Five world titles were awarded on Saturday, the fourth day of competition at the 2018 UCI Track Cycling World Championships presented by Tissot. Host Netherlands leads with a total of nine medals, including three gold, followed by six for Great Britain (two gold) and Italy (1 gold) and then Germany at five (three gold). The Championships also saw the first world record broken for the week.
Germany took their third world title in the women's 500 metre time trial, with Miriam Welte winning her second title at these Championships. Daria Shmeleva of Russia took second and Elis Ligtlee of the Netherlands won bronze.
"I worked so hard for this event and the Team Sprint," said Welte. "It is just so incredible that I get to be World Champion again after 2014. I still can't believe it. We have very, very strong international riders. I was always just that close. I was on the podium, just not on the top of the podium, but I believed in myself. I have trained hard and I wanted it so much. Really I can't believe I'm World Champion again."
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The women's Madison, in only its second year at the world championships, was dominated by the British team of Katie Archibald and Emily Nelson, finishing with 50 points. The Netherlands took silver, with Kirsten Wild winning her third medal of the Championships, beside partner Amy Pieters. The Italian team of Letizia Paternoster and Maria Conalonieri won bronze.
"Our strength is our speed," stated Archibald. "We said we're going to go into every sprint. We didn't want to take a lap, we want to win every sprint. Well, we tried for twelve [sprints] and eight [wins] is good enough."
In the women's Individual Pursuit, American Chloe Dygert, already a world champion in the Team Pursuit, broke the world record twice, knocking over two seconds off the existing time to record a time of three minutes and 20.072 seconds. In the gold medal race against Annemiek van Vleuten of the Netherlands, Dygart took the record down another 0.012 seconds. Kelly Caitlin of the United States beat Lisa Brennauer of Germany for the bronze medal.
"It's really exciting," said Dygert. "I've been working for this for a while now. It's a little weird not having [former record holder] Sarah Hammer here. She's been to every track World Championship with me. It was strange, but I had my [video] call with her before the final ride, so that gave me a little bit of extra energy to get that next world record. Any time to be in the rainbow stripes is quite an honour. To be here again on the podium with another USA team member, Kelly Catlin, is really awesome."
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The men's Omnium was one of the closest fought ever, with two riders tied at 107 points going into the final lap of the Points Race after four events. The tie between Szyman Sajnok of Poland and Jan Willem van Schip of the Netherlands would be broken by whomever crossed the finish line first, and it proved to be Sajnok, giving Poland their first medal and world title of the Championships. Simone Consonni of Italy won the bronze medal.
The final title awarded for the day was the men's Sprint, with Matthew Glaetzer of Australia undefeated in two days of sprinting. Glaetzer beat young British rival Jack Carlin for the rainbow jersey. In the bronze medal competition, Sebastien Vigier of France beat Maximilian Levy of Germany.
"I've won a team gold medal, but my first individual world title is so special," said Glaetzer. "I want to thank everyone. The crowd's been amazing, but this win is dedicated to my late coach Gary West who passed away about a year ago. It's very special and we worked as a whole team for this . It so great to see a reward. I got pushed hard all the way. Thank God for allowing me to be doing what I do. I'm blessed to be here racing amongst quality people."
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"That last one [race] was fun. It was great. Close quarters. Sort of combat. It was just a matter of making sure you were on the front foot. He [Carlin] was doing a good job of keeping me close. It was a matter of just backing yourself. If they want to play that game, bring it on, I'm more than happy to play. It's a great challenge, you want to race your best."
