Junior Track Cycling

Every good thing has an end and today is the last day of the Junior Track World Championships.

On the program Women’s Keirin and Scratch Race and Men’s Sprint semi-finals and Finals.

In the men’s first semi-final, Kevin Sireau from France had little difficulty to dispose of Australia’s Scott Sunderland in two consecutive heats while in the all German other semi- final, Max Levy was brought to three heats by Benjamin Wittman, having been relegated in the first heat for ‘’racing outside the track’’. Levy won the third heat passing on to the final against Sireau of France.

In Women’s scratch race a German racer animated the race being solo for most of the race until the last lap where she was caught by the pack and fell in the last 50 meters in a mass fall. Australia’s Skye Lee Armstrong barely jumped Great Britain E. Armistead and Russia Romanyuta on the line for the win. I. Jung of Korea and V. Cueff of France finished fourth and fifth.

In the men’s sprint gold final, Max Levy already winner of the kilo and team sprint added a third gold medal to his palmares winning over Kevin Sireau in two consecutive heats. While in the bronze final, compatriot Benjamin Wittman of Germany also won in two heats over Scott Sunderland from Australia . The order of things was thus respected the second year Juniors who had come close last year in L.A. taking 1-2-3 in front of first year Junior Sunderland who, no doubt, will be back next year.

A severe fall in the 3rd Wonen’s Keirin serie brought 3 racers down in the home stretch and the Japanese racer was sent to the hospital on a stretcher. Cuban favourite Lysandra Guerra was ousted in semi-final winning the 7-12 final .

In the Women’s Keirin 1-6 final, Australia’s Chloe Mcpherson created a surprise leading from the start and winning despite the presence of big guns Anna Blyth from Great Britain and Elodie Henriette from France. Second place went to E. Park from Korea and third place to Anna Blight from Great Britain.

It was a pleasure to report to you from Vienna and maybe we’ll do it again next year from Gent in Belgium.

It’s a ‘’rendez-vous.’’ like we say in French and auf wiederzen from Vienna.

Robert Leroux

Levy and Sireau in the men\'s sprint final that was to be won by the German

Japanese woman racer carried out on a stretcher after a nasty fall in the Keirin

USA Cindy Lakatosh in a Keirin serie

USA Kimberley Geist in the Scratch Race final

Scott Sunderland and Benjamin Wittman in the men's sprint bronze final, won by the German

Today was the next to last day at the Junior Worlds Track Championships and it was surely packed with action.

First in the morning the Women Individual Pursuit qualifications where Kimberley Geist took 3rd place and a pass for Bronze Final where she won Bronze medal at night.
Results
¾ Final
1 259 GEIST Kimberly USA19870429 1:14.819(1) 2:30.364 47.884
1:15.545(1)
2 13 SPRATT Amanda AUS19870917 1:17.081(2) 2:33.364 46.947
1:16.283(2)
½ Final
1 252 KALITOVSKA Lesya UKR19880213 1:13.518(1) 2:27.292 48.882
1:13.774(1)
2 12 ROGERS Bianca AUS19870427 1:14.221(2) 2:28.005 48.6471:13.784(2)

Second an exciting Men Team Pursuit qualifications where Great Britain finished first before New Zealand, Australia and Germany. At night Australia won bronze and New Zeland beat the Great Britain Team which did not finish due to a heartbreaking fall when two of its riders collided and fell heavily downtrack.
Results
3-4 final
1 AUSTRALIA
1:06.500(2) 2:08.097(2) 3:09.942(1) 4:12.163 57.106
2 GERMANY
1:06.322(1) 2:07.980(1) 3:11.181(2) 4:17.017 56.027

1/2 final
1 NEW ZEALAND
1:06.163(2) 2:06.912(1) 3:11.296(1) 4:16.580 56.123
2 GREAT BRITAIN(DNF)

The action resumed at 6:00 p.m. with the long awaited Men’s Sprint. The Junior men were amazing in the flying 200 m., 23 of them going under 11.00 seconds, first place being won in a dominating way by Kilo winner Max Levy from Germany with an extraordinay 10.193 seconds just 7/1000 of a second from the Junior world record held by Amhed Lopez of Cuba , set in 2002.

