With most countries having already booked Word Championship berths for their top riders in earlier rounds of the World Cup, the final round in Beijing was always going to give some of the younger members of the international squads an opportunity to impress – and produce some unusual results.
Men’s Individual Pursuit
The Men’s Individual Pursuit qualifying saw Vitaliy Schedov (left, in action at the 2009 World Championships in Pruszkow, Poland) of the Ukraine book a place in the Gold medal ride – and clinch the World Cup Series Title – albeit with a rather pedestrian 4:23.564. He faced Michael Hepburn of Australia who was two and a half seconds slower. The Bronze medal ride was between Rasmus Christian Quaade of Denmark – who continue to demonstrate strength of depth in the pursuit – and Valery Kaikov of Russia – riding for Lokomotiv. Erick Rowsell of Great Britain qualified 9th, almost 9 seconds off the leader’s pace.
The heat must have taken it out of Shchedov, whose time in the final was down by three seconds, but it was more than enough to take the Gold from Hepburn – and the World Cup Series win. Kaikov took the Bronze.
1 Vitaliy SHCHEDOV UKR 4:23.564
2 Michael HEPBURN AUS 4:26.029
3 Rasmus Christian QUAADE DEN 4:26.096
4 Valery KAIKOV LOK 4:27.455
5 Alexander SEROV RUS 4:28.224
6 Xuelong QU CHN 4:28.903
7 Sergi ESCOBAR ROURE CAT 4:30.817
8 Ingmar DE POORTERE BEL 4:31.717
9 Erick ROWSELL GBR 4:32.127
10 Arno VAN DER ZWET NED 4:32.179
11 Julien MORICE FRA 4:34.529
12 Gediminas BAGDONAS LTU 4:35.736
13 Aliaksandr LISOUSKI BLR 4:37.778
14 Johannes KAHRA GER 4:39.344
15 King Lok CHEUNG HKG 4:39.515
16 Xiao JIANG MSP 4:40.971
17 Paolo LOCATELLI ITA 4:41.299
18 Antonio MIGUEL PARRA ESP 4:42.067
19 Marcus CHRISTIE IRL 4:43.194
GOLD Vitaliy SHCHEDOV UKR 4:26.722
SILVER Michael HEPBURN AUS 4:27.969
BRONZE Valery KAIKOV LOK 4:27.648
4 Rasmus Christian QUAADE DEN 4:27.731
Men’s Team Sprint
The Men’s Team Sprint Qualifying session was a much stronger competition – and a better indicator of form for the Worlds in March. A strong squad from 2009 World Champions France – Gregory Bauge, Michaël D’Almeida and Thierry Jollet – failed to make the final with China’s Changsong Cheng, Lei Zhang and Miao Zhang topping the timing sheets with a respectable 44.192 seconds, three tenths ahead of Australian trio Daniel Ellis, Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland, riding for Jay Team Jayco. The Russian trio of Sergey Borisov, Denis Dmitriev and Sergey Kucherov took the fourth spot in the medal rides.
The World Cup Series overall title went to Germany, just ahead of Jayco.
GOLD CHN China 44.192
Changsong CHENG, Lei ZHANG, Miao ZHANG
SILVER JAY TEAM JAYCO 44.524
Daniel ELLIS, Shane PERKINS, Scott SUNDERLAND
BRONZE FRA France 44.593
Gregory BAUGE, Michaël D’ALMEIDA, Thierry JOLLET
4 MTT MOSCOW TRACK TEAM 45.085
Sergey BORISOV, Denis DMITRIEV, Sergey KUCHEROV
5 NZL New Zealand 45.104
Edward DAWKINS, Adam STEWART, Sam WEBSTER
6 GER Germany 45.251
Sebastian DOEHRER, Joachim EILERS, Mathias STUMPF
7 COF COFIDIS 45.255
Quentin LAFARGUE, François PERVIS, Maximillian LEVY
8 AUS Australia 45.564
Alex BIRD, Peter LEWIS, Jason NIBLETT
9 CAN Canada 45.652
Stéphane COSSETTE, Travis SMITH, Joseph VELOCE
10 POL Poland 45.662
Maciej BIELECKI, Kamil KUCZYNSKI, Damian ZIELINSKI
11 JPN Japan 45.687
Kazuya NARITA, Yudai NITTA, Atsushi SHIBASAKI
12 MSP MAX SUCCESS PRO CYCLING 45.814
Saifei BAO, Qi TANG, Chongyang WANG
13 RUS Russia 45.882
Ilya OKUNEV, Sergey POLYNSKIY, Pavel YAKUSHEVSKIY
14 MAS Malaysia 46.137
Muhammad Edrus MD YUNOS, Josiah NG ONN LAM, Hafiz SUFIAN
15 CZE Czech Republic 46.324
Tomas BABEK, Filip DITZEL, Adam PTACNIK
16 NED Netherlands 46.557
Teun MULDER, Roy VAN DEN BERG, Hugo HAAK
17 ESP Spain 46.712
David ALONSO CASTILLO, Hodei MAZQUIARAN URIA, Alfredo MORENO CANO
18 UKR Ukraine 46.896
Yevgen BOLIBRUKH, Artem FROLOV, Gennadiy GENYS
19 ITA Italy 47.385
Marco BENFATTO, Francesco CECI, Luca CECI
Men’s Points Race
The Men’s Points Race saw Canada’s Zachary Bell lap the field twice to take a commanding win in a fragmented race that saw no less than 10 other riders take a lap. Ho Ting Kwok of Hong Kong a deserved Silver Medal having won three sprints in addition to the lap taken, with Thomas Scully of New Zealand taking the lap and two sprints to secure the Bronze. Reigning World Champion Morgan Kneisky could only manage 8th while Britain’s Jonathan Mould missed the breaks and failed to score in the Sprints, finishing down in 20th position. World Cup Series Leader Ioannia Tamouridis of Greece wasn’t in Beijing, but took the title from Kwok with Bell in 3rd place.
