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Photo ©: Schaaf

2009 UCI Track Cycling World Championships - CM

Pruszkow, Poland, March 25-29, 2009

Main Page    Results   Overall standings             Next Stage

Session 1 - March 25: Men: Team sprint (qualifying, final), Points race; Women: Individual pursuit (qualifying, final), 500m Time Trial

Meyer leaves 'em gasping

By Gerry McManus in Pruszkow, Poland

Cameron Meyer's commitment to track racing
Photo ©: Gerry McManus
(Click for larger image)

Australia's Cameron Meyer won the tough battle in the points race to be crowned World Champion in Poland on Wednesday. The 21-year-old Garmin-Slipstream professional took the second half of the race by the scruff of the neck and pushed Denmark's Daniel Keutzfeldt into second spot and Britain's Chris Newton into third.

Newton took an early lead in the 160 lap race but he was forced to do a lot of work pulling back breakaway groups intent on taking a lap. Meyer was in a lot of the attacking action as was Colby Pearce (USA), Kam Po Wong (Hong Kong) and 2008 champion Vasili Kirienka (Belarus). Meyer managed to break away in a group containing Germany's Roger Kluge, Pearce and Kirienka and the leaders mopped up the sprint points. Meyer took most of the points in four of the last sprints.

"I really wanted the rainbow jersey," said Meyer. "I was so hungry for it tonight. I didn't want to come fourth again. I have gone out and picked up early points in the last few points races I have done so this time I sort of sat back a little.

"There were a lot of tired legs at the halfway stage and I had the legs when the move went and to come away with the jersey is unbelievable," he added.

Shanks turns the tables on Houvenaghel

Delight for Alison Shanks (New Zealand)
Photo ©: Gerry McManus
(Click for larger image)

Kiwi Alison Shanks reversed the positions from the pursuit qualification when she out gunned Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain) to win the gold medal in the Women's 3,000m Individual Pursuit. Houvenaghel had the lead after 1,000m but Shanks scorched round the track to win by over 1.5 seconds with the British girl not able to live up to her position as pre-race favourite.

"It felt good today," said Shanks. "We went out there with a game plan to ride my own race for the first six laps to make sure I had enough left in the tank to race in the second half and it worked tonight.

"Over the past few years I have always gone faster in the second round and I realised that if I nailed it technically and didn't blow myself up, that I would be able to fight for it in the last four laps where it counts," she added.

Vilija Sereikaite (Lithuania) beat British youngster Joanna Rowsell in the bronze medal final.

In qualifying Houvenaghel went fastest in the first event of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Pruszkow, Poland. Houvenaghel zipped round the warm track while outside the snow lay on the ground in temperatures dropping to below zero.

Alison Shanks (New Zealand) needed to improve by a least a second and a half if she was to beat the British rider in the final of the Women's 3,000m Individual Pursuit. When the pair met in the same qualifying ride, Houvenaghel led from the first kilometre and appeared in no danger of losing. Edyta Jasinska finished off the first qualifying session after the Polish rider got a restart after crashing earlier during qualifying.

Krupeckaite shows World Record breaking perfection

Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) pulled out all the stops
Photo ©: Gerry McManus
(Click for larger image)

Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) blasted round the 250m Polish track to smash the World Record and emerge the gold medal winner in the Women's 500m time trial. Australia's Anna Meares had set the early time to beat when she recorded 33.796 seconds and this time stayed top of the board before it was challenged.

Britain's golden girl Victoria Pendleton could only manage 34.102 but that was enough to give her the bronze medal. The Lithuanian's winning time was half a second faster than Meares.

France back on top

The French trio of Gregory Bauge, Mickael Bourgain and Kevin Sireau won the Men's Team Sprint final against Great Britain. The British team was without triple Olympic medallist Chris Hoy, but any country would be proud to have Matt Crampton, Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff in their line up.

The French team got off to an amazing start when they edged the British team, led off by fast starter Jamie Staff on the first lap. The French trio held on to win the gold.

