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2009 UCI Track Cycling World Championships - CM
Pruszkow, Poland, March 25-29, 2009
Main Page Results Overall standings Previous Stage
Stage 9 - March 29: Men: Sprint (Semifinal, Final), Omnium (15km Points race, Kilometre TT); Women: Keirin (Round 2, Final), Points race
Bauge triumphs in sprint finale
By Gerry McManus in Pruszkow, Poland
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Gregory Bauge won the final gold medal of the World Championships in the men's sprint event. Azizhulhasni Wang (Malaysia) took the Frenchman into a third ride off after he leveled the score in the second ride, but Bauge was not going to be denied the gold medal and powered his way to victory on Sunday afternoon.
"I am so happy," said Bauge. "This has been a big day for me. I have been feeling strong today and yesterday. I was very scared when Kevin [Sireau] crashed in the semi-final. Friends v friends is always difficult, but today it's my day."
The sprint final made a perfect end to the championships with Bauge celebrating for a long time, giving photographers plenty of opportunities to get celebration shots.
It had been an all French affair in one semi-final with Bauge up against Kevin Sireau. Bauge had gone one up in the first heat but the duo were bumping elbows in the final straight in the second run when Sireau's tyre rolled off and he crashed heavily clipping Bauge who somehow managed to stay upright to cross the finish line.
In the second semi it only took Wang two runs to eliminate Australian Shane Perkins. This time there was no sign of the showmanship wheel lifting as he crossed the finish line.
Sireau won the bronze medal against Perkins in two straight runs.
Howard gets the Omnium gold as Australia tops the medal table
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Leigh Howard put in an astonishing time in the final round of the men's Omnium to secure Australia's fourth gold medal of the championships. Howard recorded 1.03.533 to finish third behind Tim Veldt (Netherlands) and one place above Canadian Zach Bell who was his closest contender for the rainbow jersey.
Germany's Robert Bartko had been leading with two events left and Howard was in second place. The points race was extremely tactical to begin with but the pace raised and the attacking action started. Howard was looking tired and sitting on the back until suddenly he appeared the break and took maximum points on the third sprint.
Defending champion Hayden Godfrey (New Zealand) was unable to score in any of the sprints and faded out of contention. Howard scored again on the fifth sprint to finish level on points with Veldt and moved to the top of the overall leader board ahead of Bell, but only by one point.
The kilo time trial was the going to decide the gold medal winner and Howard set off like a rocket with a first lap of 19.1 seconds and completed 500m in the fastest time. He started to fade but somehow managed to dig deep to finish less than one second faster than Bell to win the rainbow jersey. Bell had the consolation of winning the silver medal and Veldt's win in the kilo event gave him the bronze.
"I didn't want to get another silver medal and I was pretty sure I was going to get a gold today," said Howard. "I was extremely happy with my performance today. Last year I was very disappointed with my points race but I made up for that this year getting second and getting the extra points I needed going into the last event.
"Zach put in an unbelievable performance especially in the pursuit and for a sprinter like Tim Veldt to win the points race and do a 3.19 in the individual pursuit was amazing," he added. "I have had an immense programme here with the team pursuit and the Madison. I am going straight to bed tonight as I am absolutely stuffed. I have a couple of days off now and then fly over to Italy where I am spending most of the season."
Bronzini crowned queen of the points
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Giorgia Bronzini landed Italy's first gold medal of the championships in the last women's event. The World Cup competition winner consistent scored points in all but two of the ten sprints in the 100 lap race.
Yumari Gonzalez Valdivieso (Cuba) had won maximum points in the first sprint and then became race leader when she won the sprint at half distance. The fast race was punctuated with small breaks but nothing stayed clear for more than a few laps. Bronzini carefully marked the important riders and finally went into the gold medal position after she picked up two points on the seventh sprint.
Lizzie Armitstead (Great Britain) stayed close to the front and kept the pace high and thus avoided two crashes that looked fairly nasty. Shelly Olds was one of the girls that crashed when the American clipped Armitstead's back wheel and took swan dive off the track but remounted to finish the race. Russia's Olga Slyusareva and France's Pascale Jeuland were not so lucky and failed to finish.
