photo credits @ UCI
The second day of the UCI 2019 Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, continued today with another exciting schedule of racing in the famous Dutch velodrome.
The action began with the first qualifying rounds on both Women’s B – 3km and Men’s B – 4km Individual Pursuit. In the Women’s, the best qualifying time was by Emma Foy of New Zealand, piloted by Hannah Van Kampen, with the time of 03’25.787” at the average speed of 52.481km/h. In the Gold final the World Record Holder is set to face Griet Hoet from Belgium, piloted by Anneleen Monsieur. The Bronze final will see Great Britain’s Lora Fachie, piloted by Corrine Hall, facing Irish Katie-George Dunlevy, piloted by Eve McCrystal.
The Men’s B – 4km Individual Pursuit final for Gold will be raced by Dutchman Vincent ter Schure, piloted by Timo Fransen, with a time of 04’10.046” at the average speed of 57.589km/h. They will be challenged in the Gold final by Marcin Polak from Poland, piloted by Michal Ladosz. The second Dutch duo, with the pair of Tristan Bangma, piloted by Patrick Bos, will face Great Britain’s Stephen Bate, piloted by Adam Duggleby in the third place final.
The Women’s C1 – 500m Time Trial saw a straight final between Great Britain’s Katie Toft and China’s Jieli Li, with the latter, the World Record holder, winning the Gold in 43.830” with an average speed of 41.068km/h.
The first new World Record of the day was set in the following race, the Women’s C2 – 500m Time Trial, with Australia’s Amanda Reid recording a fantastic time of 39.505” at the blistering speed of 45.564km/h. The previous World Record holder, Alyda Norbruis from the Netherlands, was classified second, while bronze went to China’s Zhenling Song.
Another race, another World Record falls: in the Women’s C3 – 500m Time Trial, Australia’s Paige Greco achieved another World Record (following yesterday’s Women’s C3 – 3km Individual Pursuit) with the time today of 39.442”, smashing the previous mark set by Britain’s Megan Giglia (who was fourth today), by almost 2 seconds, and becoming double World Champion. The silver medal went to Japan’s Keiko Sugiura, while third was China’s Xiaomei Wang.
In the Men’s C1 – 1km Time Trial yet another World Record fell, this time to its existing holder, China’s Zhangyu Li, who improved his, and World’s best, time to 1’11.817”, some 0.120” better than the previous time he set in Rio’s Paralympic Games. Second was his compatriot Welcong Liang, and third was Spain’s Ricardo Ten.
It was the second medal of the World Championships for the Spaniard, who said: “I’m very happy with this result, it’s my personal best in the discipline. So far so good, let’s see what’s next in this Worlds.”
The fourth consecutive World Record beaten in Apeldoorn was in the Men’s C2 – 1km Time Trial, this time by two different riders: firstly by Australian Gordon Allan who scored a time of 1’12.873”, beating the previous World Record held by China’s Xia Hao (15th today). Then Allan’s new time was improved upon by Colombia’s Alejandro Perea with the superb time of 1’12.838”, at an average speed of 49.425km/h to guarantee him the Gold medal and the Rainbow Jersey. Third was Tristen Chernove from Canada.
The new World Record holder, Alejandro Perea, had a message: “I dedicate this World Record to every person that suffers from disabilities because we must be included in each part of society. I would like to invite each Government and each private business in the World to support the Para sports as much as they can.”
The Men’s C3 – 1km Time Trial race didn’t see a new World Record, but the battle was still intense, with the victory, Gold medal and Rainbow Jersey going to the American Joseph Berenyi, who completed the four laps in 1’08.381”. Second was Eduardo Santas from Spain, with third, the Belgian Diederick Schelfhout.
After the break, the program continued with the Women’s Omnium test event. Being a test event means that no Rainbow Jerseys were awarded.
Continuing the historic day’s racing, two more World Records fell in the 200m Flying Sprint during the Omnium Test Event: Australia’s Paige Greco in the C3 category with 13.250” and Caroline Groot from the Netherlands in the C5 category with 12.070”.
Curiosities:
● Dame Sarah Storey held the World Record for only two minutes in the C5 category: 12.090” before being beaten by the Dutchwoman, Groot.
● The third World Record of this edition of the World Championships in only two days for the Australian Paige Greco; so far, she’s the face of the event.
Next up, the Women’s B – 3km Individual Pursuit finals. Gold went to New Zealand with Emma Foy, piloted by Hannah Van Kampen, in the time of 3’28.281”. Silver went to Belgium with Griet Hoet – Anneleen Monsieur, while Bronze went to Team GB’s Lora Fachie – Corrine Hall in a close match-up against Ireland.
