Marie-Divine Kouamé's title in the women's 500 m time trial was one of four titles awarded on the fourth day of competition.
The exhilarating action continued at the 2022 Tissot UCI Track World Championships in Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines (France) on Saturday, with gold medals awarded in the women’s 500 m time trial, women’s Madison, women’s individual pursuit and men’s omnium.
Women’s 500 m time trial: Kouamé brings home gold for France
In the women’s 500m time trial, all eyes were on the favourite: Germany’s Emma Hinze. Not only had the 25-year-old qualified with the fastest time (32.968 seconds), but she was also extra motivated after having failed to retain her sprint title in the Friday’s race (although she still claimed bronze). France’s Marie-Divine Kouamé qualified with the next best time, just 0.191 seconds down, followed by Australia’s Kristina Clonan a further 0.019 seconds back.
In the final, seventh-fastest qualifier China’s Guo Yufang (23) surprised all by taking the lead, and and holding it until Kouamé managed to go faster with a time of 32.835 seconds. Hinze finished 0.216 seconds behind the French rider to take silver with Yufang dropping to bronze.
“It was amazing; I cannot explain how I feel to win in my velodrome,” Kouamé said. Then asked if she was inspired by Mathilde Gros taking sprint gold 24 hours earlier? “Yes, of course. I watched the final with my team mate and we were crying. To sing the national anthem today will be amazing.”
Women’s Madison: Belgium on top after dramatic race
The women’s Madison (30 km) turned out to be a fascinating race: after being neutralised in the early stages, Belgium rode for gold, despite France having temporarily been declared the winners. Lotte Kopecky and Shari Bossuyt started quietly in the early stages but then stormed back, becoming the only team to take a lap. They secured two points on the final lap, which gave them a one-point victory over the French duo who thought they had won before the results were correctly readjusted to take into account Denmark’s late 10-point effort, which gave the Danes bronze. This was the second time Kopecky won this title and her second gold medal during the competitions.
“We had no points so we had to try something [on their race-winning lap] and we had the perfect moment to attack,” Kopecky said. “Then it was about pacing yourself.” Then Kopecky flagged the funding initiative to help Dutch rider Amy Pieters’ recovery from a brain injury, caused by a fall in training last December. “Last year, Kirsten Wild and Amy won this event and there’s still a jersey people can bid on to raise money for Amy so look on the website.”
Women's individual pursuit: Gold for Brausse after silver and bronze
The women’s 3000m individual pursuit was an exciting race from start to finish as Germany’s Franziska Brausse qualified with the fastest time in 3:18.794. She was joined in the gold-medal match by New Zealand’s Bryony Botha, who finished 0.584 seconds behind. The bronze match would be between Germany’s Mieke Kröger and Great Britain’s Josie Knight who smashed the British record.
In the final, Brausse took a significant lead from the start but by halfway, Botha was accelerating and reeled the lead back to less than a second. Brausse delivered a terrific finish to take the victory. In the bronze medal contest, Knight came back to beat the experienced Kröger to win bronze by half a second.
“I was joking with my coach that [in previous UCI Track World Championships] it was bronze then silver so today it had to be gold, but it was a super-hard fight to get this jersey,” said Brausse.” The first kilometre I was trying to break the world record but I could feel the qualification in my legs. I don’t know how I finished. I know nothing about the final lap!”
On connecting with the Nigerian team who they assisted with gear earlier in the competition, “We helped them out with time-trial bars and are proud we could help the team,” Brausse said.
Men's omnium: Hayter retains title
The men’s omnium followed the same format as the women’s with the Scratch race, tempo race, elimination race and points race taking place in one day. It was an exciting competition with New Zealand’s Aaron Gate leading after the Scratch race, before Japan’s Shunsuke Imamura took up the leader position after the tempo race. With 78 points, the 24-year-old was in great form, but things unravelled in the elimination race as he recorded just 22 points to drop to third. Instead, it was reigning UCI World Champion Ethan Hayter (GBR) who took the lead with 110 points after finishing second in the elimination race. In the points race he held a four-point lead over Gate and 10 points over Imamura, and kept the lead as he powered to gold with 127 points. Frenchman Benjamin Thomas delighted the home crowd by winning silver with a last sprint, while Gate won bronze.