Men’s Keirin
The opening round of the Men’s Keirin didn’t see any major surprises – favourites Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands both made it through, along with Stefan Boetticher of Germany. Probably the biggest surprises were Boetticher’s teammate Joachim Eilers and France’s Sebastien Vigier and Ryan Helal – but they all had the chance to progress through the Repechages, along with Great Britain youngsters Joseph Truman and Hamish Turnbull.
Along with the big names, Thailand’s Jai Angsuthasawit, Jair Tjon En Fa of Suriname, Mikhail Iakovlev of Russia, Koyu Matsui of Japan and Nicholas Paul of Trinidad and Tobago all went through automatically.
Round 1
Heat 1
1 LAVREYSEN Harrie NED
2 ANGSUTHASAWIT Jai THA +0.307
3 MARTINEZ CHORRO Alejandro ESP +0.402
4 TRUMAN Joseph GBR +0.445
5 SAHROM Muhammad Shah Firdaus MAS +0.505
6 BARRETTE Hugo CAN +0.632
7 LENDEL Vasilijus LTU +0.905
Heat 2
1 IAKOVLEV Mikhail RCF
2 BOETTICHER Stefan GER +0.182
3 TURNBULL Hamish GBR +0.195
4 QUINTERO CHAVARRO Kevin Santiago COL +0.315
5 JONAUSKAS Svajunas LTU +0.359
6 ZAITSAU Artsiom BLR +1.336
Heat 3
1 HOOGLAND Jeffrey NED
2 MATSUI Koyu JPN +0.086
3 VIGIER Sebastien FRA +0.162
4 RAMIREZ MORALES Santiago COL +0.320
5 PONOMARYOV Sergey KAZ +0.353
6 VERDUGO OSUNA Edgar Ismael MEX +1.034
Heat 4
1 PAUL Nicholas TTO
2 TJON EN FA Jair SUR +0.030
3 EILERS Joachim GER +0.085
4 HELAL Rayan FRA +0.099
5 YAMASAKI Kento JPN +0.189
6 SPARROW Mitchell RSA +1.204
Repechages
There was only one place up for grabs in each of the four Repechages, so some of the top riders were going to miss out. Helal arguably had the easiest heat of the day but only just held off Sergey Ponomaryov of Kazakhstan. Hugo Barrette of Canada qualified from Heat 2 – which saw Turnbull out of the competition and Vigier joined his countryman in the Second Round from Heat 3.
The first upset of the day came in the final heat, where Joachim Eilers (and Joe Truman) lost out, with Kento Yamasaki of Japan taking the final Second Round berth.
Heat 1
1 HELAL Rayan FRA
2 PONOMARYOV Sergey KAZ +0.053
3 LENDEL Vasilijus LTU +0.285
4 ZAITSAU Artsiom BLR +0.341
5 MARTINEZ CHORRO Alejandro ESP +0.719
Heat 2
1 BARRETTE Hugo CAN
2 RAMIREZ MORALES Santiago COL +0.008
3 JONAUSKAS Svajunas LTU +0.048
4 TURNBULL Hamish GBR +1.637
Heat 3
1 VIGIER Sebastien FRA
2 QUINTERO CHAVARRO Kevin Santiago COL +0.098
3 SAHROM Muhammad Shah Firdaus MAS +0.287
4 SPARROW Mitchell RSA +0.311
Heat 4
1 YAMASAKI Kento JPN
2 EILERS Joachim GER +0.078
3 VERDUGO OSUNA Edgar Ismael MEX +0.459
4 TRUMAN Joseph GBR +0.489
Second Round
The Second Round heat winners surprised nobody – Lavreysen won the first and Hoogland the second. There were some surprises further back, though – with Nicholas Paul and Rayan Helal making it through from Heat 1 with no place for Stefan Boetticher and Mikhail Iakovlev and Kento Yamasaki progressing from Heat 2, dumping Sebastien Vigier into the 7th to 12th Final.
Heat 1
1 LAVREYSEN Harrie NED
2 PAUL Nicholas TTO +0.137
3 HELAL Rayan FRA +0.258
4 MATSUI Koyu JPN +0.364
5 BOETTICHER Stefan GER +0.444
6 BARRETTE Hugo CAN +0.504
Heat 2
1 HOOGLAND Jeffrey NED
2 IAKOVLEV Mikhail RCF +0.082
3 YAMASAKI Kento JPN +0.131
4 TJON EN FA Jair SUR +0.133
5 VIGIER Sebastien FRA +0.518
6 ANGSUTHASAWIT Jai THA +2.133
Finals
The Minor Final saw the first crash of the day, with Koyu Matsui and Jair Tjon En Fa coming together on the final lap. They were at the back of the race, though and didn’t affect the run-in, which saw Boetticher hold off a charging Angsuthasawit to take the win.