Germany beat Australia in the bronze medal ride off. The Aussies had started slightly quicker and were ahead after the first two laps but German team just managed to claw their way back to take the final podium place.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by AFP Photo

Images by Gerry McManus/www.gerrymcmanus.co.uk

Results

Men's Team sprint

Qualifying

1 France                                   0.43.614 (61.906 km/h)
 Grégory Bauge (France)                            
 Michaël d'Almeida (France)                        
 Kévin Sireau (France)                             

2 Great Britain                            0.43.738
 Matthew Crampton (Great Britain)                  
 Jason Kenny (Great Britain)                       
 Jamie Staff (Great Britain)                       

3 Germany                                  0.43.911
 Rene Enders (Germany)                             
 Robert Forstemann (Germany)                       
 Stefan Nimke (Germany)                            

4 Australia                                0.44.115
 Daniel Ellis (Australia)                          
 Shane Perkins (Australia)                         
 Scott Sunderland (Australia)                      

5 Poland                                   0.44.865
 Maciej Bielecki (Poland)                          
 Kamil Kuczynski (Poland)                          
 Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland)                       

6 Malaysia                                 0.44.996
 Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia)                      
 Josiah Ng Onn Lam (Malaysia)                      
 Mohd Rizal Tisin (Malaysia)                       

7 Netherlands                              0.44.999
 Teun Mulder (Netherlands)                         
 Yondi Schmidt (Netherlands)                       
 Tim Veldt (Netherlands)                           

8 Japan                                    0.45.139
 Kazuya Narita (Japan)                             
 Yudai Nitta (Japan)                               
 Kazunari Watanabe (Japan)                         

9 People's Republic of China               0.45.201
 Wen Hao Li (People's Republic of China)           
 Lei Zhang (People's Republic of China)            
 Zixiang Zhang (People's Republic of China)        

10 Russian Federation                      0.45.513
 Sergey Borisov (Russian Federation)               
 Sergey Kucherov (Russian Federation)              
 Valentin Savitskiy (Russian Federation)           

11 Ukraine                                 0.45.713
 Yevhen Bolibrukh (Ukraine)                        
 Yuriy Tsyupyk (Ukraine)                           
 Andrii Vynokurov (Ukraine)                        

12 Spain                                   0.45.771
 David Alonso Castillo (Spain)                     
 Alvaro Alonso Rubio (Spain)                       
 Hodei Mazquiaran Uria (Spain)                     

13 Greece                                  0.46.578
 Sotirios Bretas (Greece)                          
 Christos Volikakis (Greece)                       
 Zafeirios Volikakis (Greece)                      

14 Czech Republic                          0.46.594
 Tomas Babek (Czech Republic)                      
 Filip Ditzel (Czech Republic)                     
 Adam Ptacnik (Czech Republic)                     

15 Colombia                                0.46.729
 Jonathan Marin Cermeno (Colombia)                 
 Leonardo Alfredo Narvaez Romero (Colombia)        
 Hernan Sanchez Castillo (Colombia)                

DNS Trinidad and Tobago                            
 Azikiwe Kellar (Trinidad and Tobago)              
 Christopher Sellier (Trinidad and Tobago)         
 Haseem Mclean (Trinidad and Tobago)               

Final

1 France                                   0.43.510 (62.054 km/h)
 Grégory Bauge (France)                            
 Mickaël Bourgain (France)                         
 Kévin Sireau (France)                             
 
2 Great Britain                            0.43.869
 Matthew Crampton (Great Britain)                  
 Jason Kenny (Great Britain)                       
 Jamie Staff (Great Britain)                       
 
3 Germany                                  0.43.912
 Rene Enders (Germany)                             
 Robert Forstemann (Germany)                       
 Stefan Nimke (Germany)                            
 
4 Australia                                0.43.986
 Daniel Ellis (Australia)                          
 Shane Perkins (Australia)                         
 Scott Sunderland (Australia)                      

Men's points race

1 Cameron Meyer (Australia)                  24 pts
2 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark)               22
3 Chris Newton (Great Britain)               21
4 Eloy Teruel Rovira (Spain)                 17
5 Vasili Kiryienka (Belarus)                 15
6 Colby Pearce (United States Of America)    14
7 Roger Kluge (Germany)                      13
8 Kam Po Wong (Hong Kong, China)              8
9 Zachary Bell (Canada)                       6
10 Milan Kadlec (Czech Republic)              6
11 Kazuhiro Mori (Japan)                      5
12 Kenny De Ketele (Belgium)                  5
13 Morgan Kneisky (France)                    3
14 Martin Garrido Mayorga (Argentina)         3
15 Volodymyr Rybin (Ukraine)                  3
16 Juan Arango Carvajal (Colombia)            2
17 Alexander Aeschbach (Switzerland)          1
18 Elia Viviani (Italy)                     -20  
19 Pim Ligthart (Netherlands)               -20   
20 Joon Yong Seo (Korea)                    -35   
21 Alexey Lyalko (Kazakhstan)               -40  
22 Andreas Graf (Austria)                   -40   
DNF Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland)                   
DNF Leonid Krasnov (Russian Federation)        

