He took a sprint in the process of taking a lap towards the end of the race – having already taken another two for good measure. That would normally give you a pretty healthy points lead, but in fact the top 6 were separated by just a point a piece. Luis Mansilla of Chile came in second having scored 6 of the 12 sprints – taking one win on the way to his stolen lap – and had been in second for much of the race, behind Eloy Teruel of Spain who slipped the third by finishing behind Mansilla in each of the last two sprints.
1 Juan ARANGO CARVAJAL COL 36
2 Luis MANSILLA CHI 35
3 Eloy TERUEL ROVIRA ESP 34
4 Lasse Norman HANSEN DEN 33
5 Michael FREIBERG AUS 32
6 Alexey MARKOV RUS 31
7 Gijs VAN HOECKE BEL 23
8 Ioannis TAMOURIDIS GRE 14
9 Ho Ting KWOK HKG 10
10 Elia VIVIANI ITA 9
11 Martyn IRVINE IRL 6
12 Zachary BELL CAN 2
13 Kazuhiro MORI JPN 2
14 Erik MOHS GER 2
15 Bryan COQUARD FRA 2
16 Shane ARCHBOLD NZL 0
17 Vladimir TUYCHIEV UZB 0
18 Bobby LEA USA 0
19 Samuel HARRISON GBR 0
20 Tim VELDT NED 20
Alois KANKOVSKY CZE DNF
Rafal RATAJCZYK POL DNF
Women’s Sprint 1/16 Final
The first round of the Women’s Sprint competition produced some exciting racing, but few surprises. All three British riders progressed to the 2nd round, along with Panarina, the impressive Shulika, Guo, Krupeckaite, Clair, Cueff and Vogel – and, of course, Anna Meares.
1 Olga PANARINA BLR
2 Eunmi PARK KOR
1 Anna MEARES AUS
2 Won Gyeong KIM KOR
1 Lyubov SHULIKA UKR
2 Gintare GAIVENYTE LTU
1 Shuang GUO CHN
2 Miriam WELTE GER
1 Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU
2 Yvonne HIJGENAAR NED
1 Victoria PENDLETON GBR
2 Viktoria BARANOVA RUS
1 Rebecca Angharad JAMES GBR
2 Emily ROSEMOND AUS
1 Kaarle MCCULLOCH AUS
2 Wai Sze LEE HKG
1 Kristina VOGEL GER
2 Jinjie GONG CHN
1 Sandie CLAIR FRA
2 Monique SULLIVAN CAN
1 Jessica VARNISH GBR
2 Lin JUNHONG CHN
1 Virginie CUEFF FRA
2 Lisandra GUERRA RODRIGUEZ CUB REL
Women’s Sprint 1/8 Final
The seedings didn’t do the British youngsters any favours – Jess Varnish was drawn against Anna Meares and Becky James was rewarded with a match against Victoria Pendleton. Varnish made Meares work for her win, getting the drop on her and diving inside, before Meares out dragged her to the line. Pendleton made sure that James would have to join Varnish in the draw for the Repechages with a fairly comfortable victory.
Panarina looked strong, despatching Cueff with ease and Kupreckaite looks to be back close to her best, disposing of McCulloch to move through to the Quarter Finals. Shulika, too, is looking good and dumped Clair into the reps. Guo took the final place of right, defeating Vogel.
James made a brave effort to come inside Vogel in the first of the reps, but the German went through and Varnish battled hard to find a way past Clair and McCulloch, but the door was kept firmly shut and it was Clair who took the last place in the Quarter Finals.
