There were four world titles up for grabs on the opening day of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships at the Velódromo Alcides Nieto Patiño in Cali. Qualifying for the Men’s Team Pursuit had seen Denmark pip Australia on the timesheets while Germany were hot favourites for the Men’s and Women’s Team Sprint. The Women’s Scratch Race is always tough to call, but Katarzyna Pawlowska of Poland was looking to make it three in a row.
Men’s Team Pursuit
The Danes had marginally the faster start in the Men’s Team Pursuit final with Alex Rasmussen, Rasmus Quaade, Lasse Hansen and Casper Folsach four tenths up after the opening two kilometrea, but the Aussies were just building up momemntum. By half way, Mitchell Mulhern, Alexander Edmondson, Glenn O’Shea and Luke Davison – who replaced Miles Scotson from the heats – were starting to chip away at the Danish lead and with four laps to go they were ahead – by half a second. As Denmark went to three men they struggled to hold their formation and by the finish the Australians were comfortable winners – 1.7 seconds ahead with a time of 3:57.907, over two seconds under the old track record.
The Bronze medal ride saw Russia marginally ahead four laps in, but from then on it was all New Zealand. Marc Ryan, Dylan Kennett, Pieter Bulling and Aaron Gate bettered Denmark’s time by sevent tenths of a second, beating Alexander Serov, Ivan kocalev, Evgeny Kovalev and Artur Ershov home by the same winning margin as in the Final – 1.7 seconds – in a time of 3:58.989.
GOLD Australia (Mitchell MULHERN, Alexander EDMONDSON, Glenn O’SHEA, Luke DAVISON) 3:57.907
SILVER Denmark (Alex RASMUSSEN, Rasmus QUAADE, Lasse HANSEN, Casper VON FOLSACH) 3:59.623
BRONZE New Zealand (Marc RYAN, Dylan KENNETT, Pieter BULLING, Aaron GATE) 3:58.989
4 Russia (Alexander SEROV, Ivan KOVALEV, Evgeny KOVALEV, Artur ERSHOV) 4:00.777
Women’s Team Sprint
Qualifying for the Women’s Team Sprint went pretty much to form with the German duo of Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel almost half a second ahead of Junhong Lin and Tianshi Zhong of China with a 32.575. Great Britain and Russia qualified for the Bronze medal ride with Jess Varnish and Becky James clocking 33.214 and Elena Brezhniva and Anastasiia Voinova 33.441.
Half a second’s a huge margin in the Team Sprint, so the result of the Final was never really in doubt, but Welte and Vogel completed a hat trick of World Titles by knocking another tenth off their time and beating Zhing and Lin by eight tenths. The race for Bronze was much closer with just over a tenth of a second between the teams. It was Varnish and James – with a 33.032 – that took the medal for Great Britain.
Qualifying
1 Germany (Miriam WELTE, Kristina VOGEL) 32.575
2 China (Junhong LIN, Tianshi ZHONG) 32.941
3 Great Britain (Jessica VARNISH, Rebecca JAMES) 33.214
4 Russia (Elena BREZHNIVA, Anastasiia VOINOVA) 33.441
5 France (Sandie CLAIR, Virginie CUEFF) 33.443
6 Spain (Tania CALVO, Helena CASAS) 33.913
7 Colombia (Juliana GAVIRIA, Diana Maria GARCIA) 34.185
8 Ukraine (Olena TSOS, Olena STARIKOVA) 34.961
9 Mexico (Frany Maria FONG, Daniela GAXIOLA) 35.003
10 Japan (Takako ISHII, Yuka KOBAYASHI) 35.584
REL Netherlands (Elis LIGTLEE, Shanne BRASPENNINCX)
Relegation for incorrect exchange
Finals
GOLD Germany (Kristina VOGEL, Miriam WELTE) 32.440
SILVER China (Tianshi ZHONG, Junhong LIN) 33.239
BRONZE Great Britain (Rebecca JAMES, Jessica VARNISH) 33.032
4 Russia (Anastasiia VOINOVA, Elena BREZHNIVA) 33.154
Men’s Team Sprint
There were was a major shock and a slight surprise in the Qualifying for the Men’s Team Sprint. With Germany expected to top the time sheets, a few eyebrows were raised when it was the New Zealand trio of Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins who set the fastest time. Not so much because they were fastest – there was always a chance of that – but because of the quarter of a second gap to Rene Enders, Robert Forstemann and Max Levy.
