The World Cycyling Championships, Day 4 in Melbourne
Meanwhile, Victoria Pendleton's Keirin campaign ended at the second round stage, whilst Australia's Anna Meares put her Sprint disappointment behind her by taking gold in the final.
WOMEN'S OMNIUM - DAY 2
Laura Trott claimed her second world title of the Championships, winning the Omnium with a second day of gritty and consistent performances, claiming third in the pursuit, a tactically sound 13th in the Scratch race before wrapping up the title with a twinkle-toed win in the 500m Time Trial.
Speaking just before heading to the medal ceremony, Laura said "I'm over the moon. I didn't come here thinking I would win the Omnium so it's a really nice feeling. It's a really big thing for me to win."
Trott began day 2 of the competition with another solid performance, finishing third in the individual pursuit with a time of 3:31.561. That was good enough to move her into the overall lead ahead of Annette Edmondson of Australia who was fourth.
The penultimate event, the Scratch Race was, as expected, a highly tactical affair, with the leading contenders Trott, Edmondson, Whitten and Hammer watching each other closely. A large group of lower placed riders took advantage of this to move clear with some 10 laps to go and they took the leading places at the finish, but without claiming a lap.
Back in the second group, Edmondson was the first of the contenders to move, 6 laps out and was swiftly marked by Trott. Hammer then took up the chase and led the second group, including all the leaders over the line, claiming 9th. Whitten took 11th and Trott 13th. Vitally, for Trott, Australia’s Edmondon was a place further back in 14th. That gave Trott a two point advantage over Edmondson going into the final event, the 500m Time Trial. Whitten and Hammer closed up on the two leaders, but perhaps not enough to challenge for gold!
The final event of the Women’s Omnium, the 500m Time Trial all came down to the last two heats, where the medals were to be settled. First the USA’s Sarah Hammer beat Tara Whitten to ensure she would at least pick up the bronze, recording the second fastest time to that point, just under a tenth of a second faster than the Canadian.
The final heat paired Laura Trott and Edmondson and it was the 19 year old British rider who began the quicker recording the fastest first lap of 20.053s, but Edmondson was flying too. Indeed the Australian was closing the gap for most of the last lap, but she couldn’t quite get back on terms and Trott went on to record the fastest time and claim the world title in style. Edmondson was second in the race and in the event overall, three points down.
Results
Women's Omnium Event 4 - Individual Pursuit 1 WHITTEN Tara CAN 3:30.011 2 HAMMER Sarah USA 3:31.651 3 TROTT Laura GBR 3:31.789 4 EDMONDSON Annette AUS 3:32.454 5 ROMANYUTA Evgenia RUS 3:36.049 6 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR 3:37.528 7 GALYUK Svitlana UKR 3:38.111 8 HUANG Li CHN 3:38.894 9 OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire ESP 3:38.938 10 BRENNAUER Lisa GER 3:40.621 11 D'HOORE Jolien BEL 3:41.749 12 KASE Kanako JPN 3:42.145 13 JEULAND Pascale FRA 3:42.514 14 MEJIAS GARCIA Marlies CUB 3:42.593 15 WOJTYRA Malgorzata POL 3:43.073 16 KIESANOWSKI Joanne NZL 3:43.594 17 ARREOLA NAVARRO Sofia MEX 3:43.882 18 GONZALEZ GARCIA Angie Sabrina VEN 3:48.501 19 HSIAO Mei Yu TPE 3:48.701 20 LEE Min Hye KOR 3:49.255 21 MACHACOVA Jarmila CZE 3:49.534 22 MENG Zhao Juan HKG 3:58.037 23 GARCIA ORREGO Diana Maria COL 4:07.710
Women's Omnium Event 5 - Scratch Race 1 OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire ESP 2 D'HOORE Jolien BEL 3 ARREOLA NAVARRO Sofia MEX 4 HUANG Li CHN 5 KASE Kanako JPN 6 HSIAO Mei Yu TPE 7 MEJIAS GARCIA Marlies CUB 8 GONZALEZ GARCIA Angie Sabrina VEN 9 HAMMER Sarah USA 10 KIESANOWSKI Joanne NZL 11 WHITTEN Tara CAN 12 ROMANYUTA Evgenia RUS 13 TROTT Laura GBR 14 EDMONDSON Annette AUS 15 BRENNAUER Lisa GER 16 GALYUK Svitlana UKR 17 MENG Zhao Juan HKG 18 WOJTYRA Malgorzata POL 19 LEE Min Hye KOR 20 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR 21 JEULAND Pascale FRA 22 MACHACOVA Jarmila CZE 23 GARCIA ORREGO Diana Maria COL
