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World Junior Track Championships - CM
Los Angeles, USA, July 28-August 1, 2004
Men Team sprint
A third gold for Germany
By Kristy Scrymgeour
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The German team, including Robert Forstemann, Benjamin Whitmann and Maximilian Levy, rode very strongly as a team today to take out the men's team sprint, posting fastest times consistently throughout the rounds. Aided by a very quick start and of course, the newly crowned Junior World Kilo Champion Levy to finish it off, the team was hard to beat.
Levy said it was a good feeling taking the gold for the second time this week. "It was great for me to give something back to my teammates," he said. "We had a good team and we worked very well together to win this race."
Qualifying with a time of 46.638 the Germans then faced the Czech team in the first round. Again they posted the fastest time of the round (47.102) which put them through to the Gold medal ride off. Coming up against them with a time of 47.110 would be Japan who beat out Russia in the first round. Also winning their first round heats were the US and Australia who's times of 47.268 and 47.226 put them in the Bronze medal ride off.
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In the final, the Germans didn't disappoint and sped to victory with a time of 46.284 beating the Japanese by almost a second. "It wasn't easy," said Levy who has had a very full week of racing. "I was tired physically and in my mind, but I gave it everything because we had such a good atmosphere in the team." Levy, who is only 17 has another year as a Junior and will now go home to Germany and for the National Championships, then finally some rest before he starts into his training for next season.
The Japanese team were also ecstatic with their performance. "This is the greatest moment of our lives," they told Cyclingnews.
In the Bronze medal ride of the US team led from the start with Ben Barczewski very quick out of the blocks. Michael Blatchford took over from him and with one lap to the US was leading by half a second over the Aussies. Daniel Thorsen, however came home very strongly for Australia and pipped the Americans on the line by three tenths of a second for the Bronze.
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Photography
Images by Mitch Friedman Photography
- Team France goes hard - but not quite hard enough to beat Russia
- Team Russia at speed to win over France
- Team Germany takes the gold
- Team Japan rides to silver - the Japanese success was one of the surprises of the championships
- Team Australia on their second lap of the bronze medal showdown
- The team sprint podium - Japan, Germany and Australia
- German gold riders Maximilian Levy, Benjamin Wittmann and Robert Forstemann celebrate
Results
Qualifying 1 Germany 46.638 (57.893km/h) Robert Förstemann Maximilian Levy Benjamin Wittmann 2 Australia 47.273 (57.115km/h) Corey Heath Shane Perkins Daniel Thorsen 3 Russia 47.386 (56.979km/h) Denis Dmitriev Mikhail Shikhalev Stoyan Vasev 4 France 47.398 (56.964km/h) David Cabrol Denis Rivenaire Alexandre Volant 5 USA 47.482 (56.864km/h) Ben Barczewski Michael Blatchford Ryan Nelman 6 Japan 47.731 (56.567km/h) Yu Onishi Atsushi Shibasaki Kazumichi Sugata 7 Greece 48.372 (55.817km/h) Panagiotis Barmpopoulos Dimitrios Kalamaras Athanasios Lefakis 8 Czech Republic 49.489 (54.558km/h) Tomas Babek Zbysek Mityska Ivo Vildomec 9 Netherlands 49.909 (54.098km/h) Bas Eckmann Lars Jun Yondi Schmidt 10 Canada 51.463 (52.465km/h) Zach Grant Mark Macdonald Rene Regimbauld 3/4 final 1 Australia 46.861 (57.617km/h) Corey Heath Shane Perkins Daniel Thorsen 2 USA 47.096 (57.330km/h) Ben Barczewski Michael Blatchford Aaron Kacala Final 1 Germany 46.284 (58.335km/h) Robert Förstemann Maximilian Levy Benjamin Wittmann 2 Japan 47.130 (57.288km/h) Yu Onishi Atsushi Shibasaki Kazumichi Sugata Final ranking 1 Germany Robert Förstemann Maximilian Levy Benjamin Wittmann 2 Japan Yu Onishi Atsushi Shibasaki Kazumichi Sugata 3 Australia Corey Heath Shane Perkins Daniel Thorsen 4 USA Ben Barczewski Michael Blatchford Aaron Kacala 5 Russia Denis Dmitriev Mikhail Shikhalev Stoyan Vasev 6 France David Cabrol Denis Rivenaire Sireau Kévin 7 Greece Panagiotis Barmpopoulos Dimitrios Kalamaras Athanasios Lefakis 8 Czech Republic Tomas Babek Zbysek Mityska Ivo Vildomec 9 Netherlands Bas Eckmann Lars Jun Yondi Schmidt 10 Canada Zach Grant Mark Macdonald Rene Regimbauld
