So the first round of the World Cup draws to a close with the conclusion of the Men’s and Women’s Omnium – and what a thrilling conclusion it was – and the finals of the Men’s Sprint and the Women’s Keirin. And so, on to London…
Men’s Sprint
The final session of the Mexican competition kicked off with the men’s sprint semifinals. Both Matthew Glaetzer (AUS) and Jason Kenny (GBR) triumphed in two matches against Fabian Puerta (COL) and Sam Webster (NZL) respectively with Glaetzer and Kenny going through to the final to contest for gold and Puerta and Webster for bronze.
Semi finals
Heat 1
1 Matthew GLAETZER AUSTRALIA
2 BRONZE Fabien Hernando PUERTA ZAPATA
Heat 2
1 Jason KENNY GREAT BRITAIN
2 Sam WEBSTER NEW ZEALAND
In the final, World keirin silver medallist, Colombian Fabian Puerta, was pitted against world team sprint and Commonwealth silver medallist, Sam Webster. Both riders clearly had the credentials to snatch the gold, but it was Puerta who excelled to take the gold medal with two decisive wins in just two races.
The gold medal final saw Australian Matthew Glaetzer pitted against Britain’s Jason Kenny. Glaetzer, who only started cycling in 2009, has taken the Australian cycling world by storm, taking a clean sweep of the medals in this year’s world championships and was only arguably only denied a medal in the sprint at the Cali world championships this year due to a bad crash in the keirin two days previously. We also believe that Glaetzer’s 250m sprint qualifying time in today’s race was the second fastest in history. Kenny, meanwhile, who won gold in the individual sprint and team sprint in London 2012, has not quite had the form since. However, in this World Cup in Guadalajara, Kenny looks to have his 2012 legs back; the old “zip” clearly evident with each pedalstroke. The first match was taken by Glaetzer by just a hundredth of a second, with the margin in the second match barely a tyre’s breadth, but was enough to award Glaetzer a well deserved gold.
Finals
GOLD Matthew GLAETZER AUSTRALIA
SILVER Jason KENNY GREAT BRITAIN
BRONZE Fabien Hernando PUERTA ZAPATA
4 Sam WEBSTER NEW ZEALAND
5 Robert FORSTEMANN GERMANY
5 Michael D’ALMEIDA FRANCE Edward DAWKINS NEW ZEALAND
6 Peter LEWIS RUSSIA
7 Michael D’ALMEIDA FRANCE
8 Pavel KELEMAN CZECH REPUBLIC
Women’s Omnium
The only remaining race to contest in the women’s omnium was the points race. Jolien D’Hoore (Belgium) was in the lead going into the final contest, and it would take a special performance to unseat her from the top. Home rider Sofia Arreola was the rider who appeared most determined to rustle up the positions. Perhaps fuelled from her relegation in the keirin, the Mexican took an early lap in the points race to put her in the lead.
The first points sprint was taken by D’Hoore, with Malgorzata Wojtyra (Poland) taking second and Marlies Meijas Garcia (Cuba) third. The second sprint saw British rider Katie Archibald grab some valuable points in third place, with Laurie Berthon (France) taking the maximum points and Amalie Dideriksen (Denmark) taking second. The Belarussian rider, Tatsiana Sharakova, took the full points in the third sprint, but crucially D’Hoore grabbed third place – and increased her lead yet further in the competition.
After the third sprint, Arreola made another attempt to take a lap with Lithuanian, Ausrine Trebaite. Trebaite was unable to take a lap, but was in a position to snatch full points in the fourth sprint lap. Arreola, however, steamed past Trebaite and managed to take another lap on the field, increasing her lead in the event with 40 points.
The fifth sprint saw D’Hoore snatch more points with second place, with Meijas Garcia grabbing the maximum, closing the gap slightly to D’Hoore. The sixth lap was taken by Evgeniya Romanyuta of Russia, with D’Hoore grabbing yet more points with a third and Kirsten Wild taking her third consecutive third place in a row. Wojtyra took maximum points in the seventh sprint, with D’Hoore to give her a lead of 12 points. With Meijas Garcia requiring a lap to take the overall lead in the competition, the chance of a D’Hoore victory seemed probably.