Women's 500m Time Trial

1 Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania)               0.33.296 (54.060 km/h) * World Record
2 Anna Meares (Australia)                      0.33.796
3 Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain)           0.34.102
4 Sandie Clair (France)                        0.34.114
5 Willy Kanis (Netherlands)                    0.34.258
6 Kaarle Mcculloch (Australia)                 0.34.276
7 Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez (Cuba)             0.34.358
8 Olga Panarina (Belarus)                      0.34.557
9 Miriam Welte (Germany)                       0.34.827
10 Yvonne Hijgenaar (Netherlands)              0.35.054
11 Kristina Vogel (Germany)                    0.35.278
12 Elisa Frisoni (Italy)                       0.35.409
13 Jinjie Gong (People's Republic of China)    0.35.442
14 Anna Blyth (Great Britain)                  0.35.443
15 Olga Streltsova (Russian Federation)        0.35.710
16 Huang Ting Ying (Chinese Taipei)            0.35.924
17 Lulu Zheng (People's Republic of China)     0.35.965
18 Diana Maria Garcia Orrego (Colombia)        0.36.034
19 Wai See Lee (Hong Kong, China)              0.36.103
20 Helena Casas Roige (Spain)                  0.36.319
21 Aleksandra Drejgier (Poland)                0.36.475
22 Jutatip Maneephan (Thailand)                0.36.673
23 Cinthia Martinez (Uruguay)                  0.38.651

Women's Individual pursuit

Qualifying
 
1 Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain)         3.29.491  (51.553 km/h)
2 Alison Shanks (New Zealand)               3.31.063
3 Vilija Sereikaite (Lithuania)             3.33.935
4 Joanna Rowsell (Great Britain)            3.35.028
5 Josephine Tomic (Australia)               3.37.780
6 Eleonora Van Dijk (Netherlands)           3.38.373
7 Tara Whitten (Canada)                     3.38.962
8 Svitlana Galyuk (Ukraine)                 3.40.413
9 Leire Olaberria Dorronsoro (Spain)        3.41.176
10 Verena Joos (Germany)                    3.42.611
11 Charlotte Becker (Germany)               3.42.821
12 Maria Luisa Calle Williams (Colombia)    3.42.930
13 Jolien d'Hoore (Belgium)                 3.43.859
14 Lada Kozlikova (Czech Republic)          3.43.880
15 Ausrine Trebaite (Lithuania)             3.45.160
16 Dalila Rodriguez Hernandez (Cuba)        3.45.956
17 Olga Slyusareva (Russian Federation)     3.47.161
18 Tatsiana Sharakova (Belarus)             3.47.636
19 Edyta Jasinska (Poland)                  3.53.744
20 Gema Pascual Torrecilla (Spain)          3.56.365
21 Nontasin Chanpeng (Thailand)             4.01.997
 
Final
 
1 Alison Shanks (New Zealand)              3.29.807 (51.475 km/h)
2 Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain)        3.32.174
3 Vilija Sereikaite (Lithuania)            3.33.583
4 Joanna Rowsell (Great Britain)           3.35.209
5 Josephine Tomic (Australia)                      
6 Eleonora Van Dijk (Netherlands)                  
7 Tara Whitten (Canada)                            
8 Svitlana Galyuk (Ukraine)                        
9 Leire Olaberria Dorronsoro (Spain)               
10 Verena Joos (Germany)                           
11 Charlotte Becker (Germany)                      
12 Maria Luisa Calle Williams (Colombia)           
13 Jolien d'Hoore (Belgium)                        
14 Lada Kozlikova (Czech Republic)                 
15 Ausrine Trebaite (Lithuania)                    
16 Dalila Rodriguez Hernandez (Cuba)               
17 Olga Slyusareva (Russian Federation)            
18 Tatsiana Sharakova (Belarus)                    
19 Edyta Jasinska (Poland)                         
20 Gema Pascual Torrecilla (Spain)                 
21 Nontasin Chanpeng (Thailand)                    

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