Glasgow 2023 – Day 7 – Report

Men

Keirin

The first of the three Quarter Finals looked to have five riders you’d expect to be there or thereabouts at the end of the competition – home favourite Jack Carlin, Matthew Richardson of Australia, Jair Tjon En Fa of Suriname, Japan’s Kaiya Ota and of-course-he’s-not-a-Russian-Russians-are-banned Mikhail Yakovlev, of Israel. Unfortunately for one of them, only four qualified for the Semi Final stage – and you can never rule out an upset from the unfancied sixth competitor Tijmen van Loon.

We can dispense with that bit of manufactured jeopardy straight away. Van Loon shows promise and had done well to get this far, but he wasn’t in the same league as the others – and it was he and Tjon En Fa who exited the competition – Richardson taking the win from Carlin, Ota and Yakovlev.

Heat 2 was arguably even more stacked. If you had to pick the two most likely to go out it would, perhaps, have been Hamish Turnbull of Great Britain and Marc Jurczyk of Germany – and you’d have been half right. Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands was the clear favourite and went through – a whisker ahead of Kevin Quintero of Colombia. Turnbull took third, leaving Matthew Glaetzer of Australia and Sebastien Vigier of France to battle for the remaining spot – with Jurczyk well out of it. Glaetzer joined his compatriot Richardson in the Semis and the French Ed Sheeran lookalike was out.

The final heat was harder to call. Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands, you’d think, would breeze through and Azizul Awang of Malaysia would be a shock exit at this point. Of the remaining four Sam Dakin of New Zealand probably the most vulnerable to Shinji Nakano of Japan and Kilo duo Tom Cornish of Australia and Max Dornbach of Germany. Dornbach was first to go – apparently battered by the intensity of the competition over the last couple of days, he just couldn’t take the pace and was out the back. Awang had led out the Sprint and, although he was rolled by Hoogland, Nakano and Cornish in the run to the line, he was through – and it was Dakin how missed out.

The Semi Finals were harder to call. The Dutch are – well, Dutch; the three Australians were all on form; the Japanese were flying… Any six from twelve could make it through. The two heats were pretty balanced, too and the first saw Quintero take the win – a thousandth of a second ahead of Carlin with Lavreysen third – those three again rolling Awang on the line. This time, though, fourth wasn’t enough for the Malaysian and he, along with Ota and Cornish, would have to settle for the Minor Final.

Heat 2 gave Australia a 33% chance of getting at least one rider into the final and Matt Richardson made it quite clear early on he intended it to be him. Nakano followed him over the line with Hoogland and Glaetzer to fight for third. There would be only one Australian in the final, though. Yakovlev and Turnbull were well out of the fight.

The Minor Final does matter of Olympic qualification points, so with Richardson in the Final already, Australia will have been pleased with Glaetzer’s 7^th and Cornish’s 10^th place. Ota took 8^th and Awang 9^th.

The final was a brilliant race. Richardson again tried to boss it from the front, with the two Dutch riders seemingly riding togethereith Hoogland trying to box in their rivals as Lavreysen made is way forward from the back of the race. Maybe they over thought it. Maybe the fatigue was starting to show from a busy program. But whatever was going on with them, Quintero had the pace to come round everyone and ride away. He started to fade – or slow, his lead was enormous – on the run to the line, so Richardson’s 0.2 second gap somewhat understates his performance – but it was as dominant a Keirin Final performance as we’ve seen for a long time. Richardson held on for Silver and Nakano took the Bronze, but the headlines were about the Colombian and Levreysen and Hoogland in 4^th and 6^th were merely a footnote.