The final Rainbow Jerseys of the day were awarded to Polish duo Marcin Polak – Michal Ladosz in the Men’s B – 4km Individual Pursuit. On the second and third steps of the podium were the two ‘home’ riders, Dutch duos Vincent ter Schure, piloted by Timo Fransen (Silver) and Tristan Bangma – Patrick Bos (Bronze).
The evening session was dedicated to the Men’s Omnium test event 200m Flying Sprint. American athletes stole the scene, with victories in the C3 (Joseph Berenyi), C4 (Justin Widhalm) and C5 (Christopher Murphy) categories. Great Britain’s Matthew Robertson won the C2 category in 12.38”, ahead of Tristen Chernove from Canada and Darren Hicks from Australia.
There was still time for the final World Record of the day: in the C1 200m Flying Sprint valid for the Men’s Omnium test event, Ricardo Ten found out what was next for him and scored another great result, winning in 12.69”. Second was Canada’s Ross Wilson and third Russia’s Ivan Ermakov.
And so ended another great day of cycling, with multiple World Records broken in consecutive events, some of them multiple times in the very same race. We can’t wait for Day 3 of the 2019 UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships tomorrow.
? All results here
The third and penultimate day of the UCI 2019 Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, once had again plenty of action and saw fantastic performances from many of the para-athletes on the track.
The day opened with the qualifying rounds on both Women’s C4 and C5 – 3km and Men’s C4 and C5 – 4km Individual Pursuit.
The first race – and the first World Record of the day to fall: in the Women’s C4, the best qualifying time was by the Australian World Record holder Emily Petricola, who improved her previous record with the time of 3’53.297” at the average speed of 46.293km/h. In the Gold final she will face Canada’s Keely Shaw, while the Bronze final will see the second Australian, Meg Lemon, facing the second Canadian, Marie-Claude Molnar.
One of the most eagerly awaited athletes of these World Championships, Dame Sarah Storey, set the best time and booked a slot in the Gold finals in the C5 – 3km Individual Pursuit with the time of 3’37.497” at the average speed of 49.656km/h. The World Record holder will face Anna Harkowska of Poland. The Bronze final is between a second Team GB rider, Crystal Lane-Wright, and Samantha Bosco of the United States of America.
In the Men’s C4 – 4km Individual Pursuit qualifying rounds the World Record Holder, Slovakian Jozef Metelka, didn’t disappoint in setting the fastest qualifying time of 4’31.058”, to face the British rider George Peasgood in the Gold final. The third place final will see Colombia’s Diego Duenas vs Romania’s Carol-Eduard Novak.
The last qualifying rounds of the Men’s C5 – 4km Individual Pursuit saw the best time recorded by the Australian Alistair Donohoe with 4’27.456” at the average speed of 53.841km/h, with the other athlete to qualify for the Gold final being the Ukranian Yehor Dementyev. The Bronze final will be between British Jonathan Gildea and a local rider, the Dutchman Daniel Abraham Gebru.
The first Gold Medal and Rainbow Jersey of the day went, for his second time in this edition of the Worlds, to one of the great protagonists of the event so far, Ricardo Ten. The Spanish rider won the Men’s C1 Scratch Race beating Russia’s Ivan Ermakov and Australia’s Darcy Thompson over the 60 laps.
In a closely fought Men’s C2 Scratch, Race Canada’s Tristen Chernove emerged as the winner after 15km of racing, beating the Colombian Alejandro Perea, Silver, and the Chinese Guihua Liang.
The scratch races were the last of the Men’s C1 and C2 – Omnium – Test Event races. In the C1 category, the winner was Spain’s Ricardo Ten, with second going to the Russian Ivan Ermakov, while third was Ross Wilson from Canada. In the C2 category, the winner was a fellow Canadian, Tristen Chernove, second was the Colombian Alejandro Perea and third Belgian Ewoud Vromant.
Commenting on the dominant performances of his rider Ricardo Ten, the Spanish National Team Head Coach Félix Garcia Casas said, “Ricardo’s results have been amazing. This is already a dream come true and, despite his continuous progress as a cyclist, repeating this level of results in the future will be very hard. We are incredibly happy.”
The afternoon session opened with the same races as in the morning, but this time to decide the precious metals, with the dream of a Rainbow Jersey just one race away: the Women’s C4 and C5 – 3km and Men’s C4 and C5 – 4km Individual Pursuit finals.
