The first day of competition at the final World Cup of the 2015-16 season in Hong Kong saw qualification for the Team Pursuit and Teams Sprint plus on-series Scratch and Points Races – a bust start to the weekend for the Endurance riders with more than one riding all three of their eligible events.
The afternoon opened with the Women’s Team Pursuit Qualification and it was the usual suspects that would set the pace, with one exception – but not before a little drama to start proceedings with the first team off – Ireland – shown the lap counter for a 12 lap pursuit, which they followed. The time for 3km was no use to anyone, so they were given the chance to re-run their heat after the Men’s heats.
The USA set the pace with a 4:23.696 – marginally quicker than Canada’s 4:23.790. They in turn were four seconds faster than China. A young Australia quartet could only manage 13th so it was left to the Great Britain squad of Laura Trott, Elinor Barker, Ciara Horne and Joanna Rowsell-Shand to qualify in top spot with an impressive 4:19.369. Ireland couldn’t quite make the First Round in their re-run, finishing 10th on 4:35.777.
Those four will ride for a place in the Final with the winners of Great Britain vs China and USA vs Canada going for the Gold. New Zealand, Italy, Germany and Poland will ride for 5th to 8th.
Women’s Team Pursuit
1 Great Britain (TROTT Laura, BARKER Elinor, HORNE Ciara, ROWSELL-SHAND Joanna) 4:19.369
2 United States (HAMMER Sarah, DYGERT Chloe, VALENTE Jennifer, WINDER Ruth) 4:23.696
3 Canada (BROWN Laura, FOREMAN-MACKEY Annie, ROORDA Stephanie, SIMMERLING Georgia) 4:23.790
4 China (HUANG Dong Yan 1:04.808, JING Yali, MA Menglu, ZHAO Baofang) 4:27.242
5 New Zealand (EDMONDSTON Holly, BOTHA Bryony, DRUMMOND Michaela, SUTTON Philippa) 4:31.287
6 Italy (FRAPPORTI Simona, BALSAMO Elisa, BARTELLONI Beatrice, PATTARO Francesca) 4:31.498
7 Germany (POHL Stephanie, BECKER Charlotte, KROGER Mieke, STOCK Gudrun) 4:32.511
8 Poland (WOJTYRA Malgorzata, JASINSKA Edyta, KACZKOWSKA Justyna, RUTKOWSKA Natalia) 4:33.906
The Great Britain Women’s Team haven’t had a lot of luck this season, but it finally came together for Jess Varnish and Katy Marchant who clocked 33.496 to qualify for tomorrow’s Final. They’ll face Daria Shmeleva and Anastasiia Voinova who were just over half a second up on them in the heat on 32.839.
Tania Calvo and Helena Casas of Spain – who were just four hundredths behind the Great Britain duo and Kate O’Brien and Monique Sullican of Canada – who were just under a second of the Spanish pace – will race for Bronze.
Women’s Team Sprint
1 RUSVELO (SHMELEVA Daria, VOINOVA Anastasiia) 32.839
2 Great Britain (MARCHANT Katy, VARNISH Jessica) 33.496
3 Spain (CALVO BARBERO Tania, CASAS ROIGE Helena) 33.538
4 Canada (O’BRIEN Kate, SULLIVAN Monique) 33.620
5 New Zealand 33.859
6 France 33.914
The Women’s Points Race saw Belgium’s Jolien D’Hoore take an early lead – taking third in the first sprint and winning the next three. She didn’t score again, but she didn’t need to with Canada’s Jasmin Glaesser – second in the two opening sprints – only able to take win in Sprint 5 and then third in Sprint 6. A strong finish from Great Britain’s Emily Nelson saw her take three seconds and a third in the final four sprints to secure third place.
Women’s Points Race
1 D’HOORE Jolien BEL 17 points
2 GLAESSER Jasmin CAN 13
3 NELSON Emily GBR 11
4 SAVENKA Ina BLR 8
5 SOLOVEI Ganna UKR 7
6 MAZUREVICIUTE Edita LTU 7
The Women’s Scratch Race started off at a very sedate pace but the second half saw constant attacks with Marina Shmayankova of Belarus making what would be the defining move to take a lap. Several riders tried to join her but in the end the race came down to a bunch sprint and it was Great Britain’s Laura Trott who came out on top, ahead of Qianyu Yang of Hong Kong.
