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August 15/08 9:15 am - Beijing Olympics: Track Day 1 report, photos & full results


Posted by Editoress on 08/15/08
 

Beijing Olympics - Track Day 1

Photos from today's races at the Laoshan Velodrome

Women's Pursuit qualifying

Men's Pursuit qualifying

Team Sprint Qualifying, Round one and Final

The track portion of the Olympic program opened on Friday at the Laoshan velodrome in the west end of Beijing. Great Britain followed up their stellar showing at the World Championships by winning the first medal competition on the track - the Team Sprint. France, who won the title in Athens, had to settle for silver, while Germany took the bronze ahead of Australia. In addition to the Team Sprint, the qualifying rounds of the men's and women's Individual Pursuit were held.

Team Sprint

Great Britain was clearly remembering having been shut out of the medals in the Team Sprint at the 2004 Games and losing the world title on their home track in March, and smashed the existing best time for the event in the qualifying round, with a time of 42.950 seconds, the first ever under 43 seconds. All three riders - Jamie Staff, Jason Kenny and anchor Chris Hoy set new world times for their legs. (Note: there is no world record, since the event can take place on tracks of different lengths)

The top eight teams - Great Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Japan, Malaysia and the United States - moved on to the next round. The U.S. actually had the ninth fastest time, but after Poland was relegated for handing off between riders outside the designated zone, the Americans bumped into the final spot.

In the next round, It was again Great Britain and France head and shoulders above the rest to qualify for the gold medal final, while Germany and Australia would go for bronze.

The Brits were clearly riding at another level, as they trounced the French squad of Gregory Bauge, Kevin Sireau and Arnaud Tournant by over half a second.

"To beat them by half a second, made it just that bit more exciting," commented Hoy. "Honestly, it took every inch of effort in beating the French, who have been invincible in this event. Today, we really put all the pieces of the jigsaw together. To win as part of a team is totally different from the individual medal [in the Kilo, which he won in Athens]."

Tournant was philosophical about losing the title. "For me, it's my last time at the Olympics, except for tomorrow [in the Keirin], so it is a big moment and a big pleasure to be here. It was a good race, and it was so fast. It was a great time for our team, but they are fast boys, the British team."

Germany, after a slow start which saw them behind the Australians for the first two laps, clawed their way back into the medals by 8 thousandths of a second, with a superb last lap by Stefan Nimke.

Men's Individual Pursuit

Wiggins was clearly the class of the field, starting in the final heat against Alexei Markov of Russia. Up until the last two heats, no one had manage to crack the 4:20 barrier, however, Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) served notice that he has brought good form to the Games with a strong ride of 4:18.990 .

But Wiggins was up next, and after a slightly slow start - second fastest behind Volodymyr Dyudya (Ukraine) - he moved into the lead after the halfway mark and continued to pull away from everyone else. His time of 4:15.031 was 0.134 seconds ahead of the previous mark, which he set in Athens, and is starting to make Chris Boardman's 1996 world record of 4:11.114 look attainable.

Roulston may be the biggest threat to Wiggins, but he is pragmatic about his chances. "I think anyone is beatable, but you have to cut your head off to beat Bradley..."

Worthy of mention was American Taylor Phinney's seventh plac, moving him on to the next round. The only Junior-aged rider on the track, Phinney is looking for experience at these Games.

"My goal was just to qualify. That was the hardest that I have ever pushed myself in a Pursuit. Today I went out a little hot. Watching Wiggins breaking the Olympic record on this track was incredible and inspiring."

Women's Individual Pursuit

The women's Pursuit saw a 1-2 finish by the Brits in qualifying, but it wasn't world champion Rebecca Romero in first, but her team mate Wendy Houvenaghel, by two-tenths of a second. Houvenaghel had gone up against American Sarah Hammer in the second to last heat, which might have inspired her to dig deeper. Hammer, on the other hand, had a relatively poor ride, qualifying fifth fastest.

"It was ugly for me personally," Hammer said of her qualifying heat." That's not how I hope to feel. My body wasn't handling it today. Four laps in I was like, 'oh, this is not going to be fun.' It was just a bad day. I was a little nervous, so I'm lucky the races are over three rounds and three days."


On Saturday, the pace of racing picks up, with three medal finals in the Men's Points Race, the final of the men's Individual Pursuit, and the men's Keirin.

Team Sprint
Qualifying
1 Great Britain (Chris Hoy/Jason Kenny/Jamie Staff)0:42.950
2 France (Gregory Bauge/Kevin Sireau/Arnaud Tournant)0:43.541
3 Germany (Rene Enders/Maximilian Levy/Stefan Nimke)0:44.197
4 Netherlands (Theo Bos/Teun Mulder/Tim Veldt)0:44.213
5 Australia (Daniel Ellis/Mark French/Shane Kelly)0:44.335
6 Japan (Kiyofumi Nagai/Tomohiro Nagatsuka/Kazunari Watanabe