And the finals started with a bang! In the Women’s C4 – 3km Individual Pursuit Australia’s Emily Petricola improved her morning World Record with the astonishing time of 3’43.620”, almost 10 seconds faster than the time she established earlier in the day. Silver went to Canada’s Keely Shaw, while the Bronze final was won by another Australian, Meg Lemon.
The Women’s C5 – 3km Individual Pursuit saw Dame Sarah Storey dominate. In the Gold final, the Team GB rider caught the Silver medalist, Anna Harkowska of Poland. The bronze medal went to US athlete Samantha Bosco.
The same dominance was shown in the Men’s C4 – 4km Individual Pursuit Gold final, with Slovakian Jozef Metelka catching the other finalist, Great Britain’s George Peasgood, who won Silver. Bronze went to the Colombian Diego Duenas.
An even greater display of dominance was at show in the Men’s C5 – 4km Individual Pursuit Gold final, where after only 1,500m of racing the new World Champion Alistair Donohoe caught the Silver medalist, Ukranian’s Yehor Dementyev. Third on the podium was Daniel Abraham Gebru from the Netherlands.
The Individual Pursuit was the third of the four races making up the Omnium Test event. With the Women’s Omnium to end in the evening session, American Justin Widhalm and British rider Jonathan Gildea lead the C4 category and C5 category respectively, before the final Scratch races.
In the Women’s B – 1km Time Trial the World Record holders Sophie Thornhill and pilot Helen Scott from Great Britain confirmed their leadership in the discipline, winning Gold and defending their title with the time of 1’05.612” at the average speed of 54.868km/h. Silver went to Larissa Klaassen – Imke Brommer from the Netherlands, whilst Bronze was awarded to New Zealand’s duo Emma Foy – Hannah Van Kampen.
The Men’s B – 1km Time Trial saw a Team GB domination, with the duo of James Ball and Peter Mitchell winning Gold ahead of the World Record Holders Matthew Rotherham – Neil Fachie. Bronze went to the Netherlands with Tristan Bangma – Patrick Bos.
After the race, an emotional James Ball was caught on camera: “I can’t believe it… we’ve worked so hard for that… I’m so happy.”
Then it was the time for the Women’s Scratch races in all the C categories, which would also define the positions for the Omnium – Test Events.
In the 10km of the Women’s C1-C2 Scratch, the Gold medal went to China’s Sini Zeng, with the Australian Amanda Reid taking Silver and Colombia’s Leidi Ramirez awarded the Bronze. Team GB’s Katie Toft was the only participant at the Women’s C1 Omnium, while C2 saw Colombia’s Daniela Munevar in first position, Austria’s Yvonne Marzinke second and France’s Christelle Ribault third.
China claimed another gold medal in the Women’s C3 Scratch with Xiaomei Wang, who beat Australia’s Paige Greco into Silver medal position in the final sprint. Bronze went to Denise Schindler of Germany. Greco was first overall in the Omnium, with Schindler third and American Jamie Whitmore third.
The Chinese women’s domination continued in the Women’s C4 Scratch, with Jianping Ruan winning Gold at the expense of the Australians Meg Lemon (Silver), and Emily Petricola (Bronze). Lemon was first in the Omnium, with the Russian rider Elena Galkina second and Canada’s Marie-Claude Molnar in third.
The last race of the day saw an incredible performance by Dame Sarah Storey, who won her second Gold medal and Rainbow Jersey of the day, lapping the field not once, but twice during the race. Her compatriot Crystal Lane-Wright won Silver, while the American athlete Samantha Bosco struck Bronze. With victory in the Scratch, Storey secured her Omnium first place, with Caroline Groot from the Netherlands taking second and Crystal Lane-Wright third place.
Dame Sarah Storey commented her amazing day: “It feels really good to be back in the competition. I raced here four years ago, so the same distance in time in between Rio and Tokyo. I’ve raced great times both in the Pursuit qualifiers and in the finals, and I’ve felt even better in the Scratch. Having that race element in the Scratch bring out the kid in me, I suppose.”
And so ended another tremendously exciting day of racing at the Apeldoorn velodrome, with one of the greatest riders of the World Champions in top form. All is set for Sunday’s finale.
The final day of the UCI 2019 Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, promised to continue the pattern of success established by the great racing of many of the para-athletes so far in this edition. It didn’t fail to deliver on this promise.
The morning session was mostly dedicated to the qualifications and the quarter-finals of the Women’s and and Men’s B Sprint. The fastest eight Women’s teams were Great Britain (with the fastest time of 10.762” at the average speed of 66.90km/h), followed by the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, USA, China and Poland. With this leading time, the duo of Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott improved their own World Record, as set in Rio in 2018.