Women’s Scratch Race
1 SHMAYANKOVA Marina BLR
2 TROTT Laura GBR -1 lap
3 YANG Qianyu HKG
4 CUCINOTTA Annalisa ITA
5 D’HOORE Jolien BEL
6 UWANO Minami JPN
The Men’s Team Pursuit had almost as much drama as the Women’s but of a very different kind. With Mark Cavendish making his return to top level track competition after an 8 year absence, a puncture to team mate Kian Emadi saw the Great Britain team down to three men with just under half distance gone. They battled on to a solid 4:05.015 – which was good enough to quali
fy the sixth and the chance to face Netherlands for a place in the 5th-6th Final – China and Russia are in the other heat.
Australia’s Sam Welsford, Alexander Porter, Miles Scotson and Rohan Wright qualified fastest with an impressive 4:00.947 and will face Simone Consonni, Michele Scartessini, Fillippo Ganna and Francesco Lamon of Italy in the First Round, with second fastest squad Denmark (Nilkas Larsen, Frederik Madsen, Casper Pedersen and Rasmus Pedersen) facing Six Day legend Leif Lampeter, Henning Bommel, Leon Rohde and Domenic Weinstein of Germany. Second to fourth were separated by less than four tenths and all of them were within two seconds of Australia.
Men’s Team Pursuit
1 Australia (WELSFORD Sam, PORTER Alexander, SCOTSON Miles, WIGHT Rohan) 4:00.947
2 Denmark (LARSEN Niklas, MADSEN Frederik, PEDERSEN Casper, PEDERSEN Rasmus) 4:02.264
3 Italy (CONSONNI Simone, SCARTEZZINI Michele, GANNA Filippo, LAMON Francesco) 4:02.545
4 Germany (BOMMEL Henning, LAMPATER Leif, ROHDE Leon R, WEINSTEIN Domenic) 4:02.687
5 China (LIU Hao, FAN Yang, QIN Chen Lu, SHEN Pingan) 4:04.144
6 Great Britain (CAVENDISH Mark, WOOD Oliver, EMADI Kian, LATHAM Christopher) 4:05.015
7 Netherlands (HUIZENGA Jenning, PIETERS Roy, STOPLER Nick, VAN DER BURG Joost) 4:05.247
8 Russia (MANAKOV Viktor, SHILOV Sergei, SOKOLOV Dmitrii, SVESHNIKOV Kirill) 4:05.405
Great Britain’s Team Sprint squad has been steadily improving and Matt Crampton, Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny shows that they were capable of hitting form at the right time, qualifying fastest with a time of 43.798. They’ll face Maciej Bielecki, Kamil Kuczynski and Mateusz Lipa of Poland in the final after the Poles clocked 43.886.
Russia and Australia will ride for Bronze – Denis Dmitriev, Nikita Shurshin and Pavel Yakushevskiy set a time of 43.63, just a shade faster than Patrick Constable, Nathan Hart and Peter Lewis. A shade slower still, France could only manage fifth with a 44.180 and miss out on a medal ride.
Men’s Team Sprint
1 Great Britain (CRAMPTON Matthew, HINDES Philip, KENNY Jason) 43.798
2 Poland (BIELECKI Maciej, KUCZYNSKI Kamil, LIPA Mateusz) 43.886
3 Russia (DMITRIEV Denis, SHURSHIN Nikita, YAKUSHEVSKIY Pavel) 43.963
4 Australia (CONSTABLE Patrick, HART Nathan, LEWIS Peter) 44.038
5 France 44.180
6 Netherlands 44.279
As part of the French Team Pursuit team. Benjamin Thomas could only manage 13th place, but off the back of that ride he took to the track again and won the Men’s Scratch Race ahead of Xavier Canellas of Spain and Jordan Arley Parra of Colombia. But he wasn’t finished for the day.
Men’s Scratch Race
1 THOMAS Benjamin FRA
2 CANELLAS SANCHEZ Xavier ESP
3 PARRA ARIAS Jordan Arley COL
4 ENGLISH Felix IRL
5 XUE Chao Hua CHN
6 CHEUNG King Lok HKG
Probably the most comfortable win of the day saw Thomas lap the field and take a win, a second place, two thirds and a fourth to add the Points Race to his Scratch Race victory. The main battle of the race was between Julio Alberto Amores of Spain and Luke Mudgway of New Zealand – a tussle that went right down to the wire with Mudgway needing to win finish second with Amores not scoring or win and have Amores no better than third.
Jasper De Buyst made sure he couldn’t take the win and, although he did manage second, Amores was sitting on his shoulder – finishing 10 points adrift of Thomas but two clear of Mudgway.
Men’s Points Race
1 THOMAS Benjamin FRA 33
2 AMORES PALACIOS Julio Alberto ESP 23
3 MUDGWAY Luke NZL 21
4 DE BUYST Jasper BEL 17
5 IMHOF Claudio SUI 11
6 ERSHOV Artur RVL 11