Finals

GOLD QUINTERO CHAVARRO Kevin Santiago COL
SILVER RICHARDSON Matthew AUS +0.214
BRONZE NAKANO Shinji JPN +0.252

4 LAVREYSEN Harrie NED +0.329
5 CARLIN Jack GBR +0.397
6 HOOGLAND Jeffrey NED +0.622

7GLAETZER Matthew AUS
8 OTA Kaiya JPN +0.006
9 AWANG Mohd Azizulhasni MAS +0.091
10 CORNISH Thomas AUS +0.375
11 YAKOVLEV Mikhail ISR +0.383
12 TURNBULL Hamish GBR +0.534

Semi Finals

Heat 1
1 QUINTERO CHAVARRO Kevin Santiago COL Q
2 CARLIN Jack GBR +0.001 Q
3 LAVREYSEN Harrie NED +0.056 Q

4 AWANG Mohd Azizulhasni MAS +0.089
5 OTA Kaiya JPN +0.165
6 CORNISH Thomas AUS +0.218

Heat 2
1 RICHARDSON Matthew AUS Q
2 NAKANO Shinji JPN +0.083 Q
3 HOOGLAND Jeffrey NED +0.135 Q

4 GLAETZER Matthew AUS +0.161
5 YAKOVLEV Mikhail ISR +0.294
6 TURNBULL Hamish GBR +0.582

Quarter Finals

Heat 1
1 RICHARDSON Matthew AUS Q
2 CARLIN Jack GBR +0.009 Q
3 OTA Kaiya JPN +0.096 Q
4 YAKOVLEV Mikhail ISR +0.303 Q

5 TJON EN FA Jair SUR +0.351
6 van LOON Tijmen NED +0.470

Heat 2
1 LAVREYSEN Harrie NED Q
2 QUINTERO CHAVARRO Kevin Santiago COL +0.027 Q
3 TURNBULL Hamish GBR +0.156 Q
4 GLAETZER Matthew AUS +0.170 Q

5 VIGIER Sebastien FRA +0.282
6 JURCZYK Marc GER +0.409

Heat 3
1 HOOGLAND Jeffrey NED Q
2 NAKANO Shinji JPN Q
3 CORNISH Thomas AUS +0.145 Q
4 AWANG Mohd Azizulhasni MAS +0.228 Q

5 DAKIN Sam NZL +0.314
6 DORNBACH Maximilian GER +1.063

Points Race

Another thrilling points race saw an utterly dominant victory by New Zealand’s Aaron Gate. Yes, I know I’ve given away the ending, but the Kiwi scored in 13 of the 16 sprints – winning 6 of them – and took four laps – the likely ending was going to become clear very quickly.

Behind Gate’s dominant performance there were some great battles – notably from Albert Torres of Spain, the only rider who ever looked capable of challenging Gate and the last one to be able to do so mathematically – albeit that challenge ended 20 laps from the end. And, behind Torres, William Perrett of Great Britain battled Donovan Grondin of France and Michele Scartezzini of Italy (a last minute replacement for Simone Consonni, injured in a road accident with an eBike in Glasgow the night the before the race) early on, Yoeri Havik of the Netherlands and Roger Kluge of Germany in the closing stages – and Fabio van den Bossche of Belgium throughout the race.

Torres’ last chance went in the closing stages when he tried to take a lap – and pick up an intermediate sprint along the way. That would have been enough to move him into the lead, but Gate took second on the head of the bunch while he was away, which would have kept the Spaniard second even with the lap gain – and then chased the Spaniard down and killed any chances of him earning 20 points. He did pick up another 5 but Gate took a point in that sprint, too. Going in to the finish, Gate was on 123 points and Torres on 105 and the New Zealander whose previous World Championship was in the Omnium in 2013 in Minsk could enjoy the crowd’s appreciation on his final lap.

GOLD GATE Aaron NZL 123
SILVER TORRES BARCELO Albert ESP 107
BRONZE van den BOSSCHE Fabio BEL 95

4 KLUGE Roger GER 89
5 PERRETT William GBR 75
6 GUILLEMETTE Mathias CAN 69
7 KOJIMA Naoki JPN 63
8 DRIJVER Bertold HUN 60
9 HAVIK Yoeri NED 52
10 SCARTEZZINI Michele ITA 47
11 GRONDIN Donavan FRA 41
12 YOGEV Alon ISR 25
13 PSZCZOLARSKI Wojciech POL 3
14 JOHANSSON Gustav SWE 2
15 KŘENEK Adam CZE 1
16 LANGE Colby USA
17 VITZTHUM Simon SUI -15
18 ZAKHAROV Artyom KAZ -15
19 CRISTA Daniel ROU -18
20 LEZICA Facundo Gabriel ARG -20
21 YAKOVLEV Mykyta UKR -20
DNF TCHAMBAZ Lotfi ALG
DNF DUFFY Joshua AUS
DNF ARANGO CARVAJAL Juan Esteban COL

Women

Sprint

Ellesse Andrews’ fantastic run in the Women’s Sprint competition finally hit an obstacle in the Semi Finals. The New Zealander had overcome her seeding twice to get there, but couldn’t overcome her German rival Lea Sophie Friedrich, who progressed to the Gold medal ride with two straight wins.

