The penultimate day of the UEC European Track Championships in Guadeloupe saw the start of the Women’s Omnium and no less than six Gold medals awarded in the Men’s Individual Pursuit, Men’s Omnium, Women’s Sprint, Men’s Sprint, Women’s 500m Time Trial and Men’s Kilometre Time Trial.
Women’s Omnium – Day 1
Malogrzata Wojtyra of Poland lapped the field in the Scratch race – the first event in the Women’s Omnium – to become the first overall leader of the competition. Jolien D’Hoore of Belgium took the sprint for second, ahead of Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands and reigning Olympic and 2012 World Champion Laura Trott of Great Britain.
Women’s Omnium I – Scratch race
1 Malgorzata WOJTYRA POLAND
2 Jolien D’HOORE BELGIUM -1
3 Kirsten WILD NETHERLANDS -1
4 Laura TROTT GREAT BRITIAN -1
5 Laurie BERTHON FRANCE -1
6 Lucie ZALESKA CZECH REPUBLIC -1
Wojtyra could only manage 12th in the Individual Pursuit, with Tatsiana Sharakova of Belarus fastest with a 3:47.104. Wild took second with a 3:48.064, ahead of D’Hoore on 3:50.811 and Trott on 3:51.203.
Women’s Omnium II – Individual Pursuit
1 Tatsiana SHARAKOVA BELARUS 3:47.104
2 Kirsten WILD NETHERLANDS 3:48.064
3 Jolien D’HOORE BELGIUM 3:50.811
4 Laura TROTT GREAT BRITAIN 3:51.203
5 Ausrine TREBAITE LITHUANIA 3:52.546
6 Anna KNAUER GERMANY 3:53.594
It would have been a shock to all involved if Trott hadn’t won the Elimation Race and she duly obliged – beating D’Hoore in the final sprint with Laurie Berthon of France third and Wild fourth.
Women’s Omnium III – Elimination Race
1 Laura TROTT GREAT BRITAIN
2 Jolien D’HOORE BELGIUM
3 Laurie BERTHON FRANCE
4 Kirsten WILD NETHERLANDS
5 Evgenia ROMANYUTA RUSSIA
6 MalgorzataWOJTYRA POLAND
That win in the Eilimation Race left Trott third at the end of Day 1 – tied on points with Wild – both of them four points behind overall leader D’Hoore and 20 clear of Wojtyra in fourth.
Men’s Individual Pursuit
Great Britain’s Andy Tennant must have left the track full of confidence after the Men’s Individual Pursuit qualification round – topping the times on 4:33.581 – almost three seconds faster than second placed Alexander Evtushenko of Russia. While those two would ride off for Gold, the Bronze medal would be between Nils Schomber of Germany and his compatriot Kersten Thiele who qualified within half a second of each other.
Qualifying
1 Andrew TENNANT GREAT BRITAIN 4:33.
581
2 Alexander EVTUSHENKO RUSSIA 4:36.372
3 Nils SCHOMBER GERMANY 4:37.315
4 Kersten THIELE GERMANY 4:37.830
5 Tom BOHLI SWITZERLAND 4:39.533
6 Dion BEUKEBOOM NETHERLANDS 4:40.865
7 Alexander SEROV RUSSIA 4:41.007
8 Siarhei PAPOK BELARUS 4:42.109
9 Julien MORICE FRANCE 4:42.243
10 Illart ZUAZUBISKAR SPAIN 4:43.524
The problem with qualifying, of course, is that you never know who was holding a little back and who will recover best from their initial effort. One kilometre in to the Final, Evtuschenko was ahead – albeit only by three tenths – and the pulled out a similar buffer over the next four laps. The pendulum swung over the third kilometre, though, with Tennant a second faster to take a three tenths of a second lead into the last quarter of the race and – even though the Russian was able to take a second and a half off his qualifying time, it wasn’t nearly enough as Tennant, too, improved by just under a second to take Gold with a 4:32.686. The Bronze medal ride saw almost identical times to the final, with Thiele overoming his small qualifying deficit to clocke 4:32.878 with Schomber almost two seconds off his team mate’s pace.
Finals
GOLD Andrew TENNANT GREAT BRITAIN 4:32.686
SILVER Alexander EVTUSHENKO RUSSIA 4:34.954
BRONZE Kersten THIELE GERMANY 4:32.878
4 Nils SCHOMBER GERMANY 4:34.604
Men’s Omnium
The second – and concluding – day of the Men’s Omnium opens with what used to be the final event – the Kilo. None of the top three overnight made the top 6 with Artur Ershov of Russia 7th, Unai Elorriaga of Spain 15th and Britain’s Jon Dibben 12th. The winner of two of the first three events – Italy’s Elia Viviani – was the highest placed of the leaders in 6th. Top spot went to Lucas Liss of Germany with a 1:04.651 ahead of Adrian Teklinski of Poland on 1:05.433 and Gael Suter of Switzerland.
Men’s Omnium IV – Kilometre Time Trial
1 Lucas LISS GERMANY 1:04.651
2 Adrian TEKLINSKI 1:05.433
3 Gael SUTER SWITZERLAND 1:06.484
4 Martyn IRVINE IRELAND 1:06.862
5 Casper PEDERSEN DENMARK 1:07.108
6 Elia VIVIANI ITALY 1:07.177
From the final event in the old format, the new Omnium moves on to what was, formerly, the opening discipline – the Flying Lap. Liss again showed his speed with an 18.319, but Viviani – favourite for the closing Points race, remember – took second with an 18.719. Teklinski was third on 18.872 with Suter fourth and Casper Pedersen of Denmark fifth.
