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2007 UCI Track Cycling World Championships - CM
Spain, March 29-April 1, 2007
Men's omnium 200m TT, scratch race, individual pursuit, points race & 1000m time trial
Kankovsky Takes Omnium Title
By Shane Stokes in Palma
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Czech rider Alois Kankovsky had a clear lead going into the evening’s final two races but had a scare before finally running out as the winner of the first world championship omnium to be held in almost forty years.
He finished a fine nine points clear of Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina), with US rider Charles Bradley Huff taking bronze. Belarusian Aliaksandr Lisouski was just outside the medals in fourth.
"I am very pleased with this result," Kankovsky said through an interpreter from the Czech team. "My performances in the scratch and pursuit [he was second in both, as well as the kilo] were crucial to this result."
After the 200 metre time trial, scratch race and individual pursuit were run off in the morning session, the omnium drew to a close with the points race and one kilometre time trial. The former was, as expected, a very aggressive affair. Lisouski (Belarus) won the first two sprints from Enrico Peruffo (Italy) and Michaël D’Almeida (France) respectively, but by the time the next gallop came round Perez, Karl-Christian König (Germany), Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) and Jessie Sergent (New Zealand) had slipped clear and crossed the line in that order. The quartet continued on and succeeded in lapping the field to net 20 points, then kept close tabs on the others to ensure they would take the first four places in the event.
Kreutzfeldt won the fifth sprint but Perez’ second and third places in gallops four and five were enough to ensure he came out best, with Sergent and König having to settle for third and fourth. Previous overall leader Kankovsky was only ninth and this obliterated his eight point advantage, putting the Czech and Argentinean riders level on points heading into the final event, the 1 kilometre time trial.
Here, 200m TT winner D’Almeida showed once again his speed against the clock, recording a very impressive 1’02.40 in the kilo and finishing almost two full seconds clear of runner-up Kankovsky. Robert Slippens (Netherlands) was third with 1’06.02. However Perez struggled, finishing back in eleventh, and this was more than enough to secure Kankovsky’s win.
American rider Charles Bradley Huff finished just .3 behing Slippens in fourth place, and jumped from eighth overall to land bronze in the final standings. The omnium may have made the opening day quite intensive in terms of the number of races run, but there was some great racing and the general consensus was that the newly-reintroduced event adds to the championships.
Kankovsky leads omnium
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With three of the five omnium rounds completed, Czech Republic rider Alois Kankovsky has a commanding lead over Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) and Charles Bradley Huff (USA).
Kankovsky finished fourth in the opening race, the 200m time trial, then took second in both the scratch and pursuit events. That earned him a points total of 8, precisely half that of Perez. Huff is on 21, with Alexey Shmidt (Russia) and Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) a point further adrift in fourth and fifth. The winner will be the rider with the lowest total score, one point going to the winner in each round.
The newly-reintroduced championship got underway first thing this morning with the 200 metre time trial where France's Michaël D'Almeida was quickest with 10.278". Australian Ben Kersten and the Pole Pawel Kosciecha were next with 10.480" and 10.709" respectively, while Konkovsky and Huff (USA) were also in the top five.
Following a break while the women's team sprint qualifiers were being run off, the scratch race was next for the omnium competitors and was aggressive from the start. Four riders - Perez, Kankovysky, Shmidt and Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) - went clear early on and, despite the efforts of some of those behind to bridge, gained a lap on the rest of the field. They finished in that order, giving Perez the win, while De Fauw scorched away with two laps to go to hit the line first. It looked dramatic but as he was a lap down, he ended up fifth.
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The combined results meant that Kankovsky, Perez and D'Almedia were sitting on top of the points standing going into the third round, the omnium individual pursuit.
Kankovsky set the second fastest time to hold onto his place at the top of the classification, recording 3'22.686 for the 3000 metre distance, but quickest of all was Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) with a time of 3'21.875.
British rider Jonathan Bellis was third in 3.22.863. Perez, who had started second to Kankovsky in the overall standings, dropped from four to eight points behind due to his sixth place in the test. Huff was two places further back in eighth, but moved from fourth to third overall as a result.
The American caught his opponent D'Almeida during their pursuit, but was actually then dropped by the Frenchman, who surged when Huff was alongside him and pulled out the fastest final kilometre of all the competitors, 1'03.576. However his slow start meant that he finished back in 14th place and consequently dropped from third to ninth in the standings.
There are two events remaining in the omnium's quintet of races and these will be run off later today. The points race gets the evening session off to a start, and will then be followed approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes later by the kilometre time trial.