It wouldn’t be an all-German final, though – Great Britain’s Emma Finucane’s rise continued, as she took two straightforward wins against Emma Hinze to join Friedrich in the Final.

In the Bronze medal ride Hinze was the slight favourite –  her pace this week had been good enough to bag her the Time Trial World title and a Silver medal in the Team Sprint – although her opponent had finished a creditable fifth in the Team Sprint, taken the Keirin world title and a couple of major scalps in the Sprint competition, including Team Sprint Gold medallist Sophie Capewell. Those sprint wins had come through a combination of tactics and sheer pace, but it was pace that earned her the Bronze medal. She just nicked the first race on the line, but Hinze sat up, well beaten, in the second.

The Gold medal riders were both very close – a couple of hundredths in it on both occasions. And on both occasions it was the young British rider who had the advantage over her German rival. The look on her face afterwards said it all. She was World Champion at 20 years old – Great Britain’s – and Wales’ – first since Rebecca James 10 years earlier.

Finals

GOLD FINUCANE Emma GBR **
SILVER FRIEDRICH Lea Sophie GER +0.018 +0.031

BRONZE ANDREWS Ellesse NZL **
4 HINZE Emma GER+0.099 +0.306

Semi Finals

1 FINUCANE Emma GBR **
2 HINZE Emma GER +0.158 +0.105

1 FRIEDRICH Lea Sophie GER **
2 ANDREWS Ellesse NZL +0.298 +0.192

Omnium

Ally Wollaston of New Zealand took the opening Scratch race in the Women’s Omnium but it was Jennifer Valente of the USA who would dominate the competition. Second in the Scratch, she was the second rider to go off the front and take a lap in the Tempo Race, racking up four more points than Valentine Fortin of France and seven more than Wollaston.

The American and the Kiwi were just two points apart in overall standings at the start of the Elimination Race but a relatively early exit for Wollaston in 11^th and another second place for Valente would give her a cushion going in to the final Points Race.

The UCI’s decision to abandon the points scoring scheme from the first three events for the fourth and simply add points earned on the track to the points in the overall standings makes the race far more exciting and easier for the crowd to follow. Effectively, you spend three races building up as much of a head start as you can before the start of the decisive event.

One side effect of that is that the result of the Points Race is effectively lost and, along with it, some fantastic performances. It wasn’t obvious, for example, that Katie Archibald of Great Britain ‘won’ the Points Race. Fourth in the Scratch, 10^th in the Tempo and 14^th in the Elimination, she was a long way adrift but her performance in the final event lifted her to 4^th overall, just three points off the medals. The Bronze went to Lotte Kopecky of Belgium who’d not done much better in the opening two races – 6^th and 17^th, but who won the Elimination. She was two points behind Archibald in the Points Race in second place.

Third place went to Amalie Dideriksen of Denmark who had been consistent through the Scratch, Tempo and Elmination – 5^th, 8^th and 6^th – which meant that the 48 points she earned in the closing event were enough to get her the Silver medal. Fourth in the Points Race went to Dara Pikulik of Poland, but that would only lift her to 7^th.

Valente could only manage fifth on 29 points – 28 behind Archibald – but it was all she needed. She was nine points clear of Dideriksen and she had a 20^th World Championship medal, her seventh Rainbow Jersey, her second of the week and her second consecutive Omnium title.

