Day 3 of the World Track Championships in Ballerup opens with the Men’s Team Pursuit qualifying and the opening rounds of the Women’s Sprint competition. This evening the Sprint competition continues, the Team Pursuit concludes and the Women’s Scratch race and Men’s Kilo are decided.
Men’s 1 Kilometre Time Trial
At last year’s World Championships in Pruszkow, Germany’s Stefan Nimke set a blistering time in a relatively early heat and had a nervous wait to see if he would hold on to the Gold. History repeated itself in Ballerup – although this time Nimke, off last, had the final chance to knock Teun Mulder of the Netherlands off the top of the leaderboard.
The similarities were striking. Nimke started 15th of 28 riders; Mulder started 11th of 25. Nimke set one of the fastest sea level times ever recorded – 1 minute 0.666 seconds; Mulder beat that time with a 1 minute 0.341. Both must have been confident of a medal of some sort – the chances of three riders beating those kinds of times were remote – but both must have known there were riders still to go who were capable of snatching the Gold – not least, in Mulder’s case, Nimke himself.
MichaĆ«l D’Almeida of France came close – just half a second off Mulder’s time – but when Nimke could only manage a 1:01.086, a third of a second off his winning time last year but good enough only for 4th this time round – Mulder’s Gold was secure. D’Almeida hung on for Silver with his compatriot FranƧois Pervis taking the Bronze/
GOLD Teun MULDER NED 1:00.341
SILVER MichaĆ«l D’ALMEIDA FRA 1:00.884
BRONZE FranƧois PERVIS FRA 1:01.024
4 Stefan NIMKE GER 1:01.086
5 Edward DAWKINS NZL 1:01.372
6 Miao ZHANG CHN 1:01.520
7 David DANIELL GBR 1:02.033
8 Scott SUNDERLAND AUS 1:02.291
9 Tomas BABEK CZE 1:02.940
10 David ALONSO CASTILLO ESP 1:03.004
11 Yevgen BOLIBRUKH UKR 1:03.038
12 Kamil KUCZYNSKI POL 1:03.056
13 Rene ENDERS GER 1:03.058
14 Quentin LAFARGUE FRA 1:03.100
15 Chongyang WANG CHN 1:03.140
16 Ethan MITCHELL NZL 1:03.389
17 Joachim EILERS GER 1:03.503
18 Nikolay ZHURKIN RUS 1:03.525
19 Adrian TEKLINSKI POL 1:03.568
20 Myron SIMPSON NZL 1:03.691
21 Yudai NITTA JPN 1:03.762
22 Clemens SELZER AUT 1:03.766
23 Francesco CECI ITA 1:04.101
24 Philip NIELSEN DEN 1:04.609
Giddeon MASSIE USA DSQ
Men’s Team Pursuit
Seventeen teams lined up for the Team Pursuit but, realistically, only the final four starters were in with a chance of a medal. Great Britain – were the first of them and, with Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins concentrating on Road Racing, it was down to the young squad that qualified for the Final of the World Cup in Manchester last October – Steven Burke, Edward Clancy, Ben Swift and Andy Tennant. Their time of 3:56.185 was 8 seconds quicker than the fastest team at that point, the Ukraine.
Next up were New Zealand. Individual Pursuit Silver Medalist Jesse Sergent was joined by Sam Bewley, Westley Gough and Peter Latham. From the gun they were fractionally ahead of Great Britain’s time and looked set to take over the top of the leaderboard, but faded a little towards the end and finished 2 seconds down.
In Manchester Great Britain had swapped Ben Swift for the Final, but here they stick with the same line up and it was Australia who brought in newly crowned Points Race World Champion Cameron Meyer to replace Leigh Howard and the fresh legs seemed to do the trick, with Australia pulling out and early lead and holding it. Great Britain were faster from the halfway mark to around 3km and brought down the deficit but, despite losing a man towards the end, Australia regained control and comfortably held on to win by 0.152 seconds and take their tally in the medals table to five Golds.
