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Los Angeles Track World Cup - CDM

ADT Velodrome, Carson, California, USA, January 20-22, 2006

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Session 2 - Evening, Friday January 20: Men: scratch final; keirin final; kilo TT final; Individual pursuit final, Women: sprint final; points race final

Australia grabs two golds; one each for Argentina, Belarus, Italy and Spain

By Rob Jones in Los Angeles

Natallia Tsylinskaya
Photo ©: Mike Gladu
(Click for larger image) Tsylinskaya (BLR)  finishes off Sanchez (FRA) in Gold medal Match Sprint Ride two for the Gold Medal.

The first medals were awarded in the evening of Day 1 at the Los Angeles round of the Track World Cup. Australia led with two wins, followed by Argentina, Belarus, Italy and Spain with one each.

Natallia Tsylinskaya (Blr) began the day suffering from an upset stomach, but gradually improved to take the gold medal in two straight rides over Clara Sanchez (Fra) in the final. Former world junior champion Shuang Guo (Chn) won the bronze after Willy Kanis was relegated in the their third ride for dropping down on Guo after the sprint had commenced.

"Today was very difficult for me, a very hard day." commented Tsylinskaya "I had a little bit of an upset stomach at the start and I only began to feel good by the final. The race was good, I was able to come back (in the semifinal) to the Dutch girl (Kanis) and then I began to be more confident."

Walter Perez
Photo ©: Mike Gladu
(Click for larger image) Perez celebrates his win

The men's Scratch Race was taken by Walter Perez (Arg), one of four riders to take a lap on the field. Perez, the 2004 Madison world champion, rode a tactical race to overcome faster sprinters.

"I'm not so good a sprinter, so my plan was to get away when it was possible. It worked perfectly, so I am happy."

Shane Kelly
Photo ©: Mike Gladu
(Click for larger image) Kelly and Villanueva in the Keirin ride for Gold

The men's Keirin was probably the most exciting event of the evening, with Shane Kelly (Aus) winning a three-up dash to line in the gold medal final against Jamie Staff (GBr) and world Keirin champion Teun Mulder (Ned). Kelly was sitting in third when the pacer pulled off, and watched Staff and Mulder sweep by him from the back.

"The semifinal was crazy - I almost didn't make it through to the final - so I decided that I wouldn't let that happen again. When Jamie came by he brushed me pretty hard, and I knew that I had to get back by him and take the lead going into the last couple of laps."

Kelly launched a massive counterattack, taking control of the race with a little under two laps to go and holding until the line.

"My plan had been to make a move with a lap and three quarters, a lap and half to go. Once I got the lead I was confident that I could stay in front, or at least in the first three. I was injured back in July, which has put my schedule back a bit (for Commonwealth Games), but is is encouraging."

Sergio Escobar
Photo ©: Mitch Friedman
(Click for larger image) Sergio Escobar on his way to taking the win in the pursuit

Sergio Escobar (Spa) left no doubt in the minds of spectators that he was the top rider in the pursuit, recording the fastest splits at every intermediate time check in the gold medal final against Jens Mouris (Ned) and finishing three and a half seconds in front. Jason Allen (NZl) served notice, with his bronze medal, that he will be a contender at the Commonwealth Games.

Bronzini
Photo ©: Mitch Friedman
(Click for larger image) Bronzini has her arms high after her win

The women's Points Race also proved to be a highlight of the evening, with the lead changing multiple times. The high speed meant that no one was able to steal a lap (and the resulting 20 points), so riders had to fight for every sprint. Giorgia Bronzini (Ita) was the eventual winner, winning the first and last sprint, and collecting points in two others. At the halfway point the Chinese appeared to be in control, with Yan Li winning two sprints and Jianling Wan another. However, they faded towards the end, and the Italians struck back, with world champion Vera Carrara pacing Bronzini to her second sprint win and a second place result. American Rebecca Quinn, riding for the Spike trade team, gave locals something to cheer about with a consistent ride and a win in the final sprint to take the silver medal.

The final event of the evening was the Kilo, and Australia took its second win of the day from Ben Kersten in a time of 1:02.760. Like Kelly, Kersten has been injured recently, and this World Cup is his first of the season, so he didn't know what to expect.

Ben Kersten
Photo ©: Mike Gladu
(Click for larger image) Ben Kersten (AUS)  rode in the penultimate heat, and survived the final pairing to take Gold in the Kilometer

"I hurt my back in November, so my confidence has been down. I didn't race all year, and my first races back were the Christmas carnivals in Tasmania. The Kilo takes a lot of base prep, which I haven't done, and weight work, which I can't do because of my back. The time was pretty good - this is a slow track - but I have some improving to do. (Chris) Hoy's done a 1:01 this year, so there's still a lot to improve on."

