The first medals – and eight rainbow jerseys – have been awarded. As well as the conclusion of the Men’s Team Pursuit and Women’s Indiviudal Pursuit, we’ve seen an explosive Men’s Kilo competition and an intriguing Women’s Team Sprint.
With Australia and Great Britain through to the Gold medal ride in the Men’s Team Pursuit, the question was whether the Brits would make their usual slow start to the Olympic cycle or carry through their form from 2012. And could Amy Cure of Australia overcome Sarah Hammer – who outqualified her by 3 seconds – to take the Women’s Individual Pursuit title?
trackcycling’s coverage of the 2013 World Track Championships is supported by V-Sprint
trackcycling’s coverage of the 2013 World Track Championships is supported by V-Sprint
Women’s Team Sprint
Qualifying
A relatively small field took to the track for the Women’s Team Sprint competition but we were still treated to some novel tactics and some incredibly close times. France set the early pace with 33.866 before Becky James and Vicky Williamson rasied a few eyebrows with a new technique which involved James – riding second – flicking up out of turn 3 and charging down the track after Williamson through turn 4 as they headed towards the change over. It worked – it was good enough to pip the Australian duo of Kaarle McCulloch and Stephanie Morton by what seemed like a narrow margin – just 0.014 seconds.
But in the final heat the German and Chinese teams made that look like a comfortable margin with Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel pipping their Shuang Guo and Jinjie Gong by just 0.001 seconds.
Qualifying
1 Germany (Miriam WELTE, Kristina VOGEL) 33.150
2 China (Jinjie GONG, Shuang GUO) 33.151
3 Great Britain (Victoria WILLIAMSON, Rebecca Angharad JAMES) 33.762
4 Australia (Kaarle MCCULLOCH, Stephanie MORTON) 33.776
5 France (Sandie CLAIR, Olivia MONTAUBAN) 33.866
6 Russia (Elena BREJNIVA, Anastasiia VOINOVA) 33.901
7 Spain (Tania CALVO BARBERO, Helena CASAS ROIGE) 34.086
8 Japan (Kayono MAEDA, Hiroko ISHII) 35.320
9 Ukraine (Olena TSOS, Tetyana KLIMCHENKO) 36.355
Finals
The finals weren’t quite as close – but they weren’t far off. James and Williamson repeated their technique from the Qualifying round and this time edged out Morton and McCulloch by just 0.005 seconds to take the Bronze for Great Britain while Vogel and Welte claimed Gold for Germany by a relatively comfortable 0.030 seconds…
GOLD Germany (Kristina VOGEL, Miriam WELTE) 33.053
SILVER China (Shuang GUO, Jinjie GONG) 33.083
BRONZE Great Britain (Rebecca Angharad JAMES, Victoria WILLIAMSON) 33.893
4 Australia (Stephanie MORTON, Kaarle MCCULLOCH) 33.898
Mens Kilometre Time Trial
Finals
There was a nail biting finish to the Kilometre Time Trial which was led for a while by young Great Britain rider Kian Emadi who recorded a very respectable 1:01.756. When Francois Pervis of France clocked 1:00.221 you could tell that he thought he’d done enough to win the jersey and when Simon Van Velthooven was 8th at half distance, that confidence look justified. But the Kiwi had stormed in to 2nd place with 250m to go and he seemed to have the momentum. But not quite. His final lap was half a second quicker than Pervis’, but he’d left himself too much to do and had to settle for the Silver after taking Bronze last year. Joachim Eilers took Bronze with 1:01.450 while Emadi hung on for fourth place.
GOLD Francois PERVIS FRA 1:00.221
SILVER Simon VAN VELTHOOVEN NZL 1:00.869
BRONZE Joachim EILERS GER 1:01.450
4 Kian EMADI GBR 1:01.756
5 Eric ENGLER GER 1:01.762
6 Teun MULDER NED 1:01.998
7 Hugo HAAK NED 1:02.175
8 Edward DAWKINS NZL 1:02.212
9 Francesco CECI ITA 1:02.703
10 Krzysztof MAKSEL POL 1:02.711
11 Yudai NITTA JPN 1:02.934
12 Quentin LAFARGUE FRA 1:03.030
13 Andrey KUBEEV RUS 1:03.438
14 Robin WAGNER CZE 1:03.640
15 Tomas BABEK CZE 1:03.769
16 Gennadii GENUS UKR 1:03.819
17 Jose MORENO SANCHEZ ESP 1:03.957
18 Chun Wing LEUNG HKG 1:05.078
19 Sergio ALIAGA CHIVITE ESP 1:05.425
Women’s Individual Pursuit
Finals
The Finals of the Women’s Individual Pursuit went to form – although they didn’t look as though they would for a while. Australia’s Annette Edmondson eased away from Laura Brown of Canada and only just failed to make the catch in the closing stages but took the Bronze by almost 8 seconds.
Sarah Hammer of the USA, on the other hand, looked to be in trouble with Amy Cure of Australia ahead for the first third of the race – almost half a second up at one point – before Hammer start to claw back the deficit – and then some. In the end she sat up out of the final bend to avoid the catch, but the win could hardly have been more comfortable.
Finals
GOLD Sarah HAMMER USA 3:32.050
SILVER Amy CURE AUS 3:40.685
BRONZE Annette EDMONDSON AUS 3:36.830
4 Laura BROWN CAN 3:44.533
Men’s Team Pursuit
Finals
The Australian quartet of Alexander Morgan, Michael Hepburn, Alexander Edmonson and Gleen O’Shea were majestic in the Final of the Men’s Team Pursuit. Great Britain were just a second or so outside their qualfiying time and although Andrew Tennat, Samuel Harrison, Ed Clancy and Steven Burke held the Aussies for the first two laps, for the next fourteen their great rivals simply rode away from them. By tne end the margin was just over four seconds, but the Australians had lost a man early and still kept increasing their lead. There’s work to be done over the next four years before The Circus comes to Rio… Denmark had an equally comfortable ride against Spain to clinch the Bronze medal.
Finals
GOLD Australia (Alexander MORGAN, Michael HEPBURN, Alexander EDMONSON, Glenn O’SHEA) 3:56.751
SILVER Great Britain (Andrew TENNANT, Samuel HARRISON, Edward CLANCY, Steven BURKE) 4:00.967
BRONZE Denmark (Rasmus Christian QUAADE, Mathias MOLLER, Casper FOLSACH, Lasse Norman HANSEN) 3:59.821
4 Spain (Sebastian MORA VEDRI, Asier MAEZTU BILLELABEITIA, Eloy TERUEL ROVIRA, Unai ELORRIAGA ZUBIAUR) 4:05.569
trackcycling’s coverage of the 2013 World Track Championships is supported by V-Sprint