Qualifying
1 GBR Great Britain 3:56.869
Steven BURKE, Edward CLANCY, Ben SWIFT, Andrew TENNANT
2 AUS Australia 3:58.185
Jack BOBRIDGE, Rohan DENNIS, Michael HEPBURN, Leigh HOWARD
3 NZL New Zealand 3:58.616
Sam BEWLEY, Westley GOUGH, Peter LATHAM, Jesse SERGENT
4 DEN Denmark 4:02.259
Niki BYRGESEN, Michael Faerk CHRISTENSEN, JensErik MADSEN, Rasmus Christian QUAADE
5 UKR Ukraine 4:04.776
6 NED Netherlands 4:04.818
7 RUS Russia 4:04.986
8 ESP Spain 4:05.570
9 FRA France 4:07.051
10 GER Germany 4:07.265
11 ITA Italy 4:08.512
12 CHN China 4:11.872
13 IRL Ireland 4:12.136
14 POL Poland 4:12.481
15 SUI Switzerland 4:13.023
16 GRE Greece 4:14.765
17 AUT Austria 4:21.370<
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Finals
GOLD Australia 3:55.654
Jack BOBRIDGE, Rohan DENNIS, Michael HEPBURN, Cameron MEYER
SILVER Great Britain 3:55.806
Steven BURKE, Edward CLANCY, Ben SWIFT, Andrew TENNANT
BRONZE New Zealand 3:59.475
Sam BEWLEY, Westley GOUGH, Peter LATHAM, Jesse SERGENT
4 DEN Denmark 4:01.664
Niki BYRGESEN, Michael Faerk CHRISTENSEN, JensErik MADSEN, Rasmus Christian
QUAADE
Women’s Scratch
GOLD Pascale JEULAND FRA
SILVER Yumari GONZALEZ VALDIVIESO CUB
BRONZE Belinda GOSS AUS
4 Kelly DRUYTS BEL
5 Jarmila MACHACOVA CZE
6 Malgorzata WOJTYRA POL
7 Ah Reum NA KOR
8 Tatsiana SHARAKOVA BLR
9 Julie LETH DEN
10 Xiao Juan DIAO HKG
11 Elissavet CHANTZI GRE
12 Vera KOEDOODER NED
13 Paola MUNOZ CHI
14 Andrea WOLFER SUI
15 Rushlee BUCHANAN NZL
16 Elke GEBHARDT GER
17 Alzbeta PAVLENDOVA SVK
18 Iryna SHPYLYOVA UKR
19 Ana USABIAGA BALERDI ESP
20 Anna BLYTH GBR
21 Svetlana PAULIUKAITE LTU
22 Giorgia BRONZINI ITA
DNF Evgeniya ROMANYUTA RUS
DNF Shelley EVANS USA
Women’s Sprint
A disappointing qualifying performance from Victoria Pendleton – setting only the 7th fastest time at 11.135 seconds – means that the Copenhagen crowd will be denied the spectacle of the Olympic Champion taking on the in-form Anna Meares in the Final, with the two pre-tournament favourites now meeting in the Semi-Finals.
Despite the qualifying hiccup, Pendleton had a slightly smoother run to the Semis – facing team mate Jess Varnish in the 1st round and Clara Sanchez in the 2nd. In the quarter finals she comfortably saw off Russian namesake Victoria Baranova without the need for a decider.
Meares faced 2008 500m World Champion Lisandra Guerra in the 1st round and, like Pendleton, faced French opposition in the 2nd, in the form of Virgina Cueff. Her Quarter Final went to 3 races, though, after Meares was relegated in the first for coming out of the Sprinter’s lane.
The other Semi-Final will see fastest qualifier Shuang Guo of China – who despatched Olga Streltsova of Russia, Kristina Vogel of Germany and Olga Panarina of Belarus to get there – take on Lithuanian Simona Krupeckaite. Krupeckaite eliminated Wai Sze Lee of Hong Kong, Lyubov Shulika of the Ukraine and Meares’ Team Sprint partner Kaarle McCulloch to make the last four.
