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World Track Championships - CM
Melbourne, Australia, May 26-30, 2004
Day 3 update - morning/afternoon session
11:15 EST - The third day of competition kicked off at 10am EST with action to come including qualifying rounds of the men's teams pursuit (start list), then qualifying for the women's sprint (start list) and the first rounds of the men's keirin (start list).
The New Zealand team has just completed its teams pursuit qualifying ride in 4.12.169 and is a bit off the pace, as both the Netherlands and Germany recorded just over 4.05 earlier in the session. But there are still some quality teams to come, including Russia, France, Great Britain and Australia.
11:20 EST - Lithuania has just gone through, three riders crossing the line in 4.10 even (they dropped the fourth rider as the time is taken on the third rider crossing the line). Next up - Russia. And this is one of those track cycling countires that always seems to lift for an Olympic year - can they show promise?
11:26 EST - No - Russia goes through in 4.09.583. France just finished with a 4.11.652 and with two more teams to come, it doesn't look good for their chances of progressing to the final.
11:35 EST - Great Britain are on the line and away. This is a quality pursuit squad and is expected to give the Australians a run. The team went through the 2km mark with the fastest time and is looking good.
The Brits cross in 4.06.181, which makes them third fastest qualifier of the morning. Now, the crowd welcomes the green and gold lads onto the track.
11:41 EST - This Australian team contains two of the world record-breakers, in Mark Renshaw and Peter Dawson, who are joined by Stephen Wooldridge and Ashley Hutchinson. The word is that during practice, they were posting very strong times - let's see if they can do it on the day, and Renshaw had that heavy fall during the points race on Wednesday.
Australia posts the fastest time at 3km - the crowd urges them on. A trio of green and gold riders cross the line at 4.04.059 - Australia qualifies fastest, and did it quite well. Full results to follow soon.
11:54 EST - Next up we have the women's sprint qualifying, which basically involves the riders taking a swing at covering 200 metres in the shortest time possible - from a flying start, of course. Elisa Frisoni, last night's silver medalist in the keirin, was first away and recorded an 11.84. We'll bring updates throughout the morning.
12:02 EST - Clara Sanchez (France) the winner of last night's keirin just went through with a 11.621 - not bad, but Lithuania's Simona Krupeckaite is fastest so far with an 11.452. Not much in it.
12:06 EST - Tanya Lindenmuth (USA) just crossed in 11.646.
12:11 EST - Lori Muenzer (Canada) had just gone through in 11.527, third fastest so far until Anna Meares (Australia) hit the track and posted an 11.45 - fastest of the morning and pushing Lori back in fourth-fastest.
12:12 EST - The full results of men's teams pursuit qualifying have just been posted.
12:18 EST - Great Britain's Victoria Pendleton just went through with the sixth-fastest time, but she is followed by Nancy Contreras of Mexico, who posts an 11.981, a bit off the pace for the former world 500mm TT champion. Nancy has said in the past that she's not that keen on sprinting - just prefers herself and the clock.
12:24 EST - Svetlana Grankovskaya (Russia) just went through in 11.339 - fastest time! Svetlana was the final rider for qualifying and the top three includes Anna Meares in second and Lithuania's Simona Krupeckaite. Full results to follow.
12:26 EST - Next up the beefy lads hit the track for the first rounds of the keirin, but the noisy little derny hasn't fired up yet so there's a bit of warm-up to go.
12:40: EST - Correction. Actually, it's the svelte women of track cycling - the pursuiters - who are up next for their first round after yesterday's dramatic qualifying session, where kiwi Sarah Ulmer broke the world record. It must have been the stare from Florian Rousseau during a general warm-up that put me off.
On the track right now we have Elena Tchalykh (Russia) versus Leontien Zijlaard Van Moorsel (Netherlands). Leontine's a bit off her normal pace and completes the 3km torute test in 3.36.306, while Elena does it in 3.34.111. next up is Australia's favourite, Katie Mactier, versus Karin Thürig (Switzerland).