1 Olga PANARINA BLR
2 Virginie CUEFF FRA
1 Anna MEARES AUS
2 Jessica VARNISH GBR
1 Lyubov SHULIKA UKR
2 Sandie CLAIR FRA
1 Shuang GUO CHN
2 Kristina VOGEL GER
1 Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU
2 Kaarle MCCULLOCH AUS
1 Victoria PENDLETON GBR
2 Rebecca Angharad JAMES GBR
Repechages
1 Kristina VOGEL GER
2 Rebecca Angharad JAMES GBR
3 Virginie CUEFF FRA
1 Sandie CLAIR FRA
2 Kaarle MCCULLOCH AUS
3 Jessica VARNISH GBR
Men’s Sprint Semi Finals
Whatever happened in the Semi Finals, we were looking forward to a France vs GB Final. On paper, Hoy vs Bauge was the most likely outcome. On form, Bourgain vs Kenny looked like a real possibility. Bourgain was looking quick, strong and clever in the Sprint Semi Finals. Unfortunately for him, Bauge was going like a train andhe steamed through in to take the first ride. In the second, Bauge dived under Bourgain before Bourgain dived back under Bauge – who then engaged overdrive to book his place in the Final. One upset out of the way.
In the other Semi, Kenny stunned the crowd by taking the win – holding off Hoy in a close finish. It was the second race that really impressed, though. Hoy led it out and opened a sizeable gap, which Kenny duly rushed, riding round the outside of Hoy to take the win – and the place in the Final – on the line.
Race 1
1 Gregory BAUGE FRA
2 Mickaël BOURGAIN FRA
1 Jason KENNY GBR
2 Chris HOY GBR
Race 2
1 Gregory BAUGE FRA
2 Mickaël BOURGAIN FRA
1 Jason KENNY GBR
2 Chris HOY GBR
Men’s 40km Points Race Final
Another Points Race, another Colombian victory… they seem to like this race – and Avila Edwin certainly rode it as though he was enjoying himself. Taking a lap at half distance in a brutally fast race, he then worked his socks off to ensure that nobody – and especially not Cameron Meyer – got away to take another lap.
He had to. It wasn’t that Meyer looked out of sorts – more that he looked so dominant in the previous two years’ event
s. He won 3 of the 16 sprints and scored in half of them – not a bad tally by anybody’s standards. Leaving aside the 20 points for the lap that Edwin took, Meyer had double the Colombians points tally, although he was only two ahead of Morgan Kneisky of France and five ahead of Alexander Khatuntsev of Russia. But last year he was able to take laps at will and this year – marked man or not – he just wasn’t able to get away. And he is, as our American cousin would way, 0 for 2 in his three medal quest.
GOLD Avila EDWIN ALCIBIADES COL 33
SILVER Cameron MEYER AUS 25
BRONZE Morgan KNEISKY FRA 23
4 Alexander KHATUNTSEV RUS 20
5 Milan KADLEC CZE 17
6 Peter SCHEP NED 13
7 Gerardo Luis FERNANDEZ ARG 8
8 Silvan DILLIER SUI 8
9 Polychronis TZORTZAKIS GRE 7
10 Ki Ho CHOI HKG 6
11 Sergiy LAGKUTI UKR 6
12 Berik KUPESHOV KAZ 5
13 Omar BERTAZZO ITA 4
14 Roman DRONIN UZB 3
15 Franz SCHIEWER GER 2
16 Ingmar DE POORTERE BEL 2
17 Luis Fernando SEPULVEDA CHI 1
Thomas SCULLY NZL DNF
Women’s Sprint Quarter Finals
Two of the Women’s Sprint Quarter Finals looked relatively easy to predict. Panarina was on fine form and up against Clair who had only qualified tenth; Meares had matched Panarina’s time and Vogel was only a hundredth off Clair’s… Pendelton and Shulika was a harder one to call. Shulika was already emerging as something of a star at these Championships and had out qualified Pendleton by three places and a couple of tenths, but the Olympic and reigning (and five times) World Sprint Champion had plenty of experience to draw on. And in the other Quarter Final Pendleton’s biggest rival in the late Noughties Simon Krupeckaite – who seems to be returning to form – was up against Shuang Guo of China – Silver medallist in the Sprint in 2007 and 2010 and 2009 Keirin World Champion.
