World Track Championships

Germany, October 20-24, 1999

Day 5 - October 24 - French dominance continues

Women's Points Race - Clignet's back

Marion Clignet capped off an impressive return to the world track scene with her second gold medal in the Women's Points Race - and France's seventh at these World Track Championships - by winning the points event ahead of German Judith Arndt and New Zealand's Sarah Ulmer.

The 25 km race held over 100 laps with ten sprints saw an attack by Clignet at 40 laps. After a long solitary effort she was joined by Arndt but the two could not hold off their adversaries, although they did build up a good points lead in the intermediate sprints.

Then Clignet attacked again and secured enough points to force Arndt to win the final sprint. The German failed and Marion finished the race with her hands in the air. Defending champion Dori Ruano of Spain came in a disappointing tenth place with three points.

Australian rider and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Alayna Burns was forced her out of the event after being involved in a major fall which claimed four riders.

Burns suffered a bad cut to the head requiring five stitches and despite the injuries wanted to continue, but Australian track coach Charlie Walsh made her withdraw and receive medical attention.

Results - Women's Points Race, 25 km

1. Marion Clignet (Fra)           20 points
2. Judith Arndt (Ger)             18
3. Sarah Ulmer (Nzl)              18
4. Maria Luisa Calle (Col)        15
5. Elena Tchalykh (Rus)           12
6. Erin Veenstra (USA)             8
7. Alayna Burns (Aus)              7
8. Belem Guerrero (Mex)            5
9. Alessandra Cappellotto (Ita)    4
10. Dori Ruano (Spa)               3


One lap behind


11. Debby Mansveld (Ned)           5
12. Michaela Brunngraber (Aut)     3
13. Mandy Poitras (Can) 

Keirin - Fiedler takes the bumps

Jens Fiedler of Germany defended his keirin title on the last day of the championships in Berlin but as in the sprint final, the jury was involved. American Marty Nothstein was declassed from second to sixth and last after blocking France's Frédéric Magné. In the semi finals, sprint champion Laurent Gané was also declassed in his heat.

Fiedler came past by riding above Nothstein and New Zealand's Anthony Peden and got across the lines by a few centimetres. But Nothstein was then relegated to sixth for crossing out of his line, with Magné awarded the bronze and Peden the silver.

On the final lap Nothstein overtook Peden and then bumped into Fiedler, forcing the German rider up and seemingly out of the race. "The bump didn't bother me - in fact, it just got me started," he told reporters after the race.

Fiedler recovered and in an intense sprint for the line, he edged past both Nothstein and Peden, reclaiming his kerin title and making amends for his disappointing ride in the sprint final.

Results - Keirin

Finals:
1. Jens Fiedler (Ger)     10.948
2. Anthony Peden (Nzl)
3. Frédéric Magné (Fra)
4. Shinichi Ota (Jpn)
5. Roberto Chiappa (Ita)
6. Marty Nothstein (USA)

Nothstein, second over the line, degraded to last place.

13 classified

Madison - the Spaniards reign

Spain were victorious in the Madison with Isaac Galvez - Juan Llaneras. For Llaneras it was his fourth title and second in the Madison. He attacked at the right moment in the final quarter of the race thus gaining a lap on all the others. Denmark (Madsen-Piil) came second and Germany (Kappes-Pollack) secured the bronze in the very last sprint.

Renowned pairs like Italians Martinello-Villa (one single point) and Swiss Risi-Betchart (two laps behind with Australians Brett Aitken and Scott McGrory) were not up to expected standards.

The Australian pair were in second place when the French rider, Jerome Neuville went up the track and took out Aitken's front wheel. The Australian hit the track heavily and was knocked out for five minutes. McGrory stayed on and completed the event (but lost two laps to the winners), still securing Australia a place in the olympics next year. "I know Brett and I could have won the gold medal tonight," McGrory told reporters after the race.

"But it's one of those races where it gets really tight and everyone was getting tired and these things happen. If we are paired together and have a bit of luck and no crashes we'll definitely win in Sydney," he said.

Results - Madison

1. Spain (Isaac Galvez - Juan Llaneras)                  3 pts


One lap behind:
2. Denmark (Jimmi Madsen - Jakob Piil)                   25
3. Germany (Andreas Kappes - Olaf Pollack)               22
4. Argentine (Gabriel et Juan Curuchet)                  15
5. Belgium (Etienne De Wilde - Matthew Gilmore)          15
6. Russia (Dimitri Galkine - Oleg Grichkine)             11
7. Ukraine (Alexandre Fedenko - Vasyl Yakovlev)           7
8. France (Carlos Da Cruz - Jérôme Neuville)              6
9. Austria (Roland Garber - Franz Stocher)                5
10. Great Britain (Robert Hayles - Bradley Wiggins)       3
11. Italiy (Silvio Martinello - Marco Villa)              1
12. Netherlands (Robert Slippens - Danny Stam)            0

Two laps behind
13. Australia (Brett Aitken - Scott McGrory)             14
14. Switzerland (Kurt Betschart - Bruno Risi)             9

Three laps behind
15. New Zealand (Timothy Carswell - Gregory Henderson)    7

15 teams classified

Summary of the championships

French riders were on the podium at nine of twelve events at the World Track Championships in Berlin, in seven of them as winner. The female riders, Félicia Ballanger, in sprint and 500m and Marion Clignet in pursuit and points, took two individual titles each, Laurent Gané won the sprint and rode in the winning Olympic sprint team. And so did kilometer winner Arnaud Tournant. Third man on the Olympic team was Florian Rousseau.

Results - Final Medals Table

                   Gold    Silver     Bronze


   France            7        1         2
   Germany           3        4         4
   Switzwerland      1        0         0
   Spain             1        0         0
   Australia         0        2         0
   New Zealand       0        1         1
   China             0        1         0
   Denmark           0        1         0
   Great Britain     0        1         0
   Ukraine           0        1         0
   Canada            0        0         1
   South Korea       0        0         1
   Italiy            0        0         1
   Lithuania         0        0         1
   Russia            0        0         1

World Championships might be a summer event again

French Cycling Union president and UCI vice president, Daniel Baal, revealed to AFP at the Championships that UCI president Hein Verbruggen was not against the idea of making the track championships a summer event again. The races are usually held late august but were this year moved back to October. There will be no changes however before 2001 when the World's will be held in Antwerp, Belgium and probably not in 2002

The German cycling organisation also announced today it hoped to initiate a major cycling event in Berlin like the successful Open des Nations in Paris.