One of the favourites going into the competition had been Sarah Hammer (USA). However, she has failed to make much of a mark in the competition over the weekend and needed a superhuman performance in the points race to have any hope of reaching the podium. She took off from the front after the seventh points lap with Jupha Somnet of Malaysia. Hammer appeared to be having difficulty holding Somnet’s wheel – an indicator that she is not currently in full form – but did have the consolation of holding on to take maximum points in the eighth sprint.
Kirsten Wild took full points in the ninth points lap to take third place in the points race behind the two riders who had taken laps, Arreola and Dideriksen. Wundersitz took the final points lap, but D’Hoore had grabbed enough points to take the overall win in the omnium competition.
After a silver medal in the omnium in the European championships, the win was D’Hoore’s first in a major competition. Her defiant performance is surely a sign that her name will become better known over the next few years. Her margin over Mejias Garcia was 10 points, whilst Wojryra took bronze. An off form Hammer took sixth place.
Women’s Omnium VI – Points Race
1 Sofia ARREOLA NAVARRO MEXICO 40
2 Amalie DIDERIKSEN DENMARK 27
3 Kirsten WILD NETHERLANDS 16
4 Jolien D’HOORE BELGIUM 13
5 Marlies MEJIAS GARCIA CUBA 9
6 Evgeniya ROMANYUTA RUSSIA 8
Women’s Omnium – Overall Result
1 Jolien D’HOORE BELGIUM 193
2 Marlies MEJIAS GARCIA CUBA 183
3 Malgorzata WOJTYRA POLAND 166
4 Amalie DIDERIKSEN DENMARK 151
5 Kirsten WILD NETHERLANDS 150
6 Sarah HAMMER UNITED STATES 147
7 Anna KNAUER GERMANY 116
8 Evgeniya ROMANYUTA RUSSIA 112
9 Simona FRAPPORTI ITALY 104
10 Tatsiana SHARAKOVA BELARUS 101
11 Raquel SHEATH NEW ZEALAND 100
12 Laurie BERTHON FRANCE 95
13 Ausrine TREBAITE LITHUANIA 83
14 Yuanyuan TIAN CHINA 78
15 Caroline RYAN IRELAND 76
16 Elissa WUNDERSITZ AUSTRALIA 69
17 Kate ARCHIBALD GREAT BRITAIN 67
18 Sofia ARREOLA NAVARRO MEXICO 62
19 Lucie ZALESKA CZECH REPUBLIC 57
20 Xiao Juan DIAO HONG KONG 56
21 Jupha SOMNET MALAYSIA 26
Minami UWANO JAPAN DNF
Leire OLABERRIA DORRONSORO SPAIN DSQ
Women’s Keirin
The second round of the women’s keirin saw 12 riders divided into two heats, with the first three in each heat progressing through to the final. The first heat saw Shuang Guo (Max Success Pro Cycling), Anastasiia Voinova (Russia) and Elis Ligtlee (Netherlands) progress to the final, with Miriam Welte clearly not yet back to full speed, crossing the line last in the first heat.
Anna Meares (Jayco-AIS) took the win in the second heat, with Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) and Tianshi Zhong (China 361o Cycling Team) also going through.
Second Round – Winners from heats who progress to final
Heat 1
1 Shuang Guo Max Success Pro Cycling
2 Anastasiia Voinova Russia
3 Elis Ligtlee Netherlands progress
Heat 2
1 Anna Meares Jayco-AIS
2 Simona Krupeckaite Lithuania
3 Tianshi Zhong China 361o Cycling Team
The first of the keirin finals was for 7-12 place, and was comfortably taken by the Australian rider, Stephanie Morton. In the ride for gold, Guo kept the supreme form she had demonstrated in the second round to power to victory, with Zhong taking the silver. Meares took the bronze, and the final medal of the World Cup.
Finals
GOLD Shuang Guo Max Success Pro Cycling
SILVER Tianshi Zhong China 361o Cycling Team +0.068
BRONZE Anna Meares Jayco-AIS +0.167
4 Elis Ligtlee Netherlands +0.1932
5 Anastasiia Voinova Russia +0.226
6 Simona Krupeckaite Lithuania +0.263
7 Stephanie MORTON AUSTRALIA
8 Elena BREJNIVA RUSVELO +0.072
9 Tania CALVO BARBERO SPAIN +0.324
10 Monique SULLIVAN CANADA +0.463
11 Miriam WELTE GERMANY +0.491
12 Fatehah MUSTAPA YSD TRACK TEAM +0.492
Men’s Omnium
The 160 lap points race formed the final bunch race of the meeting and, with just 18 points separating Lucas Liss (Germany) from second placed Glenn O’Shea (Australia), a further 4 to Cameron Karwowski (New Zealand), 6 to pursuit-star Bobby Lea (USA) and 11 to Elia Viviani (Italy), the race could easily shake up the top of the leaderboard.