Wearing a helmet that looked like it was designed with a Speed Racer cartoon as a reference and made from two pieces of bathroom equipment crudely stuck together – despatched Vogel in two rides with out breaking a sweat. Clair ran Panarina close in the first heat, but the Belarussian destroyed he in the second. So far so predictable.
In the first of the Pendleton-Shulika matches, Shulika gave it everything she had, but lost it on the line. In the second, Pendleton just turned the power on and rode away from the Ukrainian.
The final heat looked as though it would be close – and it was. Krupeckaite nicked the first race by half a wheel. Guo fought back and took the second race, forcing a decider. It was close again – going to a photo finish – but it was Krupeckaite that went through.
Race 1
1 Olga PANARINA BLR
2 Sandie CLAIR FRA
1 Anna MEARES AUS
2 Kristina VOGEL GER
1 Victoria PENDLETON GBR
2 Lyubov SHULIKA UKR
1 Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU
2 Shuang GUO CHN
Race 2
1 Olga PANARINA BLR
2 Sandie CLAIR FRA
1 Anna MEARES AUS
2 Kristina VOGEL GER
1 Victoria PENDLETON GBR
2 Lyubov SHULIKA UKR
1 Shuang GUO CHN
2 Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU
Race 3
1 Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU
2 Shuang GUO CHN
Women’s Sprint 5th to 8th places
5 Lyubov SHULIKA UKR
6 Sandie CLAIR FRA
7 Kristina VOGEL GER
8 Shuang GUO CHN
Men’s Sprint Finals
Bauge had look phenomonal yesterday and in his Semi Final. Big, strong and confident he simply brushed aside Kenny in the first race, powering away to win the heat and send Kenny a clear message – this was Bauge’s medal and if Kenny wanted it he was going to have to fight for it.
The only person to out qualify Bauge was his team mate Bourgain and he’d looked strong and quick until he came up against Bauge. The Semi Finals had taught him a lesson and he set out to stop Hoy from powering away, forcing him up the track and working well to stop the big Scot from getting the jump on it him. The drag race started at the bell and it was close, but Bourgain took the opener by the width of a tyre tread. The change of tactics had worked.
Race 1
1 Gregory BAUGE FRA
2 Jason KENNY GBR
1 Mickaël BOURGAIN FRA
2 Chris HOY GBR
Kenny had his work cut out to get back in to the Final and, in all honesty, he never looked like he would. It was probably the most comfortable win of Bauge’s three consecutive World Titles, but he won’t be complacent. Kenny’s come a long way and is still improving. A year from now will be a different proposition. Eighteen months from now, in front of a partisan crowd in London…
Hoy, on the other hand, had the bit between his teeth. He wasn’t happy about not making the Final and he wasn’t happy about being one down in the Bronze medal ride. He lead out the second race only to see Bourgain pulling alongside him as they charged for the line. It went to a photo. Hoy had it. Game on.
The decider was somewhat more one sided. The effort and pressure of a three part tussle with Hoy – hard on the heels of a Semi with Bauge – had clearly taken its toll on Bourgain and Hoy won with ease. The jubilant, fist in the air celebration suggested there’e life in the old man of British sprinting yet – and, more, importantly desire. Roll on 2012.
Race 2
GOLD Gregory BAUGE FRA
SILVER Jason KENNY GBR
1 Chris HOY GBR
2 Mickaël BOURGAIN FRA
Race 3
BRONZE Chris HOY GBR
2 Mickaël BOURGAIN FRA
Women’s Individual Pursuit Finals
The great thing about the Individual Pursuit is, well, the pursuit. And in this year’s Women’s Final, 2009 World Champion Kiwi Alison Shanks set off a couple of tenths a lap faster than Sarah Hammer of the USA – a gap she maintained for the first two kilometres. At that point, Hammer started to fight back – chipping away at Shanks’ lead.