Men’s Omnium V – Flying Lap
1 Lucas LISS GERMANY 18.319
2 Elia VIVIANI ITALY
3 Adrian TEKLINSKI POLAND 18.872
4 Gael SUTER SWITZERLAND 18.953
5 Casper PEDERSEN DENMARK 18.973
6 Tim VELDT NETHERLANDS 19.069
Going in to the final event, Viviani was 8 points clear of Teklinski with overnight leader Ershov a further two points back while Liss had moved up to 5th – albeit 20 points off Viviani’s lead. The new format was designed to ensure a cliff-hanging final event and, while the Points race can be unpredictable, Viviani’s lead looked unassailable.
Pedersen took the first sprint from Frantisek Sisr of the Czech Republic with Teklinski third and, ominously, Viviani fourth. Ershov showed that he wasn’t out of it yet, taking the second sprint from Suter, Teklinski and Dibben. But as the race settled down, Viviani just set about collecting points, He only actually won a single sprint – three quarters of the way through the race – but scored in 12 of the 20 and took a lap to finish on a massive 219 points (including his Omnium points so far). Behind him, Dibben – who also took a lap – racked up the points in a different style – winning three sprints and taking three second places en route to second place on 198. Third went to Elorriaga on 179 – also a lap up – while Teklinski took fourth on 176.
Men’s Omnium VI – Points race and Overall
GOLD Elia VIVIANI ITA 219
SILVER Jonathan DIBBEN GBR 198
BRONZE Unai ELORRIAGA ESP 179
4 Adrian TEKLINSKI POL 176
5 Gael SUTER SUI 172
6 Artur ERSHOV RUS 171
Women’s Sprint
Olqa Ismayilova’s impressive progress through the competition ended in the Semi Finals – the Azerbaijani rdier beaten in straight heats by Tania Calvo of Spain. Calvo’s reward was a Gold medal final against Anastasia Voinova of Russia who, impressively, despatched Kristina Vogel of Germany – also without the need of a decider.
And fastest qualifier Ismayilova would end the competition with nothing to show for her efforts after Vogel took the Bronze medal in two rides. There was no need for a third race in the Final, either, with Voinova taking the Gold and Calvo the Silver.
GOLD Anastasia VOINOVA RUSSIA
SILVER Tania CALVO SPAIN
BRONZE Kristina VOGEL GERMANY
4 Olqa ISMAYILOVA AZERBAIJAN
Men’s Sprint
The first of the Men’s Sprint Semi Finals between powerhouses Gregory Bauge of France and Robert Foerstemann of Germany was always going to be close and it was one of the few matches in the Championships to go to a decider with Foerstemann taking first blood, Bauge tying the match up and then the Frenchman booking is place in the Gold medal Final. No such problems for Damien Zielinski of Poland, though, who went straight through in two against Nikita Shurshin of Russia.
Shurshin was no match for Foerstemann who took the Bronze in two and Bauge powered past Zielinski to take the Gold – again, without the need for a third ride.
GOLD Gregory BAUGE FRANCE
SILVER Damien ZIELINSKI POLAND
BRONZE Robert Foerstemann GERMANY
4 Nikita SHURSHIN RUSSIA
Women’s 500m Time Trial
Untroubled by the small matter of a Sprint Semi Final and Final, Voinova made it a double on Day 4 with a Gold in the Women’s 500m Time Trial – clocking 34.242 – half a second ahead of her nearest rival Elis Ligtlee of the Netherlands. Miriam Welte of Germany took the Bronze ahead of Ismayilova who might have been disappointed with another 4th place, but had certainly made her presence felt on the international stage.
GOLD Anastasiia VOINOVA RUSSIA 34.242
SILVER Elis LIGTLEE NETHERLANDS 34.776
BRONZE Miriam WELTE GERMANY 34.842
4 Olqa ISMAYILOVA AZERBAIJAN 34.953
5 Elena BREZHNIVA RUSSIA 35.163
6 Olivia MONTAUBAN FRANCE 35.265
7 Tania CALVOBARBERO SPAIN 35.409
8 CLAIR Sandie FRANCE 35.450
9 Shanne BRASPENNINCX NETHERLANDS 35.773
10 Olena TSOS UKRAINE 35.845
Men’s Kilometre Time Trial
Callum Skinner of Great Britain added another Gold to the team tally with a win in the Kilo – his time of 1:02.399 just edging out Joachim Eilers of Germany on 1:02.474. Despite the absence of triple World Champion Francois Pervis, the French have also had a good Championships and Quentin Lafargue added his Bronze to Bauge’s Sprint Gold with Michael D’Almeida in fourth.
GOLD Callum SKINNER GREAT BRITAIN 1:02.399
SILVER Joachim EILERS GERMANY 1:02.474
BRONZE Quentin LAFARGUE FRANCE 1:02.734
4 Michael D’ALMEIDA FRANCE 1:03.031
5 Eric ENGLER GERMANY 1:03.542
6 Tomas BABEK CZECH REPUBLIC 1:03.729
7 Krzysztof MAKSEL POLAND 1:04.174
8 Jose MORENOSANCHEZ SPAIN 1:04.802
9 Hugo HAAK NETHERLANDS 1:04.869
10 Matthew CRAMPTON GREAT BRITAIN 1:04.909