The final was a frenetic affair with Hoogland drawn behind the (electric) and making the early charge. Lavreysen came through to challenge and the two were shoulder to shoulder for most of the bell lap before Lavreysen eased ahead to take a narrow win, with Hoogland second and Iakovlev third.
Lavreysen is the first keirin rider since Sir Chris Hoy to defend a Keirin title and this marked his 8th World Championship title – and he’s still just 24. He’s still got some way to go to match Hoy’s total of 11, but it looks inevitable that he will – and he could get one more this week.
GOLD LAVREYSEN Harrie NED
SILVER HOOGLAND Jeffrey NED +0.070
BRONZE IAKOVLEV Mikhail RCF +0.101
4 PAUL Nicholas TTO +0.177
5 YAMASAKI Kento JPN +0.290
6 HELAL Rayan FRA +0.310
7 BOETTICHER Stefan GER
8 ANGSUTHASAWIT Jai THA +0.146
9 BARRETTE Hugo CAN +0.303
10 VIGIER Sebastien FRA +0.322
11 MATSUI Koyu JPN DNF
11 TJON EN FA Jair SUR DNF
Women’s Sprint
Possibly the biggest surprise from Sprint Qualifying was that 200m World Record holder Kelsey Mitchell of Canada didn’t top the standings – but, given the form of the German sprinters, it wasn’t a great surprise that the two ahead of her were Lea Sophie Friedrich with a 10.489 and Emma Hinze with a 10.519 – Hinze just 1/1000 of a second ahead of the Canadian.
Mathilde Gros was next up for France with a 10.533 and Mitchell’s teammate Lauriane Genest was fifth on 10.545. The rest of the eight riders who would have a bye through to the 1/8 Finals were Pauline Sophie Grabosch of Germany – naturally, Shanne Braspennincx of the Netherlands and Colombia’s Martha Bayona.
200m Time Trial
1 FRIEDRICH Lea Sophie GER 10.489
2 HINZE Emma GER 10.519
3 MITCHELL Kelsey CAN 10.520
4 GROS Mathilde FRA 10.533
5 GENEST Lauriane CAN 10.545
6 GRABOSCH Pauline Sophie GER 10.572
7 BRASPENNINCX Shanne NED 10.601
8 BAYONA PINEDA Martha COL 10.754
9 VECE Miriam ITA 10.790
10 OHTA Riyu JPN 10.791
11 CAPEWELL Sophie GBR 10.821
12 ORBAN Sarah CAN 10.826
13 VOINOVA Anastasiia RCF 10.842
14 SHMELEVA Daria RCF 10.866
15 MARQUARDT Mandy USA 10.951
16 VERDUGO OSUNA Yuli MEX 10.952
17 UMEKAWA Fuko JPN 11.016
18 GODBY Madalyn USA 11.045
19 RIDGE-DAVIS Blaine GBR 11.111
20 RODRIGUEZ HACOHEN Joanne GUA 11.163
21 BILETSKA Alla UKR 11.273
22 JABORNIKOVA Veronika CZE 11.273
23 CASAS ROIGE Helena ESP 11.286
24 MOSQUERA QUICENO Yarli COL 11.409
1/16 Finals
For the most part, the sudden death 1/16 finals went to form with Miriam Vece of Italy, Riyu Ohta of Japan and Sophie Capewell of Great Britain winning the first three heats against faster qualifiers. Sarah Orban of Canada could have joined her two teammates in the last 16 but was relegated in her match against the slower Alla Biletska of Ukraine.
The two Russians – Anastasiia Voinova and Daria Shemeleva qualified from Heats 5 and 6 – Great Britain’s Blaine Ridge-Davis losing out to Shmeleva – while Heat 7 guaranteed that one of the USA riders would be leaving the competition, Madalyn Godby overcoming Mandy Marquardt to progress.
Yuli Verdugo of Mexico booked the last spot, beating Fuko Umekawa of Japan and, again, it was the faster qualifier beating the slower one – but they qualified 16th and 17th and there were just over six-hundredths of a second between them.