With one sprint left Armitstead was lying in third place behind Bronzini and Cui Wang (China), who had been in a break with Hong Kong's Wan Yiu Wong and scoring two sets of maximum points. Australia's Belinda Goss, Armitstead and Gonzalez Valdivieso flew round the last lap with the Cuba getting five points to secure the silver medal.
"It is incredible. I have dreamt about this jersey for a long time," said Bronzini. "I was the leader in the World Cup and I wanted to win this jersey. I dedicate this win to the girls in my team.
"I am very happy with the work that the Italian team did to get me to the championships in great condition," she added. "I won the first World Cup points race in Cali, Columbia and was third in Beijing and sixth in Copenhagen where I won the World Cup winners jersey.
Armitstead's won two medals in the scratch and points races and the young talented endurance rider also won a gold medal in the women's pursuit.
"I had couple of near misses in the race," said Armitstead. "It is just part of being in the bunch. I think the championships have been a great success. I am the first female British rider to get medals in a bunched race since 1988 and that's the year that I was born."
"I am making a name for myself in this event," said the 21-year-old from West Yorkshire. "That's what I wanted to do and hopefully I can secure my future in the team on the track. I am happy that it is all over though."
Guo gets golden Keirin victory
China's Shuang Guo proved she has incredible sprinting ability when she won the final of the women's Keirin in Pruszkow on Sunday afternoon. She went to the front with a lap to go and held off all the challengers to earn the top spot on the podium and the gold medal.
Clara Sanchez (France) attacked with a lap to go and Guo jumped on her wheel. Guo led round the final bend with Sanchez taking second place on her left and Wily Kanis (Netherlands) taking the bronze medal on her right.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Gerry McManus/www.gerrymcmanus.co.uk
- Victory for Bauges in the third heat of the sprint final.
- Grégory Bauge (France) celebrates.
- Shuang Guo (People's Republic of China) wins the women's keirin.
- Bauge salutes the crowd's generous applause.
- Bauge is delighted on the podium.
- Two sprint medals for France.
- Kévin Sireau (France) on his way to winning bronze in the men's sprint.
- Not so hot for Sireau after he hit the deck in the men's sprint semifinal.
- Leigh Howard (Australia) on the podium with his men's omnium gold medal.
- Leigh Howard (Australia) delighted to win the gold medal.
- Leigh Howard (Australia) strains as he kicks out of the start gate for the kilometer portion of the men's omnium.
- Leigh Howard (Australia) takes the lead in the points race event of the men's omnium.
- Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia) got the silver medal in the men's sprint.
- Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia) wins his men's sprint semifinal against Shane Perkins (Australia).
- Lizzie Armistead on the front in the women's points race.
- Giorgia Bronzini wins the women's points race for Italy.
- Giorgia Bronzini (Italy) on the podium with Yumari Gonzalez Valdivieso (Cuba) and Lizzie Armitstead (Great Britain), l&r, for the women's points race.
- Bronzini is delighted to be world champion.
Results
Men's Sprint
Semifinal Heat 1 1 Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia) 0.10.480 0.10.680 2 Shane Perkins (Australia) Heat 2 1 Grégory Bauge (France) 0.10.348 0.10.635 2 Kévin Sireau (France) Final 1 Grégory Bauge (France) 0.10.406 0.10.281 2 Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia) 0.10.499 3 Kévin Sireau (France) 0.10.443 0.10.316 4 Shane Perkins (Australia)
Men's Omnium
