Anna Meares became the second woman to win three rainbow jerseys, in one world championship, as she won a dramatic Kerin.
Women’s Kerin
The big surprise of this event was Victoria Pendleton’s failure to reach the major final, after she was squeezed out in the final sprint. Pendleton was the first woman to win three golds in one championship, but she has failed to take any home with her this time. Mears went in to the final as the big favourite, however she had to contend with Frenchwoman Clara Sanchez. Shuang Gou led the group around on to the final lap, but it nearly came a cropper when Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez crashed. The Cuban caught her elbow on Gou’s leg, which sent her flying down the track, but fortunately she hit no one else. Sanchez took the chance to jump the group, as Gou slowed down, with Meares right on her wheel. The Aussie showed to power, we all know she has, to obliterate the rest of the group. Olga Panarina put in a stunning sprint to go over the top of two riders, to take silver, and Sanchez took bronze.
Men’s Kilo
Since this event was taken out of the Olympics, several of the top riders have moved to different events, but that didn’t stop a word class field taking part, this year. Germany’s Stefan Nimke went one better, on his team sprint silver, by taking the title over half a second ahead of the rest. Home favourite Teun Mulder blasted out of the blocks, but he couldn’t maintain it and was only able to add silver to the bronze, he won in the Kerin. Francois Pervis won his fifth medal, in this event, with a bronze; the Frenchman has won four bronzes and one silver, to date.
Men’s 50km Madison
Cameron Meyer managed to salvage his pride, after losing his title in the points race, by winning the madison, with Leigh Howard. The riders had to compete a massive 200 laps and it wasn’t long before there was a crash. New Zealand lost some time, as one of their riders had to get splinters taken out of his side, after hitting the deck. The home crowd had something to cheer about, when Theo Bos won a sprint, Bos coming to the track after recently moving his focus to the road. Australia was joined by the Czech Republic in gaining a lap, on the main group. Despite only having eight points, Australia won due to their lap gained with the Czech Republic finishing second and the Netherlands in third.
Women’s Omnium
Local rider Kirsten Wild went in to the first event as leader, but that didn’t last long when Tara Whitten claimed second in the individual pursuit. After winning gold in the main pursuit race, Sarah Hammer made sure she moved up the table, by winning the omnium event. Hammer didn’t want the same tense finish, as in the main event, by beating Whitten by over two seconds. Tatsiana Sharakova went on to add the scratch race to her victory list, when she gained a lap on the bunch with Whitten, who was now comfortably in the lead of the event. Last up was the 500m time-trial, the final opportunity for riders to boost their position. Laura Trott was eager to improve on her twelfth place and put in a stunning performance to win. It was only enough to move the Brit up to eleventh as Whitten went on to win the omnium by a large margin, with 23 points. Hammer took silver, with 31 points, and Wild slipped to third, with 42 points, after a disappointing second day.
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