The final day of competition at the Omnisport velodrome in Apeldoorn saw some great racing, a couple of spectacular crashes, some new World Champions and some old World Champions regaining their crowns – and a world class performance from a Great Britain rider that almost went unnoticed. A thrilling end to a great week.
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
Women’s Keirin 1st Round
Things didn’t exactly go to form in the first round of the Women’s Keirin competition as a number of medal hopefuls were dumped into the repechages by – depending on your point of view, lesser known or up and coming riders.
In Heat 1 it was Simona Krupeckaite of Lithuania and Sandie Clair of France who lost out – to the highly rated Kristina Vogel of Germany and the underrated Fatehah Mustapa of Malaysia. Mustapa’s been improving over the last couple of World Cup events and this was her best showing to date – looking quick and strong and taking the race on. Heat 2 saw Victoria Pendleton of Great Britain and Lisandra Guerra of Cuba pipped by reigning Champion Shuang Guo of China and emerging star Lyubov Shulika of the Ukraine, who also showed well in the Sprint competition. Heat 3 saw newly crowned 500m Time Trial Champion and 4th placed Sprinter Olga Panarina of Belarus miss out, while Anna Meares of Australia and Eummi Park of Korea sailed through. And in the final heat, Yvonne Hijgenaar of the Netherlands and Kaarle McCulloch heaed to the repechages courtesy of Clara Sanchez of France and Wai Sze Lee of Hong Kong. Great stuff!
1 Kristina VOGELÂ GER
2 Fatehah MUSTAPA MAS
3 Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU
4 Sandie CLAIR FRA
5 Zhao Juan MENG HKG
1 Lyubov SHULIKA UKR
2 Shuang GUO CHN
3 Victoria PENDLETONÂ GBR
4 Lisandra GUERRAÂ RODRIGUEZ CUB
5 Diana Maria GARCIA ORREGO COL
6 Aksana PAPKO BLR
1 Anna MEARES AUS
2 Eunmi PARK KOR
3 Emily ROSEMOND AUS
4 Jinjie GONGÂ CHN
5 Olga PANARINAÂ BLR
6 Lin JUNHONGÂ CHN
1 Clara SANCHEZÂ FRA
2 Wai Sze LEE HKG
3 Kaarle MCCULLOCH AUS
4 Rebecca Angharad JAMES GBR
5 Yvonne HIJGENAARÂ NED
6 Gintare GAIVENYTEÂ LTU
Women’s Omnium Round IV – 3km Individual Pursuit
After her two world class Team Pursuit efforts on Thursday, 19 year old Laura Trott of Great Britain had looked tired in the early stages of the Omnium competition. Today she came alive again. Her time of 3:40.684 stayed at the top of the leaderboard for over half of the competition and was only beaten by the reigning Omnium World Champion Tara Whitten (3:26.219), the newly crowned Individual Pursuit World Champion Sarah Hammer (3:34.012) and Spain’s Leire Olaberria (3:38.880). Indeed, Trott’s time would have put her in 5th place in the Individual Pursuit ‘proper’, just a second and a half off the Bronze medal ride. Not a bad start to the day.
Overnight leader Kirsten Wild lost ground to her major competitors despite huge vocal support from the home supporters. At the beginning of a Sunday morning session, the stands weren’t exactly full to overflowing with orange clad spectators, but they still made plenty of noise. Wild’s 3:43.167, though, was only good enough for ninth place which allowed Whitten to overtake her into the overall lead and saw Hammer close the points gap from 10 to 2.
1 Sarah HAMMER USA 3:34.012
2 Tara WHITTENÂ CAN 3:36.219
3 Leire OLABERRIAÂ DORRONSORO ESP 3:38.880
4 Laura TROTTÂ GBR 3:40.684
5 Tatsiana SHARAKOVA BLR 3:41.419
6 Amy CUREÂ AUS 3:41.561
7 Marlies MEJIASÂ GARCIA CUB 3:42.375
8 Maria Luisa CALLE WILLIAMS COL 3:42.441
9 Kirsten WILDÂ NED 3:43.167
10 Lisa BRENNAUER GER 3:44.674
11 Malgorzata WOJTYRA POL 3:44.725
12 Joanne KIESANOWSKI NZL 3:46.455
13 Min Hye LEE KOR 3:48.494
14 Jolien D’HOORE BEL 3:48.596
15 Angie Sabrina GONZALEZ GARCIA VEN 3:50.003
16 Evgenya ROMANYUTAÂ RUS 3:50.270
17 Pascale JEULANDÂ FRA 3:50.810
18 Jarmila MACHACOVA CZE 3:51.133
19 Vaida PIKAUSKAITEÂ LTU 3:52.012
20 Mei Yu HSIAO TPE 4:00.824
21 Jutatip MANEEPHANÂ THA 4:01.548
22 Xiao Juan DIAO HKG 4:09.802
Pascale SCHNIDERÂ SUI DNS
Women’s Keirin Repechages
The upsets in the first round of the Women’s Keirin meant that there were more favourites in the repechages than there were places in the second round. In the first heat, James led out the sprint but was swamped in the closing stages by Panarina and Krupeckaite. It was close on the line, but the Belarussian went through. One favourite down.
