Junior Track Worlds: Australia Dominate Day 1

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A perfect start to the Junior Worlds for Australia who dominated day 1 of the Junior Track World Championships in Glasgow

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A perfect start to the Junior Worlds for Australia who dominated day 1 of the Junior Track World Championships in Glasgow with three Gold medals at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome while GB are noticeable by their absence.

Australia won Gold in the Men’s Team Pursuit, Women’s Team Sprint and Men’s Team Sprint while the other medal of the night went to Columbia in the Women’s Scratch race. Great Britain entered just the one of the four events held on the night; the Men’s Team Pursuit where Germain Burton, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Jacob Ragan & Oli Wood raced their hearts out to try and win a medal but were unable to beat a stronger Russian team.

The first medal of the night on day 1 was decided in the Women’s Scratch race where Jessica Parra of Colombia attacked off the front and the rest of the 16 strong field let her go all the way to gaining a lap and clinching the Gold medal and Rainbow stripes.

The move began three laps into the thirty-lap race when Parra and Soline Lamboley of France darted away from the peloton and led briefly before the group brought them back.

Four laps later, with 22 of the 30 laps of the track completed, Jesse Vandenbulcke of Belgium went clear. She led the peloton for no less than nine laps, extending her lead to half a lap. As the peloton rested on the wheel of Australia’s Josie Talbot, Colombia’s Parra launched her second attack of the race. She quickly opened a significant gap, caught the Belgian within a lap, and carried on alone.

Talbot led the chase, but found no helpers. Impatient, Vandenbulcke attacked again with ten laps to go, but made few in-roads into Parra’s lead. Six laps from the end, Soline Lamboley attacked again, but she was quickly reeled in. Parra, meanwhile, persevered with brilliant tenacity and, with two laps to go, lapped the field. The race was decided.

In the peloton, Kinley Gibson of Canada won the sprint, with the Mexican, Lizbeth Salazar, behind her: but they were fighting for the minor positions. Jessica Parra, fifth in the same event in last year’s Juniors World Track Championships, had taken the first gold medal of the Championships.

Against the watch

The rest of the events were against the watch and in the Men’s Team Pursuit bronze medal ride off, Russia had too much speed for Great Britain’s Germain Burton, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Jacob Ragan & Oli Wood. Russia started very quickly, riding the first kilometre inside a minute and leading at every split. Over the final laps, the British quartet began to get a little ragged and the Russian four finally caught Great Britain on the final lap.

The final saw a brilliant ride by Australia, who led New Zealand by a second after one lap, and built on that lead to win by 6 seconds in the day’s best time of 4:06.159 show what a gulf there is between them and the rest of the world. The Australian quartet was aggressive, fluent, and quite unbeatable.

The evening ended with the Team Sprint finals for Men and Women. In the Women’s event, Korea beat Germany for the bronze before Australia beat Russia to take their second gold medal of the Championships. Just 0.2 seconds separated Korea and Germany, and just 0.3 seconds divided Australia from Russia. It was wonderfully close, competitive racing in an event that is always one of the most exciting on the track.

In the Men’s Team Sprint finals: Germany (45.581 seconds) convincingly beat New Zealand (46.363 seconds) to take bronze whilst a hair’s breadth divided Australia (45.639 seconds & gold), from Russia (45.714 seconds) who had to settle for the silver.

For the record, here is the GB team for the championships. No Men’s sprint and only one female sprinter. Is that anyway for the host nation to treat a showcase event? Having worked for the GB team for many years and been to other Junior Worlds held in Europe with a much larger team, I am gobsmacked that the management did not give the riders of Britain the opportunity of racing against the Worlds best.

Feel free to voice your opinion on https://twitter.com/VeloUK

Women’s Sprint
Dannielle Khan

Men’s Endurance
Germain Burton
Tao Geoghegan Hart
Matthew Gibson
Jacob Ragan
Oliver Wood

Women’s Endurance
Amy Hill
Hayley Jones
Emily Kay
Emily Nelson
10 riders

Australia have brought 15.

RESULTS

Men’s Team Pursuit
1 Australia 4:06.182
2 New Zealand 4:12.298
3 Russia 4:09.755
4 Great Britain 4:13.371

Men’s Team Sprint
1 Australia 45.639
2 Russia 45.714
3 Germany 45.581
4 New Zealand 46.363

Women’s Team Sprint
1 Australia 35.344
2 Russia 35.656
3 Korea 36.153
4 Germany 36.311

Women’s Scratch
1 PARRA Jessica Columbia

@ 1 lap
2 GIBSON Kinley Canada
3 DIDERIKSEN Amalie Denmark
4 SALAZAR Lizbeth Yarely Mexico

 

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