Wonderkids impress at the UCI Junior Track World Championships

Federica Venturelli leads Italian charge to top of the medals table.

Just two weeks after the track and para-cycling track action at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, young track specialists delivered more thrilling action, at the 48th UCI Junior Track World Championships. The event (August 23-27) was held in Cali, the first time they have been hosted in Colombia.

Local talents shone in the velodrome of Cali, with two rainbow jerseys: for Juliana Londoño (omnium) and Stefany Cuadrado (keirin). However, it was the Italian youngsters who were the most decorated: from 22 events, the Squadra Azzurra took an impressive and extremely balanced tally of 12 podium spots: four titles, four silver medals and four bronze medals.

Venturelli leads the Italian way

The Italian selection showed skills and depth, with 14 different riders stepping up to the podium. Juan David Sierra perfectly embodies the Italian conquests in Cali. He claimed a collective gold in the team pursuit - along with Renato Favero, Matteo Fiorin and Etienne Grimod - silver in the points race behind Canada’s Ethan Powell, and third in the Madison with Fiorin.

But the brightest talent from the Squadra Azzurra was Federica Venturelli, setting the velodrome of Cali on fire, in line with her stellar performances this season on the road, on the track and in cyclo-cross. At the beginning of the year, she came 4th in the Junior race at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships. On the road, as part of the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow and across Scotland, she took bronze in the Junior individual time trial. Now, she has claimed two rainbow jerseys on the track, with a world record and an additional silver medal to cap things off.

Venturelli powered to a dominant win in the individual pursuit, setting a new Junior world record with a time of 2:15.678, almost 2 seconds faster than the reference set by Great Britain’s Zoe Bäckstedt a couple of years previously. The Italian also proved to be a brilliant team player as she took silver in the team pursuit behind France, with her compatriots Vittoria Grassi, Alice Toniolli and Valentina Zanzi. Finally, Venturelli partnered up with Grassi for another gold medal in the Madison.

Anita Baima was the other Italian awarded a rainbow jersey. She won the elimination race ahead of Great Britain’s Isabel Sharp, who also took silver behind France’s Mélanie Dupin in the points race.

High-end performances lead to world records

Venturelli was not the only versatile talent to shine in Cali, nor was she the only one to set a new world record. China’s Xuehuang Luo even took two world records - in both the 500m time trial and in the team sprint (with Mengyao Guo and Yimin Bian) – en route to gold medals in both events. Luo also finished third in the individual sprint, behind Elizaveta Solozobova (riding as an individual neutral athlete) and Colombia’s Stefany Cuadrado.

Germany’s Pete-Collin Flemming, Colin Rudolph and Jakob Vogt also set a new world record in the first round of the team sprint (43.789). They eventually beat China’s Ruiting Huang, Haoran Sun and Han Xie to take the rainbow jerseys.

A rising talent on the road as well as the track, Great Britain’s Matthew Brennan beat the Junior world record of the individual pursuit (3:07.092) to win a thrilling final against Luca Giaimi. The young Italian had set the previous record (3:07.596) in July, during the UEC Track Juniors/U23 European Championships.

On the final night, Brennan took another gold medal in the Madison, alongside his teammate Ben Wiggins, son of the British cycling icon Bradley Wiggins. Ben also recently stepped onto the podium of the Junior individual time trial on the road, at the UCI Cycling Worlds.

The other rainbow jerseys were claimed by Nikita Kiriltsev (men’s sprint and keirin), Australia’s Tayte Ryan (men’s 1km time trial), Spain’s Rubén Sánchez Córdoba (men’s elimination race), Ruslan Kuznetsov (men’s scratch), Ukraine’s Daniil Yakovlev (men’s omnium), France’s Clémence Chereau, Mélanie Dupin, Léonie Mahieu and Léane Tabu (women’s team pursuit) and Australia’s Nicole Duncan (women’s scratch).