European Track Championships - Chris Hoy Suffers Shock Defeat in Sprint

Multiple world and Olympic champion Chris Hoy had a day to forget in the Saturday morning session at the European Cycling Championships in Pruszkow on November 5th.

Hoy made it through qualifying with the only sub-10 second time in the men’s individual sprint and you would have bet your house he would take the top spot eventually. However, it all went wrong in the second round when he was pitted against the man with the slowest time from qualification 18-year-old Felix English from Ireland.

French Dominate the Sprint
The Scot was forced to change disciplines when his event was removed from the Olympic programme and since then he has dominated sprinting and won gold in Beijing two years ago. Small errors have been the bane of Hoy’s challenge in the inaugural European Championships. France’s Kevin Sireau was the man on form making it through each round with ease and beat, Great Britain’s other big hope in the sprint, Jason Kenny.

The women’s sprint also allowed the French to show their authority yet again with the favourite Sandie Clair making her way through each round. She had one heart stopping moment in the semi-final when she lost to Belarusian Olga Panarina in the first race. She didn’t let that get her down though to take the next two. Clair will have to beat German Kristina Vogel if she wants to add to the team sprint Gold she won the day before.

Omniums Get Going
Both omniums also got underway in the morning where the riders take on five different disciplines. Including, the flying lap, points race, elimination race (devil), individual pursuit, scratch race and the 1k/500m time-trial. The winner of the omnium is the rider with the least points at the end of the six events.

The men completed the first three of their events and Britain Ed Clancy picked up the team by taking an early lead by winning the flying lap. The points race wasn’t good for the leaders, none of which finished in the top five. Roger Kluge took victory in the elimination race, but was the second place man Rafael Ratajczyk that moved in to the lead at the start of the evening session.

Leire Olaberria Doronsoro of Spain showed that consistency is the key in the omnium taking third in the sprint and fourth in the points race. She now sit at the top of the rankings with seven points and four points ahead of second and third.