On paper, heat two was more straightforward – and that’s how Pendleton made it look. She and Gong swept past Garcia like the Colombian wasn’t moving and Pendelton just continued to pull away to take the victory. It was a soft heat, but the Briton was looking good.
Guerra, too, had a relatively easy passage through Heat 3, but in the 4th Clair lined up against McCulloch, Hijgenaar and Junhong – the first two of which, while longshots for the Gold, were good outside bets for a medal. Clair, though, should have been through in the first round and knew it. She made no mistakes this time.
1 Olga PANARINAÂ BLR
2 Simona KRUPECKAITE LTU
3 Rebecca Angharad JAMES GBR
4 Aksana PAPKOÂ BLR
1 Victoria PENDLETON GBR
2 Jinjie GONGÂ CHN
3 Diana Maria GARCIA ORREGO COL
1 Lisandra GUERRAÂ RODRIGUEZ CUB
2 Gintare GAIVENYTE LTU
3 Zhao Juan MENG HKG
4 Emily ROSEMONDÂ AUS
1 Sandie CLAIRÂ FRA
2 Kaarle MCCULLOCH AUS
3 Yvonne HIJGENAAR NED
4 Lin JUNHONG CHN
Men’s Kilometre Time Trial Final
Another Olympic ‘lost event’ meant another event with no Olympics-driven Lottery funded athletes. There was no shortage of class elsewhere, though, and the final battle was between the outgoing World Champion – Teun Mulder of the Netherlands and the previous World Champion Stefan Nimke of Germany.
The competition had seen early starter Joachim Eilers of Germany clock 1:02.296 to take the lead – and he stayed there until the final four riders took to the track. François Pervis of France knocked him off with a 1:01.228 – a decent time on an allegedly slow track. Team mate Michaël D’Almeida slotted in to second a fraction slower at 1:01.481. Then it was Nimke’s turn.
Nimke’s one of those kilo riders that just looks quick. Smooth, but powerful he builds speed like a train. He was 6th fastest at 125m, 5th after a lap, 3rd by half distance and first with 125m to go. And when the clock stopped at 1:00.793, Mulder must have known he had an uphill struggle.
Roared on by the crowd, he was up at the end of lap 1 and still up at the half way mark. With 125m to go he was still on course for the Gold, but he was visibly tying up and you could see on his face as he looked to the scoreboard that he hadn’t managed to retain his title in front of the home crowd. He had taken Silver, though, with a time of 1:01.179.
The Dutch crowd were overjoyed with Vos’ Gold in the Women’s Scratch – and almost as delighted with Mulder’s Bronze in the Keirin. But you could sense they were disappointed with his Silver this time.
GOLD Stefan NIMKEÂ GER 1:00.793
SILVER Teun MULDERÂ NED 1:01.179
BRONZE François PERVIS FRA 1:01.228
4 Michaël D’ALMEIDA FRA 1:01.481
5 Joachim EILERSÂ GER 1:02.296
6 Quentin LAFARGUEÂ FRA 1:02.582
Women’s Omnium Round V – 10km Scratch
The Women’s Omnium Scratch race saw Sharakova of Belarus take a lap on the field – and overall leader Whitten do the same. Sharakova crossed the line first, but significantly, Hammer pipped Wild on the line in the sprint for fourth place, closing the gap going in to the final event to a single point. With fourth placed Wujtyra of Poland 13 points behind, Wild would have to have a disastrous final event to lose out on a medal – but having dropped from Gold to Silver she was on real danger of having to settle for Bronze.