The quarter-finals saw Britain, the Netherlands and Australia each winning two consecutive races and qualifying straight to the semi-finals. Facing the British will be Belgium, who beat New Zealand only after the third and decisive race to progress to the next level.
The Men’s B Sprint qualifications yet again saw a Team GB team in the lead, with Matthew Rotherham and Neil Fachie establishing the fastest time in 9.778” at the average speed of 73.64km/h. The duo were followed by the second British team, then Poland, Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia and Malaysia.
In the Men’s quarter-finals both the British and the Netherlands teams took three victories at two races to zero. Poland qualified directly due to the the German team pulling out, and will face Great Britain’s Peter Mitchell and James Ball in the semi-final.
In the Mixed Team Sprint qualification, the fastest time was scored by Team GB in 49.453”, who will face China in the Gold final. The Bronze final will see USA vs Australia.
The afternoon opened with the Men’s C3, C4 and C5 Scratch races, which would also define the positions for the Omnium – Test Events.
In the Men’s C3 Scratch, Gold went to the Australian David Nicholas, who took an advantage during the race and, even without lapping the rest of the contenders, won in style. Silver went to the American Joseph Berenyi and Bronze to the Russian Alexsey Obidennov. Thanks to this result, Berenyi finished first in the C3 Omnium Test Event, with the Spanish rider Eduardo Santas second and David Nicholas third.
The story of the Men’s C4 Scratch was the successful attack made by the duo of Colombia’s Diego Duenas and Ireland’s Ronan Grimes, who made the lap and finished in Gold and Silver positions respectively – while the Bronze went to the Russian Sergei Pudov. These results meant that the Omnium Test Event ended with the American Jason Macom first, Duenas second and Pudov third.
Diego Duenas said, of his gold performance: “It was a very hard race with many good athletes in the final. Winning this gold medal for Colombia is great, as well as wearing the Rainbow Jersey. This is a great result with Tokyo 2020 in mind. I will train at home as hard as I can for that.” Silver medallist Ronan Grimes said: “’I’m still in shock. I didn’t even realise we had a gap until we had half a lap. Then with 10 laps to go, a medal was certain.”
In the final Scratch event, the Men’s C5, the 60-lap race saw a great battle, with a trio made of Australia’s Alistair Donohoe, Great Britain’s William Bjergfelt and the home favourite, Dutchman Daniel Abraham Gebru, lapping the field after 30 laps and earning Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively. The Omnium Test Event ended with Team GB’s Jonathan Gildea first, Ukraine Yehor Dementyev second and Lauro Cesar Mouro Chaman of Brazil in third.
Next came the Women’s and and Men’s B Sprint semi-finals. The Women’s semi-finals ended with straight victories for Team GB and Australia, who will be competing for Gold, while the Bronze final set up a battle of the near-neighbours: Belgium vs the Netherlands.
The Men’s final will be a Team GB affair, as both teams won two straight races to reach the Gold final, leaving the Bronze race to be settled by the Netherlands and Poland.
The Mixed Team Sprint saw an incredible China, at the time of 49,133” and at an average speed of 54.953km/h, winning Gold in the final versus the favourites Paralympic Champions Team GB. Bronze medal went to the USA, with Australia fourth.
In the Women’s B Sprint finals, the title holders Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott successfully defended their title, winning consecutive races and securing Gold, with Australia’s Jessica Gallagher and Madison Janssen Silver. Bronze went to the Netherlands, who won two consecutive races vs Belgium.
The Men’s B Sprint finals saw plenty of drama, with the all-British final for Gold seeing two victories for Matthew Rotherham and Neil Fachie, the second declared by the commissaires after an unfortunate solo crash when they were leading in the final bend. James Ball and Peter Mitchell won Silver, while Bronze went to Poland, who beat the Netherlands in two straight races.
After the crash the World Champions commented: “We are OK, we have track rash and we know it will sting for a couple of days… but we are fine even if it does hurt right now! We were hungry to win today, we were a little bit disappointed after yesterday’s silver in the kilo. Fair play to them, but today we wanted to win badly and to prove that we are still the best in the World. Today, up until that crash, it went perfectly and we were very strong. I’m really proud of the way we’ve raced and how we bounced back.”
A dramatic finale for a fantastic edition of the 2019 UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships, an edition to remember thanks to all the athletes that competed on the Apeldoorn velodrome in the Netherlands at their best.
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