15km Points Race 1 Tim Veldt (Netherlands) 8 pts 2 Leigh Howard (Australia) 8 3 Volodymyr Diudia (Ukraine) 7 4 Zachary Bell (Canada) 7 5 Albert Torres Barcelo (Spain) 6 6 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 6 7 Robert Bartko (Germany) 5 8 Ho Ting Kwok (Hong Kong, China) 5 9 Taylor Phinney (United States Of America) 4 10 Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 3 11 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 3 12 Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland) 2 13 Jan Dostal (Czech Republic) 1 14 Arles Antonio Castro Laverde (Colombia) 1 15 Artur Ershov (Russian Federation) 16 Hayden Godfrey (New Zealand) 17 Angel Dario Colla (Argentina) -20 DNS Stijn Steels (Belgium) Kilometre TT 1 Tim Veldt (Netherlands) 1.03.089 (57.062 km/h) 2 Taylor Phinney (United States Of America) 1.03.458 3 Leigh Howard (Australia) 1.03.533 4 Zachary Bell (Canada) 1.04.296 5 Hayden Godfrey (New Zealand) 1.04.736 6 Volodymyr Diudia (Ukraine) 1.04.972 7 Robert Bartko (Germany) 1.05.351 8 Jan Dostal (Czech Republic) 1.05.585 9 Artur Ershov (Russian Federation) 1.05.940 10 Albert Torres Barcelo (Spain) 1.06.255 11 Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 1.06.421 12 Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland) 1.07.073 13 Angel Dario Colla (Argentina) 1.07.792 14 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 1.07.870 15 Arles Antonio Castro Laverde (Colombia) 1.08.427 16 Ho Ting Kwok (Hong Kong, China) 1.09.012 17 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 1.09.395 DNS Stijn Steels (Belgium) Final Standings 1 Leigh Howard (Australia) 19 pts 2 Zachary Bell (Canada) 21 3 Tim Veldt (Netherlands) 24 4 Volodymyr Diudia (Ukraine) 26 5 Robert Bartko (Germany) 26 6 Taylor Phinney (United States Of America) 32 7 Hayden Godfrey (New Zealand) 40 8 Albert Torres Barcelo (Spain) 46 9 Artur Ershov (Russian Federation) 47 10 Jan Dostal (Czech Republic) 54 11 Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland) 55 12 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 56 13 Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 58 14 Angel Dario Colla (Argentina) 60 15 Ho Ting Kwok (Hong Kong, China) 63 16 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 71 17 Arles Antonio Castro Laverde (Colombia) 76 DNF Stijn Steels (Belgium)
Women's Keirin
Second round Heat 1 1 Shuang Guo (People's Republic of China) 2 Anna Meares (Australia) 3 Elisa Frisoni (Italy) 4 Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez (Cuba) 5 Kaarle Mcculloch (Australia) 6 Kristina Vogel (Germany) Heat 2 1 Clara Sanchez (France) 2 Willy Kanis (Netherlands) 3 Sandie Clair (France) 4 Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain) 5 Miriam Welte (Germany) 6 Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) Final 1 Shuang Guo (People's Republic of China) 2 Clara Sanchez (France) 3 Willy Kanis (Netherlands) 4 Elisa Frisoni (Italy) 5 Anna Meares (Australia) 6 Sandie Clair (France) Final 7-12 7 Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez (Cuba) 8 Miriam Welte (Germany) 9 Kaarle Mcculloch (Australia) 10 Kristina Vogel (Germany) 11 Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain) DNS Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) Place 13-20 13 Yvonne Hijgenaar (Netherlands) 13 Olga Streltsova (Russian Federation) 13 Monique Sullivan (Canada) 16 Lulu Zheng (People's Republic of China) 16 Jessica Varnish (Great Britain) 16 Renata Dabrowska (Poland) 19 Diana Maria Garcia Orrego (Colombia) 19 Jutatip Maneephan (Thailand)
Women's Points Race
1 Giorgia Bronzini (Italy) 18 pts 2 Yumari Gonzalez Valdivieso (Cuba) 15 3 Elizabeth Armitstead (Great Britain) 13 4 Cui Wang (People's Republic of China) 12 5 Belinda Goss (Australia) 10 6 Svetlana Pauliukaite (Lithuania) 9 7 Olaberria Dorronsoro (Spain) 8 8 Jarmila Machacova (Czech Republic) 7 9 Wan Yiu Wong (Hong Kong, China) 6 10 Elke Gebhardt (Germany) 3 11 Tara Whitten (Canada) 3 12 Lauren Ellis (New Zealand) 3 13 Andrea Wolfer (Switzerland) 14 Maria Luisa Calle Williams (Colombia) 15 Eleonora Van Dijk (Netherlands) 16 Shelley Olds (United States Of America) 17 Jolien D'Hoore (Belgium) 18 Nontasin Chanpeng (Thailand) DNF Olga Slyusareva (Russian Federation) DNF Pascale Jeuland (France) DNF Malgorzata Wojtyra (Poland) DNF Aksana Papko (Belarus)