1 Tatsiana SHARAKOVAÂ BLR
2 Tara WHITTENÂ CAN
3 Evgenya ROMANYUTAÂ RUS Â-1
4 Sarah HAMMERÂ USA Â-1
5 Kirsten WILDÂ NED Â-1
6 Amy CUREÂ AUS Â-1
7 Marlies MEJIASÂ GARCIAÂ CUB Â-1
8 Joanne KIESANOWSKIÂ NZL Â-1
9 Laura TROTTÂ GBR Â-1
10 Malgorzata WOJTYRAÂ POL Â-1
11 Jutatip MANEEPHANÂ THA Â-1
12 Min Hye LEE KOR Â-1
13 Leire OLABERRIAÂ DORRONSOROÂ ESP Â-1
14 Jolien D’HOOREÂ BEL Â-1
15 Pascale JEULANDÂ FRA Â-1
16 Maria Luisa CALLE WILLIAMS COL Â-1
17 Angie Sabrina GONZALEZ GARCIA VEN Â-1
18 Mei Yu HSIAO TPE Â-1
19 Jarmila MACHACOVAÂ CZE Â-1
20 Vaida PIKAUSKAITEÂ LTU Â-1
21 Lisa BRENNAUERÂ GER Â-1
22 Xiao Juan DIAO HKG Â-1
Women’s Keirin 2nd Round
There didn’t seem to be much scope left for shocks in the Women’s Omnium. The first second round heat was so packed with stars that something had to give and it was Vogel of Germany and Clair of France who made way for Clair’s team mate Sanchez, Guo and Panarina.
What nobody expected was that Mustapa would join Guerra and Meares in the Final at the expense of Victoria Pendleton. The Malaysian did everything right, following Meares and Guerra while Pendleton tried to go round the outside and pushing through to take third when the British rider couldn’t get make it round.
1 Clara SANCHEZÂ FRA
2 Shuang GUOÂ CHN
3 Olga PANARINAÂ BLR
4 Kristina VOGELÂ GER
5 Eunmi PARKÂ KOR
6 Sandie CLAIRÂ FRA
1 Anna MEARESÂ AUS
2 Lisandra GUERRAÂ RODRIGUEZÂ CUB
3 Fatehah MUSTAPAÂ MAS
4 Victoria PENDLETONÂ GBR
5 Wai Sze LEE HKG
6 Lyubov SHULIKAÂ UKR
Men’s 50km Madison Final
The best race of the week by far – another London 2012 absentee – the Men’s Madison saw the favourites Leigh Howard and Cameron Meyer in danger of missing out on a third consecutive World Championship as Spain, France, Italy and, to the delight of the home crowd, Peter Schep and sprint legend turned road/endurance rider Theo Bos of the Netherlands rack up the points.
Things went from bad to worse with about a third of the race to go when the Czech duo of Martin Blaha and Jiri Hochmann – who had only scored a single point at that stage – slipped away and took a lap. Australia were now a lap down and, with just a point more than the Czechs, not even in with a shout of a medal.
Meyer and Howard needed to take a lap, so Meyer and Howard took a lap. Quickly, smoothly, surgically and, apparently, effortlessly they slipped away – shrugging off the attentions of the chasing Argentineans and pausing, briefly, off the back of the bunch to pick up 5 points for Sprint en route, they put themselves at the top of the pile, 6 points clear of the Czechs.
Another point for the Aussies in the next sprint and it was all but over. Schep & Bos took the final sprint to nick the Bronze from the French and delight the home crowd, but it was Meyer and Howard again on the top spot of the podium, with the Czechs hanging on for the Silver.
GOLD AUSTRALIA (Leigh HOWARDÂ , Cameron MEYERÂ ) Â 8 + 1 lap
SILVER CZECHÂ REPUBLIC (Martin BLAHA, Jiri HOCHMANNÂ ) 1 +1 lap
BRONZE NETHERLANDS (Theo Boss, Peter SCHEP) 21 Â1 lap
4 FRANCE (Vivien BRISSE, Morgan KNEISKY) 18 Â1 lap
5Â SPAIN 17 – 1 lap
6Â ITALY 13 Â1 lap
7Â BELGIUM 7 Â1 lap
8Â AUSTRIA 7 Â1 lap
9 COLOMBIA 5 Â1 lap
10 RUSSIA 4 Â1 lap
11Â SWITZERLAND 3 Â1 lap
12 GERMANY 2 Â 1 lap
13 NEWÂ ZEALAND 2 Â1 lap
14 ARGENTINA 1 Â2 laps
15 UKRAINE 1 Â2 laps
16 HONGÂ KONG 0 Â2 laps
Women’s Omnium Final – 500m Time Trial
Trott’s position in the overall hadn’t improved much, despite her excellent 4th in the Individual Pursuit and a creditable 9th in the Scratch, so when she set the fastest time in her heat, few people expected her to be among the top times at the end. The Great Britain team would have been quietly confident – as would anyone who’d scanned the times for the individual 500m Time Trial. Trott’s time of 35.799 would have been good enough for 9th place.
