There were just two events in the morning session on the final day of competition in the velodrome – the 3km Women’s Omnium Pursuit and the First Round of the men’s Keirin. At the end of the session we knew who was going to be in the Second Round – effectively the Semi Finals – of the Keirin – and were really no closer to knowing who would win the Omnium!
Men’s Keirin
The only surprise in the First Round Heats was that Shane Perkins of Australia didn’t make it through automatically and had to progress through the Repechages. In the first heat Njisane Philip of Trinidad and Tobago made the early running, but that just pulled through Chris Hoy of Great Britain and Simon van Velthooven of New Zealand to take the two automatic qualifying places.
The second heat was closer – Perkins made the early running but it was 2009 World Champion Max Levy of Germany who won it with 2005 World Champion Tuen Mulder taking a photo finish from Hersony Canelon of Venezuela.
In the third it was Mickael Bourgain – apparently using the same magic/Mavic wheels as Team Great Britain – who took it with Malaysia’s Azizul Awang following him home.
Two very close Repechages saw Christos Velikakis of Greece, Juan Peralta and Njisane Philip of Trinidad through from the first – after Miao Zhang of China, who crossed the line first, was relegated. Kazunari Watanabe of Japan took the second ahead of Hersony Canelon. Perkins continued to live dangerously, taking the third place after a photo finish with Kamil Kuczynski of Poland.
Of the two Second Round Heats this afternoon, the one with the best chance of fireworks – and, potentially, the highest risk of disaster – is the first of them which sees Hoy race Awang, Phillip, Volikakis, Mulder and Peralta. Perkins will have to be on better form than he showed this morning to make the Final with Bourgain, Levy and van Velthooven – based on this morning’s form – all likely to be there or thereabouts. Watanabe and Canelon didn’t look too bad either. It’s going to be fast and furious!
Heat 1
PERALTA GASCON Juan ESP
HOY Chris GBR
VOLIKAKIS Christos GRE
AWANG Azizulhasni MAS
MULDER Teun NED
PHILLIP Njisane Nicholas TRI
Heat 2
PERKINS Shane AUS
BOURGAIN Mickael FRA
LEVY Maximilian GER
WATANABE Kazunari JPN
van VELTHOOVEN Simon NZL
CANELON Hersony VEN
Women’s Omnium IV – 3km Individual Pursuit
The climax of the Women’s Omnium is going to be very interesting this afternoon. There were no major surprises in the Individual pursuit with the four leaders on the overall classification going in to the event – Laura Trott of Great Britain, Sarah Hammer of the USA, Annette Edmondson of Australia and Tara Whitten of Canada – setting the fastest four times. But there were a couple of minor surprises. The first was that Edmondson was five and a half seconds off Hammer’s pace. The second was that Trott was within a second of Hammer’s.
That left Hammer ahead of Trott by 1 point in the overall, with Whitten and Edmondson tied six points further back. It’s not quite a two horse race – the Scratch could result in some major swings – but it’s unlikely to and the two top spots on the podium are looking a little clearer.
But the battle for the top spot is very, very close. If Laura Trott finishes ahead of Sarah Hammer and within a few places of Annette Edmondson and Tara Whitten, she will – barring disaster – have one hand on the Gold.
If she and Hammer end up tied on points, the result is settled on the difference between their cumulative times for the timed events. Trotty’s 3km time was so good that Hammer is currently just 0.7 seconds ahead and, in Melbourne, Trott was almost a second quicker than the American over 500m…
Tense, much?
Women’s Omnium Individual Pursuit Result
1 HAMMER Sarah USA 3:29.554
2 TROTT Laura GBR 3:30.547
3 WHITTEN Tara CAN 3:31.114
4 EDMONDSON Annette AUS 3:35.958
5 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR 3:38.301
6 WILD Kirsten NED 3:39.741
7 CALLE WILLIAMS Maria Luisa COL 3:40.349
8 D’HOORE Jolien BEL 3:41.495
9 MEJIAS GARCIA Marlies CUB 3:41.897
10 ROMANYUTA Evgeniya RUS 3:42.301
11 KIESANOWSKI Joanne NZL 3:44.971
12 WOJTYRA Malgorzata POL 3:45.083
13 HUANG Li CHN 3:45.610
14 OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire ESP 3:46.317
15 LEE Minhye KOR 3:46.871
16 HSIAO Mei Yu HKG 3:49.051
17 GONZALEZ Angie VEN 3:54.926
18 SANCHEZ Clara FRA 3:56.800
Standings after 4 Events
1 HAMMER Sarah USA
13
2 TROTT Laura GBR 14
3 WHITTEN Tara CAN 21
4 EDMONDSON Annette AUS 21
5 D’HOORE Jolien BEL 28
6 WILD Kirsten NED 31
7 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR 34
8 ROMANYUTA Evgeniya RUS 35
9 WOJTYRA Malgorzata POL 36
10 MEJIAS GARCIA Marlies CUB 38
11 KIESANOWSKI Joanne NZL 41
12 OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire ESP 45
13 CALLE WILLIAMS Maria Luisa COL 47
14 SANCHEZ Clara FRA 51
15 HUANG Li CHN 53
16 LEE Minhye KOR 54
17 HSIAO Mei Yu HKG 61
18 GONZALEZ Angie VEN 61