She didn’t draw ahead until two laps from the end, but she had the momentum and she took half a second out of the New Zealander to take the win. It’s an event that rarely disappoints and it’s absence from the Olympic programme remains as disappointing as it is baffling.
Shanks’ team mate Jaime Neilsen faced Vilja Serikaite for the Bronze medal, but was never in contention. The Lithuanian eased away every lap, taking the win with three seconds to spare.
1 Sarah HAMMER USA 3:32.933
2 Alison SHANKS NZL 3:33.229
3 Vilija SEREIKAITE LTU 3:37.643
4 Jaime NIELSEN NZL 3:40.138
Men’s Omnium Round III – Elimination
We like the Devil. We’re even prepared to call it an Elmination Race, if we have to. We think every Track League meeting should have one. It’s exciting to watch, fun to ride and is a good test of bike handling skills and strategic thinking. It’s also a complete lottery and has no place in a World Championship or Olympic event.
The technlogy that UCI has introduced to make the judging fair, at least, is welcome. But this definitely needs a re-think for Rio 2016.
As Elimination races go, this one went. A crash at around half distance saw Sam Harrison of Great Britain and Gijs van Hoecke of Belgium touch wheels. The Belgian went down heavily and didn’t re-enter the race; Harrison stayed upright but had punctured and was able to swap bikes and re-enter the race.
1 Bryan COQUARD FRA
2 Elia VIVIANI ITA
3 Luis MANSILLA CHI
4 Shane ARCHBOLD NZL
5 Michael FREIBERG AUS
6 Eloy TERUEL ROVIRA ESP
7 Samuel HARRISON GBR
8 Kazuhiro MORI JPN
9 Erik MOHS GER
10 Alexey MARKOV RUS
11 Gijs VAN HOECKE BEL
12 Ioannis TAMOURIDIS GRE
13 Juan Esteban ARANGO CARVAJAL COL
14 Alois KANKOVSKY CZE
15 Lasse Norman HANSEN DEN
16 Zachary BELL CAN
17 Martyn IRVINE IRL
18 Bobby LEA USA
19 Vladimir TUYCHIEV UZB
20 Tim VELDT NED
21 Ho Ting KWOK HKG
Rafal RATAJCZYK POL DNS
Men’s Omnium Standings After Day 1
Bryan Coquard of France leads the Omnium after the first three events. 15th in the Points race means that things are still fairly close – despite taking 2nd place in the Flying Lap and 1st in the Elimination race.
Omnium riders tend to fall in to one of two camps – favouring either the sprint or the endurance events. After his performances on Day 1, Coquard is probably looking forward to the kilo more than he is to the pursuit and the scratch race – and with just a 3 point lead over Elia Viviani of Italy – and just 10 points covering the top 8 – this one’s far from over.
1 Bryan COQUARD FRA 18
2 Elia VIVIANI ITA 21
3 Michael FREIBERG AUS 22
4 Shane ARCHBOLD NZL 24
5 Eloy TERUEL ROVIRA ESP 24
6 Luis MANSILLA CHI 24
7 Gijs VAN HOECKE BEL 25
8 Zachary BELL CAN 27
9 Juan Esteban ARANGO CARVAJAL COL 30
10 Samuel HARRISON GBR 32
11 Martyn IRVINE IRL 33
12 Lasse Norman HANSEN DEN 34
13 Erik MOHS GER 36
14 Ioannis TAMOURIDIS GRE 37
15 Alexey MARKOV RUS 41
16 Kazuhiro MORI JPN 41
17 Tim VELDT NED 43
18 Bobby LEA USA 45
19 Ho Ting KWOK HKG 49
20 Vladimir TUYCHIEV UZB 56
21 Alois KANKOVSKY CZE 59
22 Rafal RATAJCZYK POL DNF
trackcycling’s coverage of the World Track Championships is supported by SL Carbons – The Fabric of Your Success