Wednesday, 26th March 2008 Tournant’s team triumph rounds off the first day
Men’s team sprint
Arnaud Tournant, Kevin Sireau and Gregory Bauge gave France their first gold medal of the championships in the men’s team sprint. The French team had qualified fastest in the first round with Mickael Bourgain riding with Bauge and Sireau and the trio produced a World best time of 43.5214 seconds to hold off the Great Britain team of Ross Edgar, Chris Hoy and Jamie staff. Theo Bos’s Dutch team qualified in third and beat the German team in the bronze medal ride off. Meanwhile Tournant had been enlisted for the French team in the final and they produced another World best time of 43.271 to take gold medal ahead of Great Britain who produced a personal best of 43.777 and took the silver medal.
Lisouski takes his opportunity to win the World title
Belarusian Aliaksandr Lisouski took his chance to go for glory in the closing stages of the men’s scratch race and just held on to win the World title ahead of a fast finishing Wim Stroetinga from the Netherlands. Lisouski was the deserving winner of a tough race that saw a number of retirements. He had attacked almost from the gun and had got to within 50m of the bunch as he tried to lap the field. He was back in the bunch for the middle of the race and went on the attack with five laps to go to chase down lone leader Kazuhiro Mori(Japan) who had made his bid for freedom. Lisouski passed the Japanese rider to hold on for victory and received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Cuba take gold in the women’s 500m Time Trial
Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez rocketed her way around the Manchester Velodrome to claim the first gold medal of the championships for Cuba. She recorded 34.021 seconds to claim a narrow victory over Lithuanian Simona Krupeckaite who was second with 34.066. Sandy Clair had set the standard for France with 32.253 seconds and the French girl held on for the bronze medal. Willy Kanis’s fourth place time was only one thousandth of a second away from the bronze medal and the superfast Dutch girl had to settle for fourth place.
Wiggins retains his individual pursuit World title
Jenning Huizenga (Netherlands) was quickest in qualifying in the men’s 4,000m individual pursuit as the UCI Track Cycling Championships got underway on Wednesday afternoon. Huizenga was pitched against current World Champion Bradley Wiggins in the final pairing of the qualifying session. Huizenga’s time was worthy of first place in a time of 4min 16.34 sec. Huizenga threw the gauntlet down in the final and exploded around the track in the first laps. Wiggins settled in clawed back the deficit in three laps to build an unassailable lead to win by nearly five seconds with a time of 4min 18.519.
Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) had set the fastest pace early in qualifying with a time of 4 min 18.334 seconds and his time was enough to see him in the bronze medal final against Russian Alexei Markov. Markov lead from the start and was never headed by the New Zealander to take the bronze medal.
