Day 3 of the Worlds follows a similar format to yesterday’s comeption and is another busy day with only three medals up for grabs. The afternoon session sees the start of the Men’s Sprint and Women’s Omnium competitions (Flying Lap) – both of which conclude tomorrow – as well as the Men’s Omnium Individual Pursuit qualifications. The Men’s Sprint continues to Quarter Final stage in the evening session while the Womens’ concludes along with the Men’s Omnium (Scratch Race and Kilo). The third of the medal races is the Women’s Scratch.
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Men’s Omnium
Glenn O’Shea of Australia will be looking over his shoulder on Day 2 of the Men’s Omnium
With Day 1 complete, Gelnn O’Shea iss on pole position to take the Gold with strong showings in all three events on Day 1. It still turn in to another GB vs Australia showdown, although the 8 point deficit Clancy has following the Elimination race will make it tough. He should better O’Shea in the Kilo but the Individual Pursuit will be close – both men were in Wednesday’s thrilling Team Pursuit final, remember.
We think Clancy’s time trial skills will be enough to secure Silver – but a disatrous Scratch race could let in Zach Bell of Canada, Elia Viviani of Italy or Bryan Coquard of France who bested O’Shea in last night’s Elimination finale.
We don’t think there’s going to be much change on the overnight leaderboard – although the points gaps my close up a little.
trackcycling predicition
GOLD Glenn O’Shea (AUS)
SILVER Ed Clancy (GBR)
BRONZE Zach Bell (CAN)
Women’s Sprint
Can anything stop the on form Anna Meares on home soil?
Victoria Pendleton’s realtively low qualifying position means that the ‘grudge’ match the Australian media have been trying to manufacture between her and Anna Meares will happen at the Semi Final stage rather than in the Final, which is a shame. On current form there only looks like one likely winner. Match sprnting can be as much about your head as your legs, but we’re not convinced Vicky’s head is quite in the right place, either.
Back on form – and then some – is Simona Krupeckaite. She faces still opposition from rising star Lyubov Shulika of the Ukraine, but we think next year might be Shulika’s turn in the spotlight.
trackcycling predicition
GOLD Anna Meares (AUS)
SILVER Simona Krupeckaite (LTU)
BRONZE Victoria Pendleton (GBR)
Women’s Scratch 10K Final
Can Dani King better her Scratch race Bronze from 2011?
We’re conscious of the fact that we’ve been predicting the rise of the Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Korean endurance riders for some time now, but not been prepared to put our money where our keyboards are. So we’re going to go for Xiao Juan Diao of Hong Kong from Melissa Hoskins of Australia and Dani King of Great Britain.
Everything tells us that, with the home crowd behind her and after he win in London, Hoskins should take it, but we’re going to go for an upset.
trackcycling predicition
GOLD Xiao Juan Diao (HKG)
SILVER Melissa Hoskins (AUS)
BRONZE Dani King (GBR)