Results
200m TT 1 Michaël D'Almeida (France) 10.278 (70.052 km/h) 2 Ben Kersten (Australia) 10.480 3 Pawel Kosciecha (Poland) 10.709 4 Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 10.820 5 Charles Bradley Huff (United States Of America) 11.061 6 Panagiotis Keloglou (Greece) 11.181 7 Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 11.213 8 Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) 11.239 9 Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) 11.291 10 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 11.345 11 Karl Christian König (Germany) 11.350 12 Robert Slippens (Netherlands) 11.385 13 Pedro Jose Vera Alcaraz (Spain) 11.394 14 Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) 11.570 15 Alexey Shmidt (Russian Federation) 11.650 16 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 11.698 17 Enrico Peruffo (Italy) 12.092 DNS Roman Kononenko (Ukraine) Scratch race 1 Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) 2 Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 3 Alexey Shmidt (Russian Federation) 4 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 1 lap down 5 Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) 6 Karl Christian König (Germany) 7 Enrico Peruffo (Italy) 8 Charles Bradley Huff (United States Of America) 9 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 10 Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) 11 Robert Slippens (Netherlands) 12 Michaël D'Almeida (France) 13 Ben Kersten (Australia) 14 Panagiotis Keloglou (Greece) 15 Pedro Jose Vera Alcaraz (Spain) 16 Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 17 Pawel Kosciecha (Poland) Individual pursuit 1 Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) 3.21.875 (53.498 km/h) 2 Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 3.22.686 3 Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 3.22.863 4 Alexey Shmidt (Russian Federation) 3.23.228 5 Robert Slippens (Netherlands) 3.23.951 6 Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) 3.24.691 7 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 3.24.778 8 Charles Bradley Huff (United States Of America) 3.25.408 9 Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) 3.25.793 10 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 3.26.541 11 Pedro Jose Vera Alcaraz (Spain) 3.28.104 12 Karlchristia König (Germany) 3.28.347 13 Enrico Peruffo (Italy) 3.29.007 14 Michaël D'Almeida (France) 3.31.619 15 Ben Kersten (Australia) 3.34.263 16 Panagiotis Keloglou (Greece) 3.38.080 17 Pawel Kosciecha (Poland) 3.41.503 Standings after morning session 1 Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 8 pts 2 Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) 16 3 Charles Bradley Huff (USA) 21 4 Alexey Shmidt (Russia) 22 5 Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) 22 6 Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) 25 7 Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 26 8 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 27 9 Michaël D'Almeida (France) 27 10 Robert Slippens (Netherlands) 28 11 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 29 12 Karlchristian König (Germany) 29 13 Ben Kersten (Australia) 30 14 Panagiotis Keloglou (Greece) 36 15 Enrico Peruffo (Italy) 37 16 Pawel Kosciecha (Poland) 37 17 Pedro Jose Vera Alcaraz (Spain) 39
Evening Session
Points race 1 Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) 30 pts 2 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 27 3 Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) 23 4 Karl Christian König (Germany) 23 One lap behind 5 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 18 pts 6 Enrico Peruffo (Italy) 8 7 Alexey Shmidt (Russia) 5 8 Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) 3 9 Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 3 10 Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 2 11 Robert Slippens (Netherlands) 1 12 Charles Bradley Huff (USA) Two laps behind 13 Michaël D'Almeida (France) -20 14 Panagiotis Keloglou (Greece) -20 15 Pedro Jose Vera Alcaraz (Spain) -20 Three laps behind 16 Pawel Kosciecha (Poland) -40 DNS Ben Kersten (Australia) Kilometre time trial 1 Michaël D'Almeida (France) 1.02.40 2 Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 1.04.18 3 Robert Slippens (Netherlands) 1.06.02 4 Charles Bradley Huff (USA) 1.06.32 5 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 1.06.49 6 Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 1.06.66 7 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 1.06.69 8 Pawel Kosciecha (Poland) 1.07.11 9 Pedro Jose Vera Alcaraz (Spain) 1.07.16 10 Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) 1.07.50 11 Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) 1.07.68 12 Karl Christian König (Germany) 1.08.08 13 Panagiotis Keloglou (Greece) 1.08.08 14 Alexey Shmidt (Russia) 1.08.24 15 Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) 1.08.63 16 Enrico Peruffo (Italy) 1.09.66 Final standings 1 Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 19 pts 2 Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) 28 3 Charles Bradley Huff (USA) 37 4 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 37 5 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 38 6 Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) 40 7 Michaël D'Almeida (France) 41 8 Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 42 9 Robert Slippens (Netherlands) 42 10 Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) 43 11 Alexey Shmidt (Russia) 43 12 Karl Christian König (Germany) 45 13 Enrico Peruffo (Italy) 59 14 Pawel Kosciecha (Poland) 61 15 Pedro Jose Vera Alcaraz (Spain) 63 16 Panagiotis Keloglou (Greece) 63 DNF Ben Kersten (Australia)