GOLD Zachary BELL CAN 50
SILVER Ho Ting KWOK HKP 38
BRONZE Thomas SCULLY NZL 36
4 Angelo CICCONE ITA 34
5 Artur ERSHOV LOK 32
6 Carlos TORRENT ESP 31
7 Wei LI CHN 27
8 Morgan KNEISKY FRA 26
9 Kazuhiro MORI JPN 24
10 KamPo WONG HKG 22
11 Andreas GRAF AUT 21
12 James CARNEY SAL 12
13 Sergei SAKAVETS BLR 8
14 Lukasz BUJKO POL 3
15 Nicky COCQUYT BEL 2
16 Lyubomyr POLATAYKO UKR 2
17 Carles HERRERO CAT 1
18 Konstantin KUPERASOV KTA 1
19 Sean Patrick DOWNEY IRL 0
20 Jonathan MOULD GBR 0
21 Po Hung WU TPE -18
22 Javier AZCUE FGN -20
23 GeertJan JONKMAN NED -20
Min Chuan LI MSP DNF
Women’s Sprint
With a strong field for the Women’s Sprint, on paper it looked likely to be a close competition between World Cup Series leader Willy Kanis of the Netherlands, Shuang Guo of China, Anna Meares of Australia and Olga Panarina of Bulgaria. Qualifying reinforced that, with Guo fastest with 11.064, Kanis 3rd, Panarina 4th and Meares 6th. Kanis, however, drew the on form Meares in the quarter-finals and the Austrlian only needed two heats to progress to the semis. Guo eliminated Clara Sanchez of France, Junhong Ling of China – who had set the 2nd fastest 200m qualifying time – knocked out Meares’ compatriot Kaarle McCulloch and Panarina beat China’s Tianshi Zhong, riding for the Max Success Pro Cycling squad.
Fastest qualifier Shuang Guo of China, seen here at the 2009 World Championships in Pruszkow, Poland
In the semis, Guo managed to conserve her strength after Panarina was disqualified after a second warning in the first of their heats. The Final saw her face Meares who comfortably saw off the challenge from Lin. Kanis couldn’t keep her Series challenge alive despite a win in the 5th-8th ride,.
Panarina’s disqualification handed the Bronze to Lin and Guo needed only two rides to take the win from Meares – a result that saw Guo take the Series from Meares with Kanis in third overall.