Results Flying 200 m.
1 111 LEVY Maximilian GER19870626 5.039(1) 10.193 70.637
2 86 SIREAU Kévin FRA 19870418 5.074(2) 10.265 70.141
3 9 SUNDERLAND Scott AUS 19880316 5.185(4) 10.452 68.886
4 87 VOLANT Alexandre FRA 19870117 5.168(3) 10.501 68.565
5 114 WITTMANN Benjamin GER19870402 5.246(6) 10.556 68.208
6 79 D’ALMEIDA Mickaël FRA 19870903 5.223(5) 10.568 68.130
7 158 KANG Dong Jin KOR19871223 5.265(8) 10.598 67.937
8 262 RYU Jae Yeol KOR19870122 5.309(11) 10.658 67.555
9 93 KENNY Jason GBR19880323 5.281(9) 10.678 67.428
10 222 NOSKOV Pavel RUS 19871017 5.324(12) 10.716 67.189
11 104 ENDERS Rene GER19870213 5.256(7) 10.729 67.108
12 209 SZYMANEK Krzysztof POL 19870425 5.307(10) 10.779 66.797
13 217 CHERNOPYATOV Andrey RUS 19870601 5.389(16) 10.811 66.599
14 4 HOGG Jeremy AUS 19880819 5.368(14) 10.819 66.550
15 3 ELLIS Daniel AUS 19881007 10.839 66.427
16 74 SIXTO GARCIA Angel ESP 19881118 5.374(15) 10.850 66.359
17 254 BARCZEWSKI Benjamin USA 19870408 5.339(13) 10.876 66.201
18 70 MAZCUIARAN URIA Hodei ESP 19881216 5.396(19) 10.933 65.856
19 122 REPPAS Vasileios GRE19881104 5.393(18) 10.941 65.808
20 197 STEWART Adam NZL 19870221 5.391(17) 10.995 65.484
21 165 GERULSKIS Darius LTU 19870827 5.462(21) 11.030 65.277
22 179 BOS Patrick NED 19870820 5.471(T23) 11.038 65.229
23 125 FLORES José Alfredo GUA19880225 5.439(20) 11.060 65.099
24 123 VOLIKAKIS Christos GRE19880325 5.465(22) 11.074 65.017

The first 24 riders were kept and we saw the 1/16 th, 1/8 th, and quarter finals that is leaving us today with the 4 strongest: Max Levy from Germany, Kevin Sireau from France, Scott Sunderland from Australia and Benjamin Wittman also from Germany.

As for the Americans Ben Barczewski was the sole racer to be kept for the matches. He won in 1/16 finals and lost in 1/8 finals, to re-enter through repechage and to lose in ¼ th finals.
He got to contest the 5 to 8 final and grabbed 6th place overall(2nd in the 5 to behind the Korea representative.

Results 5 to eight place
5th 158 KANG Dong Jin KOR
6th 254 BARCZEWSKI Benjamin USA
7th 87 VOLANT Alexandre FRA
8th 79 D’ALMEIDA Mickaël FRA

Tomorrow will be the last day and we will see the men’s sprint semi-finals and finals, and women’s Keirin and Scratch .

Ben Barczewski and first qualifier Max Levy waiting for their ¼ th final match

Ferry Dusika velodrome from the outside

Kim Geist coming back home with the Bronze medal and the flowers

The three French sprinters got to qualify for the matches as did the three Germans

Martin Barras(middle), head coach of the whole Australian track operation, originally from Ste-Foy,Quebec, Canada gets to practice his French with fellow French speaking compatriots

Competition continued today at the Junior Track Worlds with many qualifications, repêchage and finals.

It all started with the Women’s 200 m. qualifications that was simply a shuffled repetition of yesterday’s 500 meters seeing the following results;

1. L. Shulika UKR 11.594 s.
2. E. Henriette FRA 11.729
3. L. Guerra CUB 11.776
4. S. Clair FRA 11.811
5. Y. Kosheleva RUS 12.054
18. C. Lakatosh USA 12.542

The biggest surprise of the day occured when 24 th and slowest qualifier(12.911) to get in the sprints, Italian C. Galeotti upset 1st qualifier Shulika in sudden death 1/16 finals, stalling the sprint until the last 100 meters and beating Shulika at the line . Tomorrow Women’s Sprint resume with semi-finals and finals.

In the Men’s Individual Pursuit, we noted the unexpected absence of Russia’s S. Plyuschin recent European Champion 2 weeks ago in Italy.

The times seemed to go faster and faster with each racer until Great Britain’s Andrew Tennant posted an amazing 3:19.415 that was not to be beaten. He went on to win the final against S. Bewley of New-Zealand and I. Rovny of Russia grabbed bronze medal against P. Gretsch of Germany. USA’s Daniel Holloway qualified in 24 th place with 3:34.792 and Eric Smith of Canada in 25 th place with 3:35.263

The day went on with the Keirin qualifying and repechage. Lots of pushing and shoving there as the commissaries seemed to be blind to everything. Spectators even saw M. D’Almeida of France angry at being boxed in take one hand from the handlebars to shove away his rival. Amazingly the racers went through the qualifying and repechage without a single fall.

First round was difficult for USA’s Ben Barczewski who finished last in his heat, but rebounded in repechage winning his repechage and continuing to the final to grab 4th place. Michael Schnabel of the USA and Lawrence Leroux of Canada did not get through their respective heats and repechages, only the first finisher of each race getting to semis. For the older readers, let’s note the presence in the Keirin of one Sascha Hübner son of Track Sprint legend Michaël Hübner from Germany. I am sure you remember the father from past World Championships and Olympic Games.

Keirin Final Results:

1.C. Volikakis GRE
2. R. Poper POL
3. R. Enders GER
4. B. Barczewski USA
5. J. Kenny GBR relegated

1 Kilometer time trial was so exciting and again the Juniors imitated their elders, posting times more suited to Senior Elite competition than Junior’s. Kilo was won again this year (remember him from L.A. last year) by Germany’s Max Levy in an amazing 1:03.757.