Heat 1
1 VECE Miriam ITA Winner
2 MOSQUERA QUICENO Yarli COL +0.124
Heat 2
1 OHTA Riyu JPN Winner
2 CASAS ROIGE Helena ESP +0.208
Heat 3
1 CAPEWELL Sophie GBR Winner
2 JABORNIKOVA Veronika CZE +0.603
Heat 4
1 BILETSKA Alla UKR Winner
2 ORBAN Sarah CAN REL
Heat 5
1 VOINOVA Anastasiia RCF Winner
2 RODRIGUEZ HACOHEN Joanne GUA +0.273
Heat 6
1 SHMELEVA Daria RCF Winner
2 RIDGE-DAVIS Blaine GBR +0.071
Heat 7
1 GODBY Madalyn USA Winner
2 MARQUARDT Mandy USA +0.013
Heat 8
1 VERDUGO OSUNA Yuli MEX Winner
2 UMEKAWA Fuko JPN +0.110
1/8 Finals
In the 1/8 finals, each of the 1/16 final winners is paired up with one of the top 8 qualifiers, who sat the first round out – and all but one of them would lose out to their quicker rival, with the exception of Miriam Vece of Italy, who overcame Martha Bayona of Colombia but, again, they were the closest pairing in Qualifying – just four hundredths apart in 8th and 9th. Sometimes you wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to take the top eight from Qualifying and put them straight into the Quarter Finals…
Heat 1
1 FRIEDRICH Lea Sophie GER Winner
2 VERDUGO OSUNA Yuli MEX +0.038
Heat 2
1 HINZE Emma GER Winner
2 GODBY Madalyn USA +0.404
Heat 3
1 MITCHELL Kelsey CAN Winner
2 SHMELEVA Daria RCF +3.048
Heat 4
1 GROS Mathilde FRA Winner
2 VOINOVA Anastasiia RCF +0.106
Heat 5
1 GENEST Lauriane CAN Winner
2 BILETSKA Alla UKR +0.108
Heat 6
1 GRABOSCH Pauline Sophie GER Winner
2 CAPEWELL Sophie GBR +0.071
Heat 7
1 BRASPENNINCX Shanne NED Winner
2 OHTA Riyu JPN +0.088
Heat 8
1 VECE Miriam ITA Winner
2 BAYONA PINEDA Martha COL +0.022
Quarter Finals
Vece’s run, perhaps unsurprisingly ended at the Quarter Final stage – losing out to fastest Qualifier Friedrich in two straight runs. Hinze and Mitchell similarly despatched Braspennincx and Grabosch respectively – the Canadian denying the Germans the chance to take three out of four Semi-Final slots – without the need for a decider. But the final heat was a little different…
Mathilde Gros put in a brilliant tactical performance in the first race – taking a comfortable win over Lauriane Genest, to maintain the top four’s perfect record to that point. And then Genest seemed to remember not only that she was the Olympic Keirin Bronze medallist, but how she won that medal. In race 2, she dug in early and powered away from Gros to tie up the match. And in the decider, she did exactly the same thing, much to the disappointment of the French crowd.
The draw for the Semi-Finals kept the two nations apart – with Friedrich facing Genest and Hinze against Mitchell – which does leave the prospect of an all-German – or all-Canadian – final.
Heat 1
1 FRIEDRICH Lea Sophie GER **
2 VECE Miriam ITA +0.126 +0.098
Heat 2
1 HINZE Emma GER **
2 BRASPENNINCX Shanne NED +0.097 +0.177
Heat 3
1 MITCHELL Kelsey CAN **
2 GRABOSCH Pauline Sophie GER +0.051 +0.084
Heat 4
1 GENEST Lauriane CAN +0.167 **
2 GROS Mathilde FRA * +0.263 +0.035
Women’s Team Pursuit
First Round
While the Men had their Team Pursuit First Round heats on the opening day, the Women have to double-up on Day 2 – riding the First Round and the Final in the evening session.
The first heat was straightforward with Poland over four seconds clear of Belarus. The current Team Pursuit format means that the winners of Heat 3 and Heat 4 contest the Gold and the fastest two teams from any of the four heats ride for Bronze, so technically at this point, Poland and Belarus were both pencilled in for the minor final.
Canada ended Belarus’ hopes with a commanding performance against Switzerland – catching the Swiss and putting nine seconds into them, finishing with a 4:20.191, a couple of seconds faster than Poland.
