Olympic Track Cycling: Day 6

The final day in the Olympic Velodrome saw Sir Chris Hoy and Laura Trott win two more Gold medals and Victoria Pendleton a Silver during a session full of drama.

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

MEN’S KEIRIN

Gold! How fitting it was that the country’s most decorated Olympian in probably his last Olympiad, Sir Chris Hoy, was given the final event of the night to strutt his stuff and bring the country to its feet with his sixth Gold medal. Not that his victory was an easy one.

In the final, Hoy did as he had done in previous rounds. The big Scot sat mid group in the string behind the derny before using the wheel of an early move to get momentum to make a move to the front. Then, he’d turn on the style and rocket past his rivals with two laps to go and then hold them off.

It worked in the early rounds but when Maximilian Levy came at him around that final bend after Hoy had already been full gas for a lap, the five time Olympic champion looked like he was going to park up. Whilst his mother Carol put her head in her hands and couldn’t look, it was looking curtains for Hoy but the big Scot found something special that only he could find deep inside and he kicked again for the final time and it found his rivals left wanting and battling for the minor medals.

And what a battle that was with Levy holding on to get second, Teun Mulder (Netherlands) managing to throw his bike between Hoys and Levys to get the Bronze and for something not usually seen, Simon Van Velthooven (New Zealand) came over the top and the photo finish was unable to separate him and Mulder. There was a tie for the Bronze.

So there were four riders on the podium as Hoy, in tears, got his final Gold medal in the Olympics. It is according Hoy 99.9% his last Olympics and so it was fitting that he was given a guard of honour as he came off the track by the GB support team. Hoy will now, all being well, go on to finish his career in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, home to the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Chris Hoy: “I’m in shock. You try and compose yourself but it’s surreal. I wanted to win Gold in front of my home crowd and thankfully it worked out for me. The Keirin is a lottery and you never take anything for granted in it. Look at what happened to Victoria tonight for example. I can’t describe the feelings I have at the moment. This is enough for me, this is the perfect end to my Olympic career. I can’t put into words what it means to me. It’s one of the greatest feelings I have ever had.”

“I’m 99.9% sure I won’t be competing in Rio – how can you top this? Glasgow is another question, as that would be the dream ending for me.”

ROUND 1
Sir Chris Hoy blew his rivals away in the opening heat in round 1 of the Men’s Keirin to go through to the second round and keep his hopes of a Gold medal alive. Hoy started the heat second from the outside and in the sprint for the derny, it was Phillip of Trinidad and Tobago that got there first only to hand that position over to Simon Van Velthooven (New Zealand).

Hoy was sitting in fourth and as the Derny got quicker and finally pulled away off the track, Phillip took up the running with Hoy behind before the Team Sprint Champion opened the throttle and simply rode away from all but the Kiwi, Simon Van Velthooven, who had the dream run being dragged away from the rest to finish second behind Hoy.

RESULTS
Heat 1
1. Chris Hoy (Great Britain)
2. Simon Van Velthooven (New Zealand)
3. Juan Peralta Gascon (Spain)
4. Nicholas Phillip (Trinidad And Tobago)
5. Sergey Borisov (Russia)
6. Kazunari Watanabe (Japan)

Heat 2
1. Maximilian Levy (Germany)
2. Teun Mulder (Netherlands)
3. Hersony Canelon (Venezuela)
4. Kamil Kuczynski(Poland)
5. Shane Perkins (Australia)
6. Miao Zhang (China)

Heat 3
1. Mickael Bourgain (France)
2. Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia)
3. Fabian Zapata (Colombia)
4. Joseph Veloce (Canada)
5. Denis Spicka (Czech Republic)
6. Christos Volikakis (Greece)

Reps
Heat 1
1. Christos Volikakis (Greece)
2. Juan Peralta Gascon (Spain)
3. Nicholas Phillip (Trinidad And Tobago)
4. Joseph Veloce (Canada)
5. Sergey Borisov (Russia)
6. Miao Zhang (China)

Heat 2
1. Kazunari Watanabe (Japan)
2. Hersony Canelon (Venezuela)
3. Shane Perkins (Australia)
4. Kamil Kuczynski(Poland)
5. Fabian Zapata (Colombia)
6. Denis Spicka (Czech Republic)

ROUND 2

Heat 1
1. Chris Hoy (Great Britain)
2. Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia)
3. Teun Mulder (Netherlands)
4. Nicholas Phillip (Trinidad And Tobago)
5. Juan Peralta Gascon (Spain)
6. Christos Volikakis (Greece)