The bigger surprise, though, was the Olympic Champions Great Britain who failed to qualify for the final with Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Kian Emadi finishing fifth – over a tenth of a second off the medal rides.
France had qualified fourth but you could almost see the confidence building under new coach Justin Grace – and Gregory Bauge, Kevin Sireau and Michael D’Almeida were almost back to their best as they squeezed past the Russian squad of Pavel Yakushevskiy, Denis Dmitriev and Nikita Shurshin by two hundredths of a second.
By contrast, the winning margin in the final was massive – four hundredths of a second – with a shocked German team having closed most of the gap from qualifying, but failing to find enough to beat a delighted Kiwi team.
Qualifying
1 New Zealand (Ethan MITCHELL, Sam WEBSTER, Edward DAWKINS) 43.065
2 Germany (Rene ENDERS, Robert FORSTEMANN, Maximilian LEVY) 43.301
3 Russia (Pavel YAKUSHEVSKIY, Denis DMITRIEV, Nikita SHURSHIN) 43.454
4 France (Gregory BAUGE, Kevin SIREAU, Michael D’ALMEIDA) 43.486
5 Great Britain (Philip HINDES, Jason KENNY, Kian EMADICOFFIN) 43.617
6 Australia (Daniel ELLIS, Shane PERKINS, Matthew GLAETZER) 43.658
7 Poland (Maciej BIELECKI, Damian ZIELINSKI, Krzysztof MAKSEL) 43.885
8 Netherlands (Jeffrey HOOGLAND, Hugo HAAK, Matthijs BUCHLI) 43.925
9 Spain (MORENO Jose, PERALTA Juan, MAZQUIARAN Hodei) 44.753
10 Colombia (Ruben Dario MURILLO, Leonardo NARVAEZ, Santiago RAMIREZ) 44.924
11 Japan (Tomoyuki KAWABATA, Kazunari WATANABE, Seiichiro NAKAGAWA) 44.938
12 China (Ke HU, Miao ZHANG, Chao XU) 45.131
Finals
GOLD New Zealand (Edward DAWKINS, Sam WEBSTER, Ethan MITCHELL) 42.840
SILVER Germany (Maximilian LEVY, Robert FORSTEMANN, Rene ENDERS) 42.885
BRONZE France (Michael D’ALMEIDA, Kevin SIREAU, Gregory BAUGE) 43.285
4 Russia (Nikita SHURSHIN, Denis DMITRIEV, Pavel YAKUSHEVSKIY) 43.309
Women’s Scratch Race
A lively Women’s Scratch race was illuminated by early – if unsuccessful attacks from first Stephanie Pohl of Germany and then Jannie Milena Salcedo of Colombia. The roof of the velodrome in Cali is already raised above the stadium itself, but the noise when Salcedo attacked lifted it another metre or two.
The decisive move came six laps from the end when Caroline Ryan of Irelands spotted an opportunity to take advantage of a resting bunch. She was quickly joined at the head of the race by Belgium’s Kelly Druyts and it was Druyts who started to pile on the pressure. As the Beglian rode away, Ryan held the gap to the charging peloton and with a lap to go it looked as though she might, just, hold on for Silver. It wasn’t to be, though and the pack swept past her through turns three and four on the final lap.
Poland’s Katarzyna Pawlowska failed to emulate Welte and Vogel’s achievement of three World titles in a row, but she pipped Evgenia Romanyuta of Russia to take the Silver.
GOLD Kelly DRUYTS BEL
SILVER Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA POL
BRONZE Evgenia ROMANYUTA RUS
4 Jennifer VALENTE USA
5 Laurie BERTHON FRA
6 Leire OLABERRIA ESP
7 Yumari GONZALEZ CUB
8 Danielle KING GBR
9 Giorgia BRONZINI ITA
10 Katsiaryna BARAZNA BLR
11 Jarmila MACHACOVA CZE
12 Xiao Juan DIAO HKG
13 Alzbeta PAVLENDOVA SVK
14 RYAN Caroline IRL
15 POHL Stephanie GER
16 Jannie Milena SALCEDO COL
17 Mayra Del Rocio ROCHA MEX
18 Tetyana KLIMCHENKO UKR
19 Ashlee ANKUDINOFF AUS
DNF Jupha SOMNET MAS
Photo gallery
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