Results:

1. M. Levy GER 1:03.757
2. K. Sireau FRA 1:04.080
3. S. Sunderland AUS 1:04.378
4. D.J. Kang KOR 1:04.517
5. B. Wittman GER 1:04.528
13. S. Hartfeld USA 1::07.510
21. E. Smith CAN 1 :09.288

Finally the results for the Women Points Race:

1. A. Wolfer SWI
2. R. Buchanan NZL
3. R. Zemlyanskaya RUS
4. M. Lakota DEN
5. A. Spratt AUS
16. N. Cooper CAN

Tomorrow we go on with the Women Sprint semis and Final and the men start their Sprint Tournament.

Robert Leroux

For a short period of time North America was displayed very prominently on the electronic board and all hopes were still permitted

Mike Schnabel in the background in his Keirin qualifying heat

Ben Barczewski

Australia's BT bikes

France's Look 496 Athene bikes. Australia and France surely invest lots of money and time for their Juniors. Cycling there is like hockey in Canada and football in the US

Today was our third at the velodrome and the day the action officially started. It was a heavy schedule with the qualifications for Scratch and Points races in the morning session and the Finals for these 2 events at night.

Having qualified for the Scratch final, Daniel Holloway of the U.S.A. showed his jersey a lot in this race being away for a long time before being caught by the pack in the next to last turn.

The results of the race were:

1. Philip Klein Germany in 11:50.121 at 50.696 km/hour
2. A Polivida Ukraine
3. Loic Perizolo Swiss
4. J. W Lee Korea
5. Daniel Matthysen South Africa

Lots of action too in the 100 laps Points Race final were E. Jursys from Lithuania amazed the crowd by his recuperation capacity, attacking constantly and taking 2 laps on the pack besides making 12 more points in the sprints. He finally won by a confortable margin.

Results:

1. E. Jursys Lithuania 52 points
2. M. Kreder Netherlands 34 points
3. Maximov Russia 31 points
4. G. Perrot France 25 points

In the afternoon-night session we also had the qualifications for Men’s Team sprint with the French setting a track record that was later beat by the Germans and Korea and Australia respectively taking 3rd and fourth. The final between France and Germany was easily won by the German team of Enders,Wittman and Levy too powerful for the French in 45.481 seconds. The final 3-4 saw the Australian beating Korea also with a sensible gap.

Results

1. Germany(Enders,Wittman, Levy) 45.481 s.
2. France (Sireau, Volant, D’Almeida) 46.062
3. Australia(Hogg, Ellis, Sunderland)
4. Korea

There was drama in the air in the Wonen’s 500 meters T.T. as the favourite Elodie Henriette from France was in tears after being beaten decisively by Cuba’s Lysandra Guerra who set a new Junior World Record of 35.500 seconds in the process. Henriette managed only to finish 5th with a time of more than 36 seconds.

Results:

1. L. Guerra Cuba 35.500 s. JuniorWorld Record
2. L. Schulika Ukraine 35.804
3. S. Clair France 36.105
4. C. McPherson Australia 36.116
5. E. Henriette France

Today we look forward to Individual Pursuit T.T., Kilo T.T. and Keirin series, repechage and finals.

Robert Leroux

Daniel Holloway from the U.S.A. in the traffic

Look of intense concentration in the eyes of Canadian sprinter Lawrence Leroux

German team milliseconds into the Team Sprint final

The agony of defeat for France's Elodie Henriette

The ecstasy of victory for Cuba's Lysandra Guerra

France's team sprint seconds before the final

The photo isn't the best but they're wearing your stars and you like them so much. USA team sprint

Second day today at the Ferry Dusika Velodrome in Vienna Austria. The day was much quieter than yesterday as less teams came for practice and those who did stayed for a shorter period of time. Except of course for the indefatigable Korean team that seemed to have stayed on the track forever. Gosh those Korean sprinters have energy. I hope they kept some for the races.

We saw the Americans for the first time today; the entire seven people team came in at 5:00 p.m. and seemed full of joyful spirit. They came at a time where the track was really crowded with the large French team being already there, the Spanish stretching their time and a few Poland riders completing the pack.

Towards the end of warm up, when the speed gets really high, a false manoeuver by a French pursuiter triggered a high velocity multiple fall. Gladly again no one seriously hurt , only scrapes and bruises.

Tomorrow the real action starts with 500 meters for women and Team Sprint, Scratch and Points Race for men. The day should be very exciting.

Robert Leroux

French track legend Florian Rousseau, new coach of French Team, instructing his sprinters

Canadian Eric Smith with coach Eric Van Den Eynde practicing kilo starts

Team U.S.A., Ben Barczewski and Spencer Hartfeld

More Team U.S.A. Hartfeld, Geist And Barczewski

Still more Team U.S.A. Geist, Barczewski, Cindy Lakatosh and Mike Schnable

French sprinter Kevin Sireau who did well last year, one of the favourites

Spain’s team sprinters practicing starts