200m Time Trial
1 Shuang GUO CHN 11.064
2 Junhong LIN CHN 11.290
3 Willy KANIS NED 11.314
4 Olga PANARINA BLR 11.338
5 Wai Sze LEE HKG 11.487
6 Anna MEARES AUS 11.489
7 Emily ROSEMOND AUS 11.578
8 Yvonne HIJGENAAR NED 11.605
9 Clara SANCHEZ FRA 11.610
10 Kaarle McCULLOCH JAY 11.619
11 Yulei XU MSP 11.637
12 Tianshi ZHONG MSP 11.651
13 Virginie CUEFF FRA 11.702
14 Lulu ZHENG GPC 11.774
15 Miriam WELTE GER 11.845
16 Victoria BARANOVA RUS 11.866
17 Renata DABROWSKA POL 11.873
18 Monique SULLIVAN CAN 11.894
19 Olga STRELTSOVA RUS 11.932
20 Charlene DELEV GER 11.981
21 Huang TING YING TPE 12.134
22 Fatehah MUSTAPA MAS 12.174
23 Helena CASAS ROIGE ESP 12.204
24 Zhao Juan MENG HKG 12.240
25 Di MU GPC 12.268
26 Monia BACCAILLE ITA 12.618
27 Annerine WENHOLD RSA 12.713
28 Alba DIEZ CAT 13.928
Quarter Finals
Shuang GUO CHN 12.025 11.903
Clara SANCHEZ FRA
Junhong LIN CHN 11.966 11.923
Kaarle McCULLOCH JAY
Anna MEARES AUS 11.618 11.796
KANIS Willy NED
Olga PANARINA BLR 12.409 11.925
Tianshi ZHONG MSP
Semi Finals
Shuang GUO CHN 11.591
Olga PANARINA BLR DSQ
Anna MEARES AUS 11.831 11.759
Junhong LIN CHN
Final
GOLD Shuang GUO CHN 11.696 11.617
SILVER Anna MEARES AUS
BRONZE Junhong LIN CHN
Women’s Individual Pursuit
If we’re honest, we at trackcycling struggle to get excited about the Commonwealth Games. How often is a Commonwealth field even close to World Class? More often in track cycling than most sports, these days – and, in the case of the Women’s Individual Pursuit it couldn’t get much closer! With the British girls absent from Beijing, reigning World Champion Alison Shanks of New Zealand set the pace in qualifying – her time of 3:34.558 an impressive 6 seconds ahead of her closest rival Vilija Serikaite of Lithuania. Tara Whitten of Canada was only just off Sereikaite’s pace and Australian Sarah Kent took the fourth medal ride-off spot just a second behind Whitten.<
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Alison Shanks in action at the 2009 World Championships in Pruskow, Poland
In the final, Shanks was even more dominant, setting a time of 3:33.360 to beat Sereikaite by over 7 seconds, with Whitten taking Bronze from Kent in a faster time than the Silver medallist. Shanks’ win wasn’t quite enough to take the World Cup Series leader’s jersey to Copenhagen, with Houvenaghel winning both the rounds she entered – in Manchester and Melbourne, where, decisively, she beat Shanks into second place in the Kiwi’s only other round. With Whitten finishing 4th in the Series, Josephine Tomic of Australia 5th and Kent 11th, Delhi might be almost as interesting as Copenhagen…
1 Alison SHANKS NZL 3:34.558
2 Vilija SEREIKAITE LTU 3:40.087
3 Tara WHITTEN CAN 3:41.373
4 Sarah KENT AUS 3:42.399
5 Ah Reum NA KOR 3:44.811
6 Vera KOEDOODER NED 3:45.089
7 Pascale SCHNIDER SUI 3:47.371
8 Dalila RODRIGUEZ HERNANDEZ CUB 3:47.636
9 Fan JIANG CHN 3:47.675
10 Sofia ARREOLA NAVARRO MEX 3:48.635
11 Lisa BRENNAUER GER 3:49.163
12 Victoria KONDEL RUS 3:51.646
13 Fiona DUTRIAUX FRA 3:53.487
14 Svitlana GALYUK UKR 3:53.826
15 Wan Yiu WONG HKG 3:58.834
16 Cui WANG GPC 4:01.201
17 Olatz FERRAN ZUBILLAGA FGN 4:04.293
GOLD Alison SHANKS NZL 3:33.360
SILVER Vilija SEREIKAITE LTU 3:41.679
BRONZE Tara WHITTEN CAN 3:40.365
4 Sarah KENT AUS 3:43.868
Women’s Scratch
In the Women’s Scratch, Series leader Evgeniya Romanyuta of Russia could only manage third place behind Ausrine Trebaite of Lithuania and Vera Koedooder of the Netherlands, but it was enough to clinch the Series title. Koedooder’s win was enough to move her up to third place with Giorgia Bronzini of Italy taking fifth in Beijing to clinch second place.
GOLD Vera KOEDOODER NED
SILVER Ausrine TREBAITE LTU
BRONZE Evgeniya ROMANYUTA RUS
4 Xiao Juan DIAO HKG
5 Giorgia BRONZINI ITA
6 Lang MENG GPC
7 Ah Reum NA KOR
8 Alena PRUDNIKOVA RUS
9 Sofia ARREOLA NAVARRO MEX
10 Dalila RODRIGUEZ HERNANDEZ CUB
11 Wan Yiu WONG HKG
12 Megan DUNN AUS
13 Alzbeta PAVLENDOVA SVK
14 Jarmila MACHACOVA CZE
15 Aksana PAPKO BLR
16 Andrea WOLFER SUI
17 Cari HIGGINS USA
18 Amy PIETERS NED
19 Ashlee ANKUDINOFF AUS
20 Yun Mei WU GPC
21 Laura McCAUGHEY SAL
22 Ana USABIAGA BALERDI ESP
23 Rosy McCALL GIS
24 Marta TAGLIAFERRO ITA