The winners of Heats 3 and 4 were never really in doubt and, despite Great Britain taking an early lead, Italy won the first of them comfortably in the end, with a time of 4:11.947. GB were only three seconds behind, though and had booked their place in the Bronze medal ride. The question was whether Ireland – up against Germany in the final heat – could better Canada’s qualifying time.
There was no suggestion that they might beat Germany, of course, and, indeed, the Germans caught them with a handful of laps in hand. Unfortunately for Ireland, the Germans didn’t need to set a time and pulled off the track, denying the Irish the slipstream that might have got them into the Bronze medal ride. As it was. They finished with a time of 4:21.126 – almost exactly a second off Canada’s mark.
Heat 1
1 Poland POL (PLOSAJ Nikol, KARASIEWICZ Karolina, PIKULIK Daria, PIKULIK Wiktoria) 4:22.669
2 Belarus BLR (TSERAKH Hanna, SALAUYEVA Aksana, KIPTSIKAVA Nastassia, NASKOVICH Taisa) 4:26.952
Heat 2
1 Canada CAN (BARRACLOUGH Ngaire, van DAM Sarah, COLES-LYSTER Maggie, COLLIER Devaney) 4:20.191 Qualified for Bronze
2 Switzerland SUI (SEITZ Aline, ANDRES Michelle, BURI Fabienne, METTRAUX Lena) 4:29.068
Heat 3
1 Italy ITA (BALSAMO Elisa, ALZINI Martina, CONSONNI Chiara, FIDANZA Martina) 4:11.947 Qualified for Gold
2 Great Britain GBR (ARCHIBALD Katie, BARKER Megan, EVANS Neah, KNIGHT Josie) 4:14.413 Qualified for Bronze
Heat 4
1 Germany GER (BRAUSSE Franziska, BRENNAUER Lisa, KROEGER Mieke, SUESSEMILCH Laura) Qualified for Gold
2 Ireland IRL (GRIFFIN Mia, KAY Emily, MURPHY Kelly, SHARPE Alice) 4:21.126
Finals
The Bronze medal ride went to form – Great Britain had been consistently 5 seconds quicker than the Canadians and so they were in the medal ride. The Final, however, was a different story. There was only a second between Germany and Italy in Qualifying and Italy as a team – as a nation – are on a high this Summer.
Italy went out fast and throughout the opening kilometre they were ahead. Shortly into the second quarter of the race, though, Germany came back and, up until the halfway mark, the lead changed hands lap after lap. The last eight laps, though, were all about the Germans and, as Italy gave it everything they had in the closing stages, they lost their shape and started to fall away. The five second gap at the end tells you nothing about how close the race was in the early stages, but it was a fair reflection of Germany’s flawless performance.
GOLD Germany GER (BRAUSSE Franziska, BRENNAUER Lisa, KROEGER Mieke, SUESSEMILCH Laura) 4:08.752
SILVER Italy ITA (BALSAMO Elisa, ALZINI Martina, CONSONNI Chiara, FIDANZA Martina) 4:13.690
BRONZE Great Britain GBR (ARCHIBALD Katie, BARKER Megan, EVANS Neah, KNIGHT Josie) 4:17.359
4 Canada CAN (BARRACLOUGH Ngaire, ATTWELL Erin J, COLES-LYSTER Maggie, COLLIER Devaney) 4:22.889
Men’s Team Pursuit
For many people, the Men’s Team Pursuit Final is always the highlight of the week, but this year it was something special with an Italian team at the top of its game and a French team pushing them every metre of the way.
First, though, we had the Bronze medal ride with Great Britain up against a Danish squad that has been neck and neck with Italy for the last year or two but has been battered by illness over the last couple of weeks. It was a relatively close race, but Great Britain never looked in danger and were two seconds clear at the end.
And so to the Final – with Simone Consonni, Filippo Gamma and Jonathan Milan in matching gold helmets and bikes as reigning Olympic Champions and Liam Bertazzo looking somewhat the odd one out. France, too, had a rider that didn’t quite fit with Thomas Boudat, Thomas Denis, Benjamin Thomas and Valentin ‘Is your name not Thomas, then? That’s going to cause a little confusion. Mind if we call you Thomas to keep it clear’ Tabellion.
As everyone expected, Italy shot out of the gate and opened up a commanding lead – half a second up in the first 500m. Maybe this wouldn’t be as close as we’d hoped. But by the 1km mark, France were back on terms and half a lap later they were ahead. They would stay ahead for the next four laps and the lead would swap back and forth until 1km to go, at which point Italy re-established control and built up the two-second lead that would give them their first Team Pursuit title since 1997.
