The 51st edition of the UCI Junior Track World Championships concluded on Sunday after five days of competition (19-23 August) at the Sport Vlaanderen Heusden-Zolder Velodrome in Belgium. Twenty-two titles were at stake in a town that previously crowned UCI World Champions on the road, cyclo-cross and BMX Racing. This time around, rising track talent took centre stage with Italians dominating the final standings thanks to eight gold medals, six silver and two bronze for an overall tally of 16 medals.
This is the second successive year that the Squadra Azzurra tops the medal table, after their young champions won six gold medals last year in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. They also topped the 2023 edition in Cali, Colombia, and haven’t finished outside of the top three since 2019.
Italy shows strength and depth
Italy won medals on every day of competition, and their national anthem, Fratelli d’Italia, proved to be a summer hit, especially on Thursday, when they took four of the five UCI world titles up for grabs.
That night, Matteo Maggioni was the first Italian decorated in gold as he ruled the men’s points race. He was followed by Agata Campana (women’s elimination), Matteo Ghirelli (men’s 1km time trial) and the powerhouses of the men’s team pursuit – Nicola Padovan, Ruben Ferrari, Paolo Marangon, Alberto Veglia and Lorenzo Ceccarello.
The Italian show was just beginning, especially as several of the early winners were aiming for more than one rainbow jersey. At the end of the week, collective and individual brilliance stood out. Nicola Padovan followed up his team pursuit gold with victory in the Madison alongside Jacopo Vendramin. The latter also claimed gold in the elimination and silver in the scratch behind Germany’s Raul Esch. Agata Campana enjoyed the same record: victory in the women’s team pursuit and women’s Madison (with Matilde Rossignoli), and silver in the scratch, behind the USA’s Emma Jimenez Palos. Maya Ferrante delivered Italy a final gold medal when she won the women’s keirin on Sunday.
A handful of world records
Many riders racked up two gold medals in Heusden-Zolder. As well as the three Italians, Veronika Solozobova and Great Britain’s Ioan Hepburn (Great Britain) also took home two rainbow jerseys. Hepburn proved the fastest in the men’s sprint and keirin. He also took silver in the men’s team sprint, as Team GB were edged out by the team comprising Zachar Mokeev, Artem Zybin, Mikhail Demish and Nikita Butenko.
As for Solozobova, she ruled the individual sprint and the team sprint. Along with Anastasiya Pershina and Viktoriia Luchina, she even set a new world record: 48.759 seconds to cover three laps of 250 metres (an average of 55.374km/h). The team was joined on the podium by their fourth member Mariia Ermolova.
New world records were also set in the women’s 1 km time trial – 1:06.893 for the new UCI World Champion Angelina Shastak (Belarus) – and in the individual pursuit – France’s Zoé Bihan raced 3:29.043 in the qualifications and then 3:28.218 to win the final.
The other titles went to Angelina Novolodskaya in the women’s omnium, Rostislav Novolodskii in the men’s omnium and Canadian Eve Buczkowski in the women’s points race.