The second day of the UCI 2019 Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, continued today with another exciting schedule of racing in the famous Dutch velodrome.
The action began with the first qualifying rounds on both Women's B - 3km and Men’s B - 4km Individual Pursuit. In the Women’s, the best qualifying time was by Emma Foy of New Zealand, piloted by Hannah Van Kampen, with the time of 03’25.787” at the average speed of 52.481km/h. In the Gold final the World Record Holder is set to face Griet Hoet from Belgium, piloted by Anneleen Monsieur. The Bronze final will see Great Britain’s Lora Fachie, piloted by Corrine Hall, facing Irish Katie-George Dunlevy, piloted by Eve McCrystal.
The Men’s B - 4km Individual Pursuit final for Gold will be raced by Dutchman Vincent ter Schure, piloted by Timo Fransen, with a time of 04’10.046” at the average speed of 57.589km/h. They will be challenged in the Gold final by Marcin Polak from Poland, piloted by Michal Ladosz. The second Dutch duo, with the pair of Tristan Bangma, piloted by Patrick Bos, will face Great Britain’s Stephen Bate, piloted by Adam Duggleby in the third place final.
The Women's C1 - 500m Time Trial saw a straight final between Great Britain’s Katie Toft and China’s Jieli Li, with the latter, the World Record holder, winning the Gold in 43.830” with an average speed of 41.068km/h.
The first new World Record of the day was set in the following race, the Women's C2 - 500m Time Trial, with Australia’s Amanda Reid recording a fantastic time of 39.505” at the blistering speed of 45.564km/h. The previous World Record holder, Alyda Norbruis from the Netherlands, was classified second, while bronze went to China’s Zhenling Song.
Another race, another World Record falls: in the Women's C3 - 500m Time Trial, Australia’s Paige Greco achieved another World Record (following yesterday’s Women’s C3 - 3km Individual Pursuit) with the time today of 39.442”, smashing the previous mark set by Britain’s Megan Giglia (who was fourth today), by almost 2 seconds, and becoming double World Champion. The silver medal went to Japan’s Keiko Sugiura, while third was China’s Xiaomei Wang.
In the Men's C1 - 1km Time Trial yet another World Record fell, this time to its existing holder, China’s Zhangyu Li, who improved his, and World’s best, time to 1’11.817”, some 0.120” better than the previous time he set in Rio’s Paralympic Games. Second was his compatriot Welcong Liang, and third was Spain’s Ricardo Ten.
It was the second medal of the World Championships for the Spaniard, who said: “I’m very happy with this result, it’s my personal best in the discipline. So far so good, let’s see what’s next in this Worlds.”
The fourth consecutive World Record beaten in Apeldoorn was in the Men's C2 - 1km Time Trial, this time by two different riders: firstly by Australian Gordon Allan who scored a time of 1’12.873”, beating the previous World Record held by China’s Xia Hao (15th today). Then Allan’s new time was improved upon by Colombia’s Alejandro Perea with the superb time of 1’12.838”, at an average speed of 49.425km/h to guarantee him the Gold medal and the Rainbow Jersey. Third was Tristen Chernove from Canada.
The new World Record holder, Alejandro Perea, had a message: “I dedicate this World Record to every person that suffers from disabilities because we must be included in each part of society. I would like to invite each Government and each private business in the World to support the Para sports as much as they can.”
The Men's C3 - 1km Time Trial race didn’t see a new World Record, but the battle was still intense, with the victory, Gold medal and Rainbow Jersey going to the American Joseph Berenyi, who completed the four laps in 1’08.381”. Second was Eduardo Santas from Spain, with third, the Belgian Diederick Schelfhout.
After the break, the programme continued with the Women’s Omnium test event. Being a test event means that no Rainbow Jerseys were awarded.
Continuing the historic day’s racing, two more World Records fell in the 200m Flying Sprint during the Omnium Test Event: Australia’s Paige Greco in the C3 category with 13.250” and Caroline Groot from the Netherlands in the C5 category with 12.070”.
Curiosities:
● Dame Sarah Storey held the World Record for only two minutes in the C5 category: 12.090” before being beaten by the Dutchwoman, Groot.
● The third World Record of this edition of the World Championships in only two days for the Australian Paige Greco; so far, she’s the face of the event.
Next up, the Women's B - 3km Individual Pursuit finals. Gold went to New Zealand with Emma Foy, piloted by Hannah Van Kampen, in the time of 3’28.281”. Silver went to Belgium with Griet Hoet - Anneleen Monsieur, while Bronze went to Team GB’s Lora Fachie - Corrine Hall in a close match-up against Ireland.
The final Rainbow Jerseys of the day were awarded to Polish duo Marcin Polak - Michal Ladosz in the Men's B - 4km Individual Pursuit. On the second and third steps of the podium were the two ‘home’ riders, Dutch duos Vincent ter Schure, piloted by Timo Fransen (Silver) and Tristan Bangma - Patrick Bos (Bronze).
The evening session was dedicated to the Men’s Omnium test event 200m Flying Sprint. American athletes stole the scene, with victories in the C3 (Joseph Berenyi), C4 (Justin Widhalm) and C5 (Christopher Murphy) categories. Great Britain’s Matthew Robertson won the C2 category in 12.38”, ahead of Tristen Chernove from Canada and Darren Hicks from Australia.
There was still time for the final World Record of the day: in the C1 200m Flying Sprint valid for the Men’s Omnium test event, Ricardo Ten found out what was next for him and scored another great result, winning in 12.69”. Second was Canada’s Ross Wilson and third Russia’s Ivan Ermakov.
And so ended another great day of cycling, with multiple World Records broken in consecutive events, some of them multiple times in the very same race. We can’t wait for Day 3 of the 2019 UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships tomorrow.
📄 All results here
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