Women's Omnium Event 6 - 500m Time Trial 1 TROTT Laura GBR 35.173 2 EDMONDSON Annette AUS 35.180 3 HSIAO Mei Yu TPE 35.933 4 HAMMER Sarah USA 36.171 5 MEJIAS GARCIA Marlies CUB 36.281 6 WHITTEN Tara CAN 36.291 7 KIESANOWSKI Joanne NZL 36.381 8 HUANG Li CHN 36.387 9 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR 36.395 10 D'HOORE Jolien BEL 36.414 11 OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire ESP 36.423 12 WOJTYRA Malgorzata POL 36.436 13 KASE Kanako JPN 36.516 14 GARCIA ORREGO Diana Maria COL 36.763 15 ROMANYUTA Evgenia RUS 36.857 16 GONZALEZ GARCIA Angie Sabrina VEN 36.885 17 BRENNAUER Lisa GER 36.963 18 LEE Min Hye KOR 37.085 19 MENG Zhao Juan HKG 37.098 20 GALYUK Svitlana UKR 37.694 21 ARREOLA NAVARRO Sofia MEX 37.880 22 JEULAND Pascale FRA 38.837 23 MACHACOVA Jarmila CZE 39.367
Women's Omnium Final Standings GOLD TROTT Laura GBR 28 SILVER EDMONDSON Annette AUS 31 BRONZE HAMMER Sarah USA 36 4 WHITTEN Tara CAN 39 5 HUANG Li CHN 53 6 ROMANYUTA Evgenia RUS 56 7 KIESANOWSKI Joanne NZL 61 8 OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire ESP 62 9 D'HOORE Jolien BEL 63 10 HSIAO Mei Yu TPE 64 11 BRENNAUER Lisa GER 68 12 WOJTYRA Malgorzata POL 69 13 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR 71 14 KASE Kanako JPN 79 15 GONZALEZ GARCIA Angie Sabrina VEN 79 16 MEJIAS GARCIA Marlies CUB 84 17 GALYUK Svitlana UKR 87 18 ARREOLA NAVARRO Sofia MEX 94 19 MENG Zhao Juan HKG 94 20 JEULAND Pascale FRA 103 21 MACHACOVA Jarmila CZE 109 22 LEE Min Hye KOR 116 23 GARCIA ORREGO Diana Maria COL 150
WOMEN'S KEIRIN
No-one could begrudge Anna Meares her win in the final of the Keirin. The popular Aussie had endured a strange championships to this point, looking the pick of the women sprinters but missing out on the gold medals. However, to the delight of the crowd, she put that right with a big effort coming round the rest of the field in the closing lap and a half to win by half a bike length. Russia’s Gnidenko was second and German’s Vogel third.
Earlier in the day, Victoria Pendleton got off to just the start she would have wished to avoid, missing out in her opening round heat and having to put her bruised body through the Repechage to qualify for the second round. Anna Meares, Clara Sanchez and Shuang Guo were amongst the riders making it through at the first attempt.
The first heat of the second round of the Women’s Keirin saw Anna Meares lead it out effortlessly for the last three laps, looking determined to make up for her run of questionable luck so far in the championships.
In the second heat, Victoria Pendleton went to the front as soon as the derny turned off and led it out. It looked a good move, but ultimately she ran out of steam in the last half lap and faded to sixth. Former champion Sanchez of France took the head from Germany’s Vogel and Guo of China. Pendleton finished her campaign with an understandably tired looking last place in the minor final.
Results
Women's Keirin Finals
Final 1 to 6 1 MEARES Anna AUS 2 GNIDENKO Ekaterina RUS 3 VOGEL Kristina GER 4 GUO Shuang CHN 5 SANCHEZ Clara FRA 6 DI Mu CHN
Final 7 to 12 7 CLAIR Sandie FRA 8 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU 9 MCCULLOCH Kaarle AUS 10 TSOS Olena UKR 11 MUSTAPA Fatehah MAS 12 PENDLETON Victoria GBR
Women's Keirin Round 2
Heat 1 1 MEARES Anna AUS 2 DI Mu CHN 3 GNIDENKO Ekaterina RUS 4 MCCULLOCH Kaarle AUS 5 CLAIR Sandie FRA 6 TSOS Olena UKR
Heat 2 1 SANCHEZ Clara FRA 2 VOGEL Kristina GER 3 GUO Shuang CHN 4 MUSTAPA Fatehah MAS 5 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU 6 PENDLETON Victoria GBR
Women's Keirin Round 1
Heat 1 1 MEARES Anna AUS 2 VOGEL Kristina GER 3 LEE Wai Sze HKG 4 HANSEN Natasha NZL 5 KANIS Willy NED
Heat 2 1 SANCHEZ Clara FRA 2 MCCULLOCH Kaarle AUS 3 PENDLETON Victoria GBR 4 WELTE Miriam GER 5 BARANOVA Viktoria RUS
Heat 4 1 DI Mu CHN 2 MUSTAPA Fatehah MAS 3 GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB 4 GNIDENKO Ekaterina RUS 5 LARREAL CHIRINOS Daniela Grelui VEN 6 LOHVINAVA Maryia BLR
Women's Keirin Round 1 - Repechage
Heat 1 1 GNIDENKO Ekaterina RUS 2 LEE Wai Sze HKG 3 SCHOFIELD Katie NZL
Heat 2 1 PENDLETON Victoria GBR 2 SULLIVAN Monique CAN 3 BARANOVA Viktoria RUS
Heat 3 1 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU 2 KANIS Willy NED 3 WELTE Miriam GER 4 LOHVINAVA Maryia BLR