Heat 2
1. Maximilian Levy (Germany)
2. Simon Van Velthooven (New Zealand)
3. Shane Perkins (Australia)
4. Mickael Bourgain (France)
5. Hersony Canelon (Venezuela)
6. Kazunari Watanabe (Japan)

FINALS
Gold/Silver
1. Chris Hoy (Great Britain)
2. Maximilian Levy (Germany)
3. Simon Van Velthooven (New Zealand)
3. Teun Mulder (Netherlands)
5. Shane Perkins (Australia)
6. Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia)

Minor Final: 7-12
1. Nicholas Phillip (Trinidad And Tobago)
2. Mickael Bourgain (France)
3. Christos Volikakis (Greece)
4. Juan Peralta Gascon (Spain)
5. Kazunari Watanabe (Japan)
6. Hersony Canelon (Venezuela)

 

WOMEN’S SPRINT
It was not the fairy tale ending expected for the Queen of the Sprint in her last ever competition as Victoria Pendleton came from away the Olympic velodrome in London with a Silver medal and mixed memories. Winner was Anna Meares.

After the way Pendleton has dominated Women’s Sprinting since 2005, and her stunning qualifying time, it was expected she would have enough to beat everyone to win Gold but Australia’s Anna Meares had other ideas.

The competition was quite straight forward right up until the finals. Both Pendleton and Meares had no-one really stretch them except perhaps Shuang Guo (China) pushing Meares all the way in the semi finals.

The beginning of the end for Pendleton came in the first match against Meares for the Gold medal. It was, as expected, a very tight tussle but Meares rode a very good tactical race, sticking the elbow in on the final bend as she came past Pendleton and that caused the Brit to come out of the sprinters lane for a split second.

That was enough of an excuse for the officials to relegate Pendleton and that destroyed the nine time World champion. After her disqualification in the Team Sprint and now this, Pendleton wasn’t the same again in the second heat.

Those expecting to see her breathing fire and brimstone at Meares to level the contest were disappointed. Pendleton, on the front in a race controlled by Meares, just had no fight left as the Aussie came past and simply sprinted away to win the title and avenge the defeat to Pendleton in the Beijing Olympics.

Pendleton was over whelmed with emotion as she did a lap of honour and then celebrated with the fans for the final time before she retires to a quiet life, probably in Australia.

Pendleton talking to the BBC afterwards explained “I’m just so relieved and overwhelmed with emotion. I would have loved to have won my final race but I’m glad that it’s all done and I can move on. I’m glad that it was me and Anna in the final. It was the way it should be. She has been a fantastic competitor but I’m very glad that that’s the last time I will be putting myself through that.”

On her relegation, Vicky said “I can’t believe that twice in one competition that I’ve been disqualified and relegated, it’s unheard of. I really tried in that last race though…”

RESULTS
Semi Finals
Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain) beat Kristina Vogel (Germany) 2:0
Anna Meares (Australia) beat Shuang Guo (China) 2:0

Finals
Anna Meares beat Victoria Pendleton 2:0
Shuang Guo beat Kristina Vogel 2:0

 

WOMEN’S OMNIUM – DAY 2
Gold! Twenty year old Laura Trott rode a stunning final time trial over 500 metres to win the Olympic Omnium to add to her World title in the same event. The race for the Gold came down to the final event after Hammer had beaten Trott in the Pursuit and also, managed to beat Trott in the Scratch race.

Individual Pursuit (Round 4)
The day started with an event that Laura Trott knows very well, the Individual Pursuit and as expected the Welwyn Wheelers rider did a great ride to finish second to four time world champion Sarah Hammer.

Whilst Hammer led Trott all the way in the race over 3,000 metres, the GB rider was never far behind and finished just under a second behind Hammer. The victory by the rider from the USA helped her take the overall lead from Trott but with only a single point in it, Trott still had a great chance to go for Gold.

It all depended on event five, the Scratch race.