Finals
GOLD Italy ITA (BERTAZZO Liam, CONSONNI Simone, GANNA Filippo, MILAN Jonathan) 3:47.192
SILVER France FRA (BOUDAT Thomas, DENIS Thomas, TABELLION Valentin, THOMAS Benjamin) 3:49.168
BRONZE Great Britain GBR (HAYTER Ethan, VERNON Ethan, TANFIELD Charlie, WOOD Oliver) 3:51.205
4 Denmark DEN (MALMBERG Matias, HANSEN Tobias, BEVORT Carl-Frederik, PEDERSEN Rasmus) 3:53.182
Men’s Scratch Race
The home team had come close on several occasions by the time the Men’s Scratch Race got underway but still hadn’t claimed that elusive first Gold medal, so the crowd’s eyes were all on young Donovan Grondin.
After a cagey Women’s Scratch race on Day 1, we were all hoping for a punchy, animated race this evening with Elia Viviani of Italy carrying the burden of expectations, in a field that also contained two-time World Champion Yauheni Karaliok of Belarus and 2016 World Champion Sebastian Mora of Spain.
With 18 laps to go, the bunch was all still together. Bartosz Rudyk of Poland tried to slip away, but Viviani brought him back. He had another go and Great Britain’s Rhys Britton chased him down. Then Gavin Hoover of the USA tried his hand, but with no luck – and then, with six to go, he was off again. Nobody chased and he started to pull out half or so, but with three to go the chase started.
As was the case in the Women’s event, Hoover would be swamped by the chasing pack and finish 19th, but the crowd didn’t care about that – Donovan Grondin was at the head of the field and, as they came round Turn 4 for the last time it was clear he was going to win, but… Tuur Dens of Belgium was closing him down fast. Could he hold on to the line? It was going to be very close… and it was. Less than half a wheel. But the Franch had their first Gold of the week – with Dens second and Britton, who was busy throughout the race, taking the Bronze as his reward.
GOLD GRONDIN Donavan FRA
SILVER DENS Tuur BEL
BRONZE BRITTON Rhys GBR
4 EEFTING Roy NED
5 KUBOKI Kazushige JPN
6 BABOR Daniel CZE
7 TEUTENBERG Tim Torn GER
8 HANSEN Tobias DEN
9 VIVIANI Elia ITA
10 OLIVEIRA Rui POR
11 MORA VEDRI Sebastian ESP
12 FROIDEVAUX Robin SUI
13 ROSTOVTSEV Sergei RCF
14 KARALIOK Yauheni BLR
15 GLADYSH Roman UKR
16 RUDYK Bartosz POL
17 LOVASSY Krisztian HUN
18 SCHMIDBAUER Maximilian AUT
19 HOOVER Gavin USA
20 CHALEL Yacine ALG -1
21 CAMPBELL Akil TTO -1
22 CHREN Martin SVK -1
Women’s Elimination Race
The first-ever World Championship Elimination Race was always going to be difficult to predict – at least in terms of the outright winner. But the medallists looked likely to come from a relatively small group – Jennifer Valente of the USA, Yumi Kajihara of Japan, Lotte Kopecky of Belgium, European Champion Valentine Fortin of France and Letizia Paternoster of Italy.
Of those, the first to fall was Kajihara – out in 13th place – and Fortin could only manage 7th. The other three were the last women standing. Valente tried to go for a long one, but didn’t quite have the legs and had to settle for the Bronze, with Paternoster’s sprint for Gold largely uncontested.
GOLD PATERNOSTER Letizia ITA
SILVER KOPECKY Lotte BEL
BRONZE VALENTE Jennifer USA
4 NOVOLODSKAIA Mariia RCF
5 BALEISYTE Olivija LTU
6 SALAUYEVA Aksana BLR
7 FORTIN Valentine FRA
8 ANDRES Michelle SUI
9 LARRARTE ARTEAGA Eukene ESP
10 SULTANOVA Rinata KAZ
11 ROJAS ZAPATA Lina Mabel COL
12 BACIKOVA Alzbeta SVK
13 KAJIHARA Yumi JPN
14 FEDOTOVA Kseniia UKR
15 PLOSAJ Nikol POL
16 BARNWELL Ella GBR
17 STENBERG Anita Yvonne NOR
18 ACEVEDO MENDOZA Yareli MEX
19 SEVCIKOVA Petra CZE
20 van DAM Sarah CAN
21 YEKEEN Tawakalt NGR
