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UCI Track Cycling World Championships 2008, World Championships Daily Summary
Friday, 28th March 2008
Two more gold medals for Britain and one for Belarus on day three
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Great Britain confirmed its continued dominance of track cycling by adding two more gold medals to make their tally six in three days.
Britain’s Wendy Houvenaghel, Rebecca Romero and Joanna Rowsell created a new World Record of 3 min 25.725 in the morning’s qualification session of the women’s 3,000m team pursuit. The trio beat the best time set in the new event by the Ukrainians at the Los Angeles round of the World Cup. The Ukrainian team finished less than a second behind the British girls to face them in the gold medal final in the evening. Germany beat Belarus to the bronze medal and then the British team smashed their own new record by over three seconds and took the first ever gold medal in the event.
The points race was won by Vasili Kiryienka. The Belarusian took early points in the first two sprints to take the lead with Canadian Zachary Bell second and Australian Cameron Meyer in third. Kiryienka missed on the next two sprints but consolidated his position by taking points in the next three. Meanwhile former World Champion Peter Schep started his charge towards the bronze medal by winning two to take 10 points and move into second place. Christophe Riblon (France) took second in one sprint and then first in another before escaping from the clutches of the main field with twenty laps to go. The brave Frenchman got to within 30 metres of lapping the field but Kiryienka and last year’s winner Joan Llaneras (Spain) we among the front runners who increased the pace to thwart the Frenchman’s lap making effort. Kiryenka took fourth in the penultimate sprint and that one single point made the difference he needed to stop his gold turning silver. Riblon’s lead was reducing rapidly in the closing stages but he held on to take maximum points in the last sprint and take a well deserved silver medal.
Chris Hoy won the men’s sprint final in two straight victories over talented Frenchman Kevin Sireau. The Scottish sprinter had eliminated Italian Roberto Chiappa in the semi final and Sireau had done the same to compatriot Mickael Bourgain. Bourgain took the bronze in the ride off against the Italian.
Victoria Pendleton showed her cards early on in the women’s individual sprint. The 27-year-old glamour girl of British cycling out classed the field to put in a sub 11 second 200 metre time trial with China’s Guo Shuang in second place just a tenth of a second behind. The following qualification rounds involving one-to- one match sprinting were eventful. Former World Champion Natalia Tsylinskaya (Belarus) collided with Willy Kanis (Netherlands) and hit the deck hard. Tsylinskaya was briefly unconscious and was taken to hospital with a painful shoulder injury. Pendleton beat Clara Sanchez in the 1/8 finals and then went through to the semi finals by beating Yvonne Hijgenaar in the next round. Shuang made hard work of her quarter final against Sanchez who had made it back into the race through the repechage. Pendleton meets American Jennie Reed in tomorrow’s semi final and Shuang is head to head with Simona Krupeckaite.
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