Pursuit
1. HAMMER Sarah 3:29.554
2. TROTT Laura 3:30.547
3. WHITTEN Tara 3:31.114
4. EDMONDSON Annette 3:35.958
5. SHARAKOVA Tatsiana 3:38.301
6. WILD Kirsten 3:39.741
7. CALLE WILLIAMS Maria Luisa 3:40.349
8. D’HOORE Jolien 3:41.495
9. MEJIAS GARCIA Marlies 3:41.897
10. ROMANYUTA Evgeniya 3:42.301
11. KIESANOWSKI Joanne 3:44.971
12. WOJTYRA Malgorzata 3:45.083
13. HUANG Li 3:45.610
14. OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire 3:46.317
15. LEE Minhye 3:46.871
16. HSIAO Mei Yu 3:49.051
17. GONZALEZ Angie 3:54.926
18. SANCHEZ Clara 3:56.800

Overall
1 HAMMER Sarah 13
2 TROTT Laura 14
3 WHITTEN Tara 21
4 EDMONDSON Annette 21

Scratch Race
This was going to be the crucial race and Trott rode a superb event to finish third, just losing out on the chance to beat Hammer after the Aussie Edmondson came between them on the way to victory.
It was a battle of wits on the track as each of the leaders in the overall had a go at getting away but nothing stuck. Trott was very well focused and was quickly on any moved that looked dangerous and coming into the final laps, Hammer hit the front in her trademark style finish.

Over 500 metres to go, she got up to speed and defied anyone to come past. Trott was on her wheel but suddenly Edmondson complicated things for Laura and to get past Hammer, Trott was going to have to go round the Australian as well. She had a good go but finished the race third and dropped another point to the rider from the USA.

To win Gold, Trott was going to have to win the Time Trial and hope there were three riders between her and Hammer.

Scratch Race Result
1. EDMONDSON Annette
2. HAMMER Sarah
3. TROTT Laura
4. WILD Kirsten
5. D’HOORE Jolien
6. WHITTEN Tara
7. KIESANOWSKI Joanne
8. HUANG Li
9. LEE Minhye
10. ROMANYUTA Evgeniya
11. CALLE WILLIAMS Maria Luisa
12. SHARAKOVA Tatsiana
13. WOJTYRA Malgorzata
14. MEJIAS GARCIA Marlies
15. HSIAO Mei Yu
16. OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire
17. GONZALEZ Angie
18. SANCHEZ Clara

Standings before final round
1. HAMMER Sarah 15
2. TROTT Laura 17
3. EDMONDSON Annette 22
4. WHITTEN Tara 27

500 Metre Time Trial
After having won the flying lap, Trott was expected to do a good time trial and after another 20 year old, the Aussie Edmondson, had set a great time of 35.140, Trott in the final heat with Hammer on the other side of the track, did not disappoint the fans lining the track shouting for her, winning by three hundredths of a second.

It was though all down to where Hammer finished in relation to Trott and Hammer’s fourth place, almost a second down on Trott, was enough to give the Gold medal to Trott and deny the rider from the USA who has been coached by Jamie Staff, the Gold medal she was looking good to win. Victory had gone to the young Brit, her first Individual Olympic medal in her first Olympics.

“I’m so happy and I can’t thank everyone enough. I can’t believe this has happened to me. I came into today not feeling as good as yesterday and to finish off with that last 500m is unbelievable. I’ve peaked at the right time and it’s all thanks to the coaches really and the support of the crowd and my family.”

500 metre Time Trial
1. TROTT Laura 35.110
2. EDMONDSON Annette 35.140
3. SANCHEZ Clara 35.451
4. HAMMER Sarah 35.900
5. MEJIAS GARCIA Marlies 35.912
6. HUANG Li 36.315
7. KIESANOWSKI Joanne 36.360
8. OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire 36.393
9. HSIAO Mei Yu 36.482
10. WHITTEN Tara 36.509
11. LEE Minhye 36.547
12. D’HOORE Jolien 36.585
13. SHARAKOVA Tatsiana 36.748
14. WOJTYRA Malgorzata 36.790
15. WILD Kirsten 37.152
16. ROMANYUTA Evgeniya 37.308
17. GONZALEZ Angie 37.578
18. CALLE WILLIAMS Maria Luisa 37.937

Final Overall
1. TROTT Laura, Great Britain 18
2. HAMMER Sarah, USA 19
3. EDMONDSON Annette, Australia 24
4. WHITTEN Tara, Canada 37
5. D’HOORE Jolien, Belgium 45
6. WILD Kirsten, Holland 50
7. KIESANOWSKI Joanne, New Zealand 55
8. MEJIAS GARCIA Marlies Cuba 57
9. SHARAKOVA Tatsiana Belarus 59
10. ROMANYUTA Evgeniya Russia 61
11. WOJTYRA Malgorzata Poland 63
12. HUANG Li China 67
13. OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire, Spain 69
14. SANCHEZ Clara, France, 72
15. LEE Minhye, Republic of Korea 74
16. CALLE WILLIAMS Maria Luisa 76
17. HSIAO Mei Yu, Taipei 85
18. GONZALEZ Angie, Venezuela 95

 

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: , , , ,