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Mitch Clinton/www.clintonphoto.com

Images by Mitch Friedman/www.mitchophoto.com

Images by Mike Gladu/www.velodrome.com

Results

Women's sprint
 
Semi-finals
 
Heat 1
 
1 Natallia Tsylinskaya (Belarus)                             12.504 11.979
2 Willy Kanis (Netherlands)                           14.171
 
Heat 2
 
1 Clara Sanchez (France)                              12.341 12.386
2 Shuang Guo (China)
 
Finals
 
Gold
 
1 Natallia Tsylinskaya (Belarus)                      11.782 11.804
2 Clara Sanchez (France)
 
Bronze
 
1 Shuang Guo (China)                                  12.384        11.936
2 Willy Kanis (Netherlands)                                  12.156 REL
 
Women points final
 
1 Giorgia Bronzini (Italy)                     14 pts
2 Rebecca Quinn (USA) Spike                    12
3 Yan Li (China)                               11
4 Alena Prudnikova (Russia)                    10
5 Gina Grain (Canada)                           8
6 Gema Pascual Torrecilla (Spain)               7
7 Joanne Kiesanowski (New Zealand)              6
8 Jianling Wang (China)                         6
9 Maria Luisa Calle Williams (Colombia)         4
10 Karelia Judith Machado Jaimes (Venezuela)    3
11 Tina Mayolo Pic (USA)                        3
12 Jarmila Machacova (Czech Republic)           2
13 Mandy Poitras (Canada)                       1
14 Vera Carrara (Italy)                         1
15 Rochelle Gilmore (Australia)                  
16 Leire Olaberria Dorronsoro (Spain)            
17 Ine Wannijn (Belgium)                         
18 Tatsiana Sharakova (Belarus)                  
19 Lauren Franges (USA)                          
20 Marlijn Binnendijk (Netherlands)              
 
Men individual pursuit finals
 
Gold
 
1 Sergio Escobar Roure (Spain)                      4.31.269 (53.083km/h)
2 Jens Mouris (Netherlands)                         4.34.926 (52.377km/h)
 
Bronze
 
1 Jason Allen (New Zealand)                         4.33.731 (52.606km/h)
2 Fabien Sanchez (France)                           4.36.629 (52.055km/h)
 
Men scratch
 
1 Walter Perez (Argentina)
2 Ivan Kovalev (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow
3 Taiji Nishitani (Japan)
4 Vasili Kiryienka (Belarus)
5 Oleksandr Polyvoda (Ukr) Alpha Sport Donetsk
6 Jiri Hochmann (Czech Republic)
7 Fabio Masotti (Italy)
8 Richard Bowker (New Zealand)
9 Carlos Manuel Hernandez (Mexico)
10 Ivan Rovny (Russia)
11 Steve Schets (Belgium)
12 Jérôme Neuville (France)
13 Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece)
14 Zach Bell (Canada)
15 Kyle Swain (South Africa)
16 Gunn R. Curtis (USA)
17 Oleksandr Klymko (Ukraine)
18 King Wai Cheung (Hong-Kong)
19 Jorge Soto (Uruguay)
DNF Paul Che Altamirano (Peru)
 
Men keirin
 
Second round
 
Heat 1
 
1 Jamie Staff (Great Britain)
2 Jan Van Eijden (Germany)
3 Shane John Kelly (Australia)
4 Travis Smith (Canada)
5 Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica)
REL Mario Contreras (Mexico)
 
Heat 2
 
1 Teun Mulder (Netherlands)
2 José Antonio Villanueva Trinidad (Spain)
3 Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia)
4 Roberto Chiappa (Italy)
5 Damian Zielinski (Poland)
6 Stephen Alfred (USA) Spike
 
Finals
 
Final 1-6
 
1 Shane John Kelly (Australia)
2 Teun Mulder (Netherlands)
3 Jamie Staff (Great Britain)
4 José Antonio Villanueva Trinidad (Spain)
5 Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia)
6 Jan Van Eijden (Germany)
 
Final 7-12
 
7 Roberto Chiappa (Italy)
8 Travis Smith (Canada)
9 Mario Contreras (Mexico)
10 Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica)
11 Stephen Alfred (USA) Spike
12 Damian Zielinski (Poland)
 
Men 1km time trial
 
1 Ben Kersten (Australia)                           1.02.760 (57.361km/h)
2 Tim Veldt (Netherlands)                           1.03.768 (56.454km/h)
3 François Pervis (France)                          1.03.932 (56.309km/h)
4 Marco Jäger (Germany)                             1.04.941 (55.434km/h)
5 Tomasz Schmidt (Poland)                           1.05.387 (55.056km/h)
6 Alvaro Alonso Rubio (Spain)                       1.05.831 (54.685km/h)
7 Tatsuya Fujita (Japan)                            1.06.031 (54.519km/h)
8 Matt Barlee (Canada)                              1.06.406 (54.211km/h)
9 Athanasios Mantzouranis (Greece)                  1.06.619 (54.038km/h)
10 Michael Rodriguez Malaret (Puerto Rico)          1.07.769 (53.121km/h)
11 Luis Carlos Toussaint (Mexico)                   1.08.480 (52.570km/h)
12 Azikiwe Kellar (Trinidad)                        1.08.680 (52.417km/h)
13 Pellecer Castro Gabriel Alberto (Guatemala)      1.10.742 (50.889km/h)
14 Pablo Ravazzani (Paraguay)                       1.13.100 (49.247km/h)