12:46 EST - They're off! Katie holds Thürig in her sight for most of the event and comes home strongly in 3.32.599, while the Swiss rider manages a 3.37.845. Martain Barras, the Australian coach just told Cyclingnews that "there's no schedule with Katie. We write one for every race, but have to throw it out 2 laps in!" On seeing her slow over the final laps "Man, that hurts!"
12:50 EST - Olga Slyusareva (Russia) and Katherine Bates (Australia) just rode-ff, and Olga's high cadence kept her just slightly ahead of Kate throughout their round. The Russian finished in 3.35.736, while Kate trailed in 3.37.144. The Australian didn't really look her normal smooth self on the bike in that round.
12:58 EST - Next up is the new world record holder, Sarah Ulmer, against Emma Davies of Great Britain. Sarah looks smooth as a black locomotive.
13:02 EST - Emma was trailing by 1.5 seconds after the first kilometre and then over 3 seconds with 1km to go. Ulmer passes the Brit with under two laps to go and then rolls home in 3.31.083, while Davies posts a 3.39..96. Ulmer really does make this gruelling event look easy.
So going into the race for medals we'll have the antipodean contingent of Mactier versus Ulmer, while the two Russians will race for the bronze.
13:05 EST - Now - it's time for the big fellas, and that noisy derny bike.
13:10 EST - First round of the men's keirin was its normal fast affair (see start lists) as Dean Edwards of South Africa took a flyer and had 20 metres on the bunch with one to go, but they caught him at the end and Jamie Staff (GBR) won, ahead of Laurent Gane (France) and Edwards, covering the final 200m in 11.459.
13:12 EST - Next heat feautured Australia's Jobie Dajka who could only finish at the back of a fast bunch - the heat was taken out by Ivan Vrba (Czech Republic), with Teun Mulder (Netherlands) in second and then Mickaël Bourgain (France).
13:18 EST - The third round saw the local hero, Shane Kelly (Aust) , destroy a field that included Jens Fielder. Kelly had time to look over his shoulder twice on the final lap as the field trailed him by two metres. Next across the line was Fiedler and then Damian Zielinski (Poland).
13:26 EST - In the fourth round the third Australian in the keirin, Ryan Bayley, unleashed a brutal sprint and again led the field home but France's Florian Rousseau showed his famous finishing speed by closing the gap to a virtually manic Bayley - this is exciting. Bayley on the angry pills will be a highlight! In third was José Antonio Villanueva Trinidad (Spain). The full results are now available.
13:46 EST - The first round of women's sprints have just been held and results are now posted. Most of the favourites made it through to the next round, although the American rider Jennie Reed was involved in an accident in her heat and crashed heavily. Her opponent, Yonghua Jiang (China), was relegated.
14:12 EST - The repechages of the men's keirin went through without incident, except for Jobie Dajka not making it through to the next round - he was bundled out of his heat by the Spanish rider José Antonio Villanueva Trinidad (Spain) and could only manage third.
14:20 EST - Full results of the men's keirin repechages are now available. The first round repechages of the women's sprint have just been completed - full results soon.
14:30 EST - The full results of the first round of the women's sprint repechages are now available.
14:40 EST - Two 10km qualifying rounds for the men's scratch race have been added to the session - again due to too many riders being entered and qualified for this event. As with the men's points race, the field of 27 riders was split into heats of 14 and 13, respectively, with two riders from the first heat and one rider from the second heat to be eliminated based on their finishing position (as it's a scratch race).
15:00 EST - The first heat has been completed and it was taken out by Sven Teutenberg, with Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) in second and Serguei Koudentsov (Russia) third. The rider to miss out was Milan Kadlec (Czech Republic) while the Italian rider Samuele Marzoli was relegated for failing to hold his line in the final 200m.
15:20 EST - The second heat of the men's scratch race was not quite as cut-throat, with only one rider to miss out. It was won by Tomas Margalef (Uruguay), with Mark Jamieson (Australia) in second and Linas Balciunas (Lithuania) in third. Miquel Alzamora Riera (Spain) was unlucky last in 13th spot, and won't progress to the final.
15:30 EST - The results of the men's scratch race qualifying heats are now available. Racing recommences at 19:15 this evening with the second round of the men's keirin. Medals to be decided this evening will be in the women's individual pursuit, men's scratch race and men's keirin.