The first to make a move wa
s Spanish rider Unai Elorriaga who managed to take a lap before the first sprint was contended. The first sprint was won by Mauro Richeze (Argentina), but saw O’Shea grab a much needed single point, and Vivani taking two. A break of four riders took the next points, with Swiss rider Olivier Beer taking maximum points. Bobby Lea (USA) managed to bridge to the bunch and took a crucial three points in the next sprint to put him just three points away from Karwowski.
The break fragmented and gave Elorriaga, Juan Arango (COL) and Mauro Richeze (ARG) the chance to break away, with Arango taking maximum points in the seventh sprint. Arango and Raman Tsishkou (BLR) used their advantage of the rest of the bunch as an opportunity to take a lap. Liss’ advantage in the competition was looking threatened, and he finally managed to grab three much needed points in the eighth sprint, behind Gideoni Monteiro of Brazil.
The race was now merged into a sea of confusion which, although exciting, was clearly making things taxing for the lap board controllers with a significant time lag in getting the results displayed on screen.
Elorriaga, meanwhile, took another lap with Monteiro, Beer and Hashimoto on his tail. The breakaway group took maximum points in the next two sprints, although it was Beer – who managed second place behind Elorriaga – who was the main beneficiary. His efforts put him in third place overall ahead of Lea. Lea, however, was clearly aware of the threat and took off from the bunch, took a lap and a much needed 20 points to provide some cushioning from Beer.
Liss took some more badly needed points in the twelfth sprint, taking maximum points to give him a six point advantage over Lea. Vivani was the next to attack and managed to take the thirteenth sprint, but his efforts were clearly taking their toll with fatigue visible. Fatigue or not, he still managed to take a lap.
It was now O’Shea’s turn to rustle things up – the rider took a lap to go second, and put him just four points behind Liss. Liss managed to grab two points in the penultimate sprint to give him a six point cushion to O’Shea. Providing no more laps were gained, gold and silver looked safe. In the end, the cushion wasn’t needed with Monteiro taking the final sprint, ahead of Arango, Richeze and Tshishkou.
The overall result saw Liss take the gold, although his four point lead over O’Shea shows just how vital the final race was. Karwowski plummeted to eleventh place from third in the points race, with Lea being rewarded for his supreme efforts in the points race with third place overall. Viviani lost out on a podium place by just a single point.
Men’s Omnium VI – Points Race
1 Eiya HASHIMORO JAPAN 72
2 Juan Estaban ARANGO CARVAJAL COLOMBIA 56
3 Unai ELORRIAGA ZUBIAUR SPAIN 56
4 Olivier BEER SWITZERLAND 53
5 Maximo ROJAS VENEZUELA 51
6 Ioannis SPANOPOULOS GREECE 46
Men’s Omnium – Overall
GOLD Lucas LISS GERMANY 192 Eiya HASHIMORO JAPAN 72
SILVER Glenn O’SHEA AUSTRALIA 186
BRONZE Bobby LEA UNITED STATES 179
4 Elia VIVIANI ITALY 178
5 Casper Phillip PEDERSEN DENMARK 165
6 Juan Estaban ARANGO CARVAJAL COLOMBIA 162
7 Olivier BEER SWITZERLAND 154
8 Raman TSHISHKOU 152
9 Eiya HASHIMORO JAPAN 150
10 Unai ELORRIAGA ZUBIAUR SPAIN 150
11 Cameron ZARKOWSKI NEW ZEALAND 136
12 Mauro Abel RICHEZE ARGENTINA 133
13 Gideoni MONTEIRO 130
14 Ioannis SPANOPOULOS GREECE 128
15 Hao LIU CHINA 111
16 King Lok CHEUNG HONG KONG 102
17 Maximo ROJAS VENEZUELA 87
18 Frantisek SISR CZECH REPUBLIC 69
19 Jonathan DIBBEN GREAT BRITAIN 65
20 Vivien BRISSE FRANCE 58
Jasper DE BUYST DNF
Martyn IRVINE DNF
Artur ERSHOV DNF
