Single Women: Jana Pfann’s golden debut
Last year’s artistic cycling U19 European Champion Jana Pfann (GER) contested her first season in the Elite category in 2022; she immediately qualified for the UCI World Championships and took the rainbow jersey at the first time of asking. It’s an amazing feat that has been achieved by very few in artistic cycling.
"I still can't believe it," said the 19-year-old. Six years ago, she was at a UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships for the first time, as a spectator. "That was in Stuttgart in 2016," she recalls. She attended three more UCI Worlds as a fan and dreamed of competing one day. "But I never expected this dream to come true so quickly."
Jana Pfann is German, European and now UCI World Champion, but she did not feel the pressure of being one of the favourites in Ghent. "It was my first UCI World Championships, I had nothing to lose," she said. The first step was taken in reaching the Final 4: "My routine in the medal round was then significantly better than in the qualification," she said, pleased about the increase in performance to 190.14 points. Yet she was overwhelmed and in tears when it became clear that she was the new UCI World Champion.
Pfann sat on the leader’s couch and waited for her RKB Bruckmühl club colleague Ramona Dandl who had a slightly higher difficulty level. "I concentrated on the figures and didn't think about whether it would be enough to win the title," said the biochemistry masters student, who introduced some imperfections shortly before the end. "I suspected that it would cost crucial points. But sometimes the judges decide differently, so I didn't think about it." Dandl is not disappointed: "It's also the first UCI World Championships for me and I'm very happy with silver."
Alessa Hotz (Switzerland) won bronze for the second time in a row, declaring that she was not completely satisfied with her performance. Lorena Schneider (Austria), finished fourth, only 0.44 behind Hotz.
ACT4: history made with Hong Kong’s bronze
Germany also won the UCI World title in the Act4 competition. An exciting duel between the quartet from Mainz-Ebersheim (GER) and Baar (SUI) was expected after the UCI World Cup final one week earlier where only one point separated the two teams – in the German women’s favour.
Milena Schwarz, Annika Rosenbach, Stella Rosenbach and Tijem Karatas showed absolute strength of nerves on Saturday evening. From a possible 240 points, they reached 229.69. This time they had a ten-point advantage over Switzerland. Nevertheless, the team’s nervousness was palpable after their routine until the result was confirmed. Finally the tension dissolved into jumps of jubilation, hugs and tears of joy.
Their Swiss rivals Vanessa Hotz, Carole Ledergerber, Flavia Schürmann and Stefanie Moos made the decisive mistake at the beginning, when one athlete got off the bike. The rest of their routine was performed perfectly. At the award ceremony, the joy of earning silver was also etched on their faces.
Bronze went to an Asian team for the first time in indoor cycling history. Hong Kong (Dong Qing Ho, Cheuk Lu Lam, Cheuk Lam So and Cheuk Sze Wong) made their debut, and despite crashing at the beginning, finished their presentation cleanly to earn 82.96 points and make artistic cycling history.
Cycle-ball Group A: Austria on course
The conclusion of the preliminary cycle-ball rounds confirmed Sunday’s playoff games. Five victories underlined Austria’s ambition to regain the title. Patrick Schnetzer and Stefan Feuerstein prevailed against UCI World Champions Germany (Gerhard Mlady/Bernd Mlady), winning 8:6 in a goal-rich game. With it, the third-placed pair in the 2021 UCI World Championships secured direct entry into the semi-finals.
As the second-placed team, Germany will meet UCI World Championship hosts Belgium (Brecht Damen / Niels Dirikx) in the playoff match. The Belgians celebrated their final draw (2:2) against the Czech Republic like a victory. Both teams had earned only one point each, but Belgium had the better goal difference, securing them fifth place and a spot in the playoff round.
Switzerland (Severin and Benjamin Waibel) finished the preliminary round in third place and will face fourth-placed France (Mathias and Quentin Seyfried) in the knockout match on Sunday. The Czechs Jiri Hrdlicka / Robert Zvolanek will play in the relegation match against the winners of the B group, Japan.
Cycle-ball Group B: Japan show strength
Japan lived up to being Group B favourites as Yusuke Murakami and Yuma Takahashi are undefeated so far, winning the B Group of the UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships for the second time in a row.
The duo scored 45 goals in their five games against Great Britain (15:0), Ghana (8:1), Malaysia (11:1), Armenia (6:4) and Hong Kong (8:1). Second place in this tournament also went to an Asian team, Hong Kong.
Third and fourth places went respectively to two teams from Asia and Africa that are based in Belgium: Armenia (based in Ghent) and Ghana (who live and train in Beringen).
The action continues on Sunday with the Single Men and Pair Women finals in artistic cycling and the culmination of the cycle-ball competition.