The third and penultimate day of the UCI 2019 Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, once had again plenty of action and saw fantastic performances from many of the para-athletes on the track.
The day opened with the qualifying rounds on both Women's C4 and C5 - 3km and Men’s C4 and C5 - 4km Individual Pursuit.
The first race – and the first World Record of the day to fall: in the Women’s C4, the best qualifying time was by the Australian World Record holder Emily Petricola, who improved her previous record with the time of 3’53.297” at the average speed of 46.293km/h. In the Gold final she will face Canada’s Keely Shaw, while the Bronze final will see the second Australian, Meg Lemon, facing the second Canadian, Marie-Claude Molnar.
One of the most eagerly awaited athletes of these World Championships, Dame Sarah Storey, set the best time and booked a slot in the Gold finals in the C5 - 3km Individual Pursuit with the time of 3’37.497” at the average speed of 49.656km/h. The World Record holder will face Anna Harkowska of Poland. The Bronze final is between a second Team GB rider, Crystal Lane-Wright, and Samantha Bosco of the United States of America.
In the Men’s C4 - 4km Individual Pursuit qualifying rounds the World Record Holder, Slovakian Jozef Metelka, didn’t disappoint in setting the fastest qualifying time of 4’31.058”, to face the British rider George Peasgood in the Gold final. The third place final will see Colombia’s Diego Duenas vs Romania’s Carol-Eduard Novak.
The last qualifying rounds of the Men’s C5 - 4km Individual Pursuit saw the best time recorded by the Australian Alistair Donohoe with 4’27.456” at the average speed of 53.841km/h, with the other athlete to qualify for the Gold final being the Ukranian Yehor Dementyev. The Bronze final will be between British Jonathan Gildea and a local rider, the Dutchman Daniel Abraham Gebru.
The first Gold Medal and Rainbow Jersey of the day went, for his second time in this edition of the Worlds, to one of the great protagonists of the event so far, Ricardo Ten. The Spanish rider won the Men’s C1 Scratch Race beating Russia’s Ivan Ermakov and Australia’s Darcy Thompson over the 60 laps.
In a closely fought Men’s C2 Scratch, Race Canada’s Tristen Chernove emerged as the winner after 15km of racing, beating the Colombian Alejandro Perea, Silver, and the Chinese Guihua Liang.
The scratch races were the last of the Men's C1 and C2 - Omnium - Test Event races. In the C1 category, the winner was Spain’s Ricardo Ten, with second going to the Russian Ivan Ermakov, while third was Ross Wilson from Canada. In the C2 category, the winner was a fellow Canadian, Tristen Chernove, second was the Colombian Alejandro Perea and third Belgian Ewoud Vromant.
Commenting on the dominant performances of his rider Ricardo Ten, the Spanish National Team Head Coach Félix Garcia Casas said, “Ricardo’s results have been amazing. This is already a dream come true and, despite his continuous progress as a cyclist, repeating this level of results in the future will be very hard. We are incredibly happy.”
The afternoon session opened with the same races as in the morning, but this time to decide the precious metals, with the dream of a Rainbow Jersey just one race away: the Women's C4 and C5 - 3km and Men’s C4 and C5 - 4km Individual Pursuit finals.
And the finals started with a bang! In the Women's C4 - 3km Individual Pursuit Australia’s Emily Petricola improved her morning World Record with the astonishing time of 3’43.620”, almost 10 seconds faster than the time she established earlier in the day. Silver went to Canada’s Keely Shaw, while the Bronze final was won by another Australian, Meg Lemon.
The Women's C5 - 3km Individual Pursuit saw Dame Sarah Storey dominate. In the Gold final, the Team GB rider caught the Silver medalist, Anna Harkowska of Poland. The bronze medal went to US athlete Samantha Bosco.
The same dominance was shown in the Men’s C4 - 4km Individual Pursuit Gold final, with Slovakian Jozef Metelka catching the other finalist, Great Britain’s George Peasgood, who won Silver. Bronze went to the Colombian Diego Duenas.
An even greater display of dominance was at show in the Men’s C5 - 4km Individual Pursuit Gold final, where after only 1,500m of racing the new World Champion Alistair Donohoe caught the Silver medalist, Ukranian’s Yehor Dementyev. Third on the podium was Daniel Abraham Gebru from the Netherlands.
The Individual Pursuit was the third of the four races making up the Omnium Test event. With the Women’s Omnium to end in the evening session, American Justin Widhalm and British rider Jonathan Gildea lead the C4 category and C5 category respectively, before the final Scratch races tomorrow.
In the Women's B - 1km Time Trial the World Record holders Sophie Thornhill and pilot Helen Scott from Great Britain confirmed their leadership in the discipline, winning Gold and defending their title with the time of 1’05.612” at the average speed of 54.868km/h. Silver went to Larissa Klaassen - Imke Brommer from the Netherlands, whilst Bronze was awarded to New Zealand’s duo Emma Foy - Hannah Van Kampen.
The Men's B - 1km Time Trial saw a Team GB domination, with the duo of James Ball and Peter Mitchell winning Gold ahead of the World Record Holders Matthew Rotherham - Neil Fachie. Bronze went to the Netherlands with Tristan Bangma - Patrick Bos.
After the race, an emotional James Ball was caught on camera: “I can't believe it... we've worked so hard for that... I'm so happy.”
Then it was the time for the Women’s Scratch races in all the C categories, which would also define the positions for the Omnium - Test Events.
In the 10km of the Women’s C1-C2 Scratch, the Gold medal went to China’s Sini Zeng, with the Australian Amanda Reid taking Silver and Colombia’s Leidi Ramirez awarded the Bronze. Team GB’s Katie Toft was the only participant at the Women's C1 Omnium, while C2 saw Colombia’s Daniela Munevar in first position, Austria’s Yvonne Marzinke second and France’s Christelle Ribault third.
China claimed another gold medal in the Women’s C3 Scratch with Xiaomei Wang, who beat Australia’s Paige Greco into Silver medal position in the final sprint. Bronze went to Denise Schindler of Germany. Greco was first overall in the Omnium, with Schindler third and American Jamie Whitmore third.
The Chinese women’s domination continued in the Women’s C4 Scratch, with Jianping Ruan winning Gold at the expense of the Australians Meg Lemon (Silver), and Emily Petricola (Bronze). Lemon was first in the Omnium, with the Russian rider Elena Galkina second and Canada’s Marie-Claude Molnar in third.
The last race of the day saw an incredible performance by Dame Sarah Storey, who won her second Gold medal and Rainbow Jersey of the day, lapping the field not once, but twice during the race. Her compatriot Crystal Lane-Wright won Silver, while the American athlete Samantha Bosco struck Bronze. With victory in the Scratch, Storey secured her Omnium first place, with Caroline Groot from the Netherlands taking second and Crystal Lane-Wright third place.
Dame Sarah Storey commented her amazing day: “It feels really good to be back in the competition. I raced here four years ago, so the same distance in time in between Rio and Tokyo. I’ve raced great times both in the Pursuit qualifiers and in the finals, and I’ve felt even better in the Scratch. Having that race element in the Scratch bring out the kid in me, I suppose.”
And so ended another tremendously exciting day of racing at the Apeldoorn velodrome, with one of the greatest riders of the World Champions in top form. All is set for Sunday’s finale.
📄 All results here
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