I – Scratch
1 WOLLASTON Ally NZL
2 VALENTE Jennifer USA
3 PATERNOSTER Letizia ITA
4 ARCHIBALD Katie GBR
5 DIDERIKSEN Amalie DEN
6 KOPECKY Lotte BEL
7 COLES-LYSTER Maggie CAN
8 RAAIJMAKERS Marit NED
9 KAJIHARA Yumi JPN
10 MARTINS Maria POR
11 FORTIN Valentine FRA
12 ŠEVCIKOVA Petra CZE
13 BALEIŠYTE Olivija LTU
14 GILLESPIE Lara IRL
15 LEE Sze Wing HKG
16 MILAKI Argyro GRE
17 STENBERG Anita Yvonne NOR
18 ZAYED AHMED Ebtissam EGY
19 PIKULIK Daria POL
20 MORAN Chloe AUS
21 JOSEPH Amber BAR
22 LARRARTE ARTEAGA Eukene ESP
23 VELASCO FUENTES Victoria MEX
24 SEITZ Aline SUI

II – Tempo Race
1 VALENTE Jennifer USA 30
2 FORTIN Valentine FRA 26
3 WOLLASTON Ally NZL 23
4 PIKULIK Daria POL 21
5 KAJIHARA Yumi JPN 20
6 LARRARTE ARTEAGA Eukene ESP 2
7 GILLESPIE Lara IRL 1
8 DIDERIKSEN Amalie DEN 1
9 STENBERG Anita Yvonne NOR 1
10 ARCHIBALD Katie GBR 1
11 BALEIŠYTE Olivija LTU
12 PATERNOSTER Letizia ITA
13 MARTINS Maria POR
14 RAAIJMAKERS Marit NED
15 MORAN Chloe AUS
16 LEE Sze Wing HKG
17 KOPECKY Lotte BEL
18 SEITZ Aline SUI
19 ZAYED AHMED Ebtissam EGY
20 COLES-LYSTER Maggie CAN
21 MILAKI Argyro GRE
22 JOSEPH Amber BAR
23 ŠEVČIKOVA Petra CZE
24 VELASCO FUENTES Victoria MEX

III – Elimination Race
1 KOPECKY Lotte BEL
2 VALENTE Jennifer USA
3 FORTIN Valentine FRA
4 PATERNOSTER Letizia ITA
5 MARTINS MariaPOR
6 DIDERIKSEN Amalie DEN
7 STENBERG Anita Yvonne NOR
8 RAAIJMAKERS Marit NED
9 GILLESPIE Lara IRL
10 BALEIŠYTE Olivija LTU
11 WOLLASTON Ally NZL
12 KAJIHARA Yumi JPN
13 COLES-LYSTER Maggie CAN
14 ARCHIBALD Katie GBR
15 LARRARTE ARTEAGA Eukene ESP
16 LEE Sze Wing HKG
17 MILAKI Argyro GRE
18 ŠEVČIKOVA Petra CZE
19 PIKULIK Daria POL
20 AYED AHMED Ebtissam EGY
21 SEITZ Aline SUI
22 VELASCO FUENTES Victoria MEX
23 JOSEPH Amber BAR
24 MORAN Chloe AUS

IV – Points Race
GOLD VALENTE Jennifer USA 145
SILVER DIDERIKSEN Amalie DEN 136
BRONZE KOPECKY Lotte BEL 133

4 ARCHIBALD Katie GBR 127
5 FORTIN Valentine FRA 117
6 WOLLASTON Ally NZL 112
7 PIKULIK Daria POL 78
8 KAJIHARA Yumi JPN  74
9 GILLESPIE Lara IRL 70
10 MARTINS Maria POR 70
11 PATERNOSTER Letizia ITA 68
12 RAAIJMAKERS Marit NED 66
13 STENBERG Anita Yvonne NOR 63
14 BALEIŠYTE Olivija LTU 58
15 COLES-LYSTER Maggie CAN 46
16 LARRARTE ARTEAGA Eukene ESP 43
17 LEE Sze Wing HKG 34
18 ŠEVČIKOVA Petra CZE 25
19 MILAKI Argyro GRE 21
20 MORAN Chloe AUS 16
21 ZAYED AHMED Ebtissam EGY 14
22 SEITZ Aline SUI 9
23 JOSEPH Amber BAR 3
24 VELASCO FUENTES Victoria MEX 3