200m Qualifying
1 Shuang GUO CHN 10.918
2 Anna MEARES AUS 11.030
3 Olga PANARINA BLR 11.077
4 Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU 11.078
5 Willy KANIS NED 11.105
6 Clara SANCHEZ FRA 11.120
7 Victoria PENDLETON GBR 11.135
8 Kaarle MCCULLOCH AUS 11.202
9 Junhong LIN CHN 11.242
10 Jinjie GONG CHN 11.250
11 Virginie CUEFF FRA 11.340
12 Kristina VOGEL GER 11.356
13 Yvonne HIJGENAAR NED 11.385
14 Miriam WELTE GER 11.408
15 Victoria BARANOVA RUS 11.426
16 Lyubov SHULIKA UKR 11.442
17 Emily ROSEMOND AUS 11.444
18 Jessica VARNISH GBR 11.464
19 Rebecca Angharad JAMES GBR 11.518
20 Sandie CLAIR FRA 11.559
21 Wai Sze LEE HKG 11.564
22 Christin MUCHE GER 11.571
23 Lisandra GUERRA RODRIGUEZ CUB 11.600
24 Olga STRELTSOVA RUS 11.700
25 Renata DABROWSKA POL 11.922
26 Helena CASAS ROIGE ESP 11.995
27 Gintare GAIVENYTE LTU 12.084
1st Round
Shuang GUO CHN 11.914
Olga STRELTSOVA RUS
Anna MEARES AUS 11.682
Lisandra GUERRA RODRIGUEZ CUB
Olga PANARINA BLR 12.114
Christin MUCHE GER
Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU 11.782
Wai Sze LEE HKG
Willy KANIS NED 11.418
Sandie CLAIR FRA
Clara SANCHEZ FRA 11.874
Rebecca Angharad JAMES GBR
Victoria PENDLETON GBR 11.794
Jessica VARNISH GBR
Kaarle MCCULLOCH AUS 11.577
Emily ROSEMOND AUS
Lyubov SHULIKA UKR 11.693
Junhong LIN CHN
Victoria BARANOVA RUS 11.898
Jinjie GONG CHN
Virginie CUEFF FRA 11.848
Miriam WELTE GER REL
Kristina VOGEL GER 11.813
Yvonne HIJGENAAR NED
2nd Round
Shuang GUO CHN 11.804
Kristina VOGEL GER
Anna MEARES AUS 11.717
Virginie CUEFF FRA
Victoria BARANOVA RUS 11.763
Olga PANARINA BLR
Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU 11.660
Lyubov SHULIKA UKR
Kaarle MCCULLOCH AUS 11.536
Willy KANIS NED
Victoria PENDLETON GBR 11.552
Clara SANCHEZ FRA
Repechages
Kristina VOGEL GER 11.837
Clara SANCHEZ FRA
Lyubov SHULIKA UKR
PANARINA Olga BLR 11.600
Willy KANIS NED
Virginie CUEFF FRA
Quarter Finals
Shuang GUO CHN 11.322 11.353
Olga PANARINA BLR
Anna MEARES AUS 11.587 REL 11.704
Kristina VOGEL GER 11.982
Victoria PENDLETON GBR 11.755 11.843
Victoria BARANOVA RUS
Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU 11.671 15.102
Kaarle MCCULLOCH AUS
Race for 5th-8th
5 Kristina VOGEL GER 11.757
6 Kaarle MCCULLOCH AUS
7 Olga PANARINA BLR
8 Victoria BARANOVA RUS
Semi Finals
Shuang GUO CHN
Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU
Anna MEARES AUS
Victoria PENDLETON GBR
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Two crashes in the late stages of the Womenās scratch left American Shelley Evans in hospital and the race strung out into a series of small groups. At the bell, Ah Reum Na of Korea led out the first of them, with Pascale Jeuland of France on her tail and it was Jeuland who came round to take the win with Cubaās Yumari Gonzalez of Cuba and Belinda Goss of Australia taking Silver and Bronze.