In the penultimate heat, Hammer’s 36.024 meant that she slotted in at 4th – behind her opponent in the heat Olaberria who did a 36.143. The last heat pitched leader Wild against reigning Champion and second placed Whitten. The crowd were expectant; the Dutch team were tense – the 500m isn’t Wild’s strong point, and they knew it.
They were right. Whitten’s time of 36.231 was respectable. It put her fifth – behind Hammer but comfortably ahead on points overall. Wild’s 37.557 put her 16th – giving her 11 more points than the Canadian and dropping her to third overall.
Whitten celebrated her title, the Dutch celebrated another podium and, in all the fuss, hardly anybody noticed that Trott had won the time trial. They may not have noticed her yet, but they will.
1 Laura TROTTÂ GBR 35.799
2 Marlies MEJIASÂ GARCIAÂ CUB 36.015
3 Leire OLABERRIAÂ DORRONSORO ESP 36.143
4 Sarah HAMMERÂ USA 36.204
5 Tara WHITTEN CAN 36.231
6 Malgorzata WOJTYRA POL 36.272
7 Mei HSIAOÂ Yu TPE 36.382
8 Tatsiana SHARAKOVA BLR 36.604
9 Joanne KIESANOWSKI NZL 36.687
10 Jolien D’HOOREÂ BEL 36.756
11 Evgenya ROMANYUTA RUS 36.764
12 Jutatip MANEEPHANÂ THA 36.833
13 Min Hye LEE KOR 36.940
14 Angie Sabrina GONZALEZ GARCIA VEN 37.092
15 Lisa BRENNAUERÂ GER 37.158
16 Kirsten WILDÂ NED 37.557
17 Amy CUREÂ AUS 37.803
18 Vaida PIKAUSKAITE LTU 38.247
19 Maria Luisa CALLE WILLIAMS COL 38.646
20 Xiao Juan DIAO HKG 38.808
21 Jarmila MACHACOVA CZE 38.819
22 Pascale JEULANDÂ FRA 38.961
Women’s Omnium Overall
Another Omnium, another Gold medal for Canada’s Tara Whitten. It was a typically understated win. She didn’t win a single event – although she did come second in three of the six – but she never finished lower than eighth. The first time she won she was suprised. Now nobody is.
GOLD Tara WHITTEN CAN 23
SILVER Sarah HAMMER USA 31
BRONZE Kirsten WILD NED 42
Women’s Keirin Final 1-6
The Women’s Keirin Final was marred by a crash involving Guo and Guerra – although describing Guo as having been involved is a little harsh. Guerra lost control exiting turn two with a lap to go and veered towards the Chinese rider. The diminutive Cuban instinctively stuck out a protective elbow in an attempt to stabilise herself, but she just bounced off Guo and tumbled down the track.
Meares, who had a grandstand view of the accident – riding on Guo’s wheel as it unfolded, simply rode slightly up the track and lit the afterburners. Panarina and Sanchez fought back, but Meares was uncatchable and picked up her third sprint Gold of the week. Under the circumstances, it’s hard to argue with the decision not to ride the 500m Time Trial – but you also have to wonder – with the form she’s in – whether she might have gone home with four…
1 Anna MEARES AUS
2 Olga PANARINA BLR
3 Clara SANCHEZ FRA
4 Shuang GUOÂ CHN
5 Fatehah MUSTAPA MAS
6 Lisandra GUERRAÂ RODRIGUEZ CUB
Women’s Keirin Final places 7-12
7 Victoria PENDLETONÂ GBR
8 Lyubov SHULIKAÂ UKR
9 Sandie CLAIRÂ FRA
10 Kristina VOGEL GER
11 Eunmi PARKÂ KOR
12 Wai Sze LEE HKG
trackcycling’s coverage of the World Track Championships is supported by SL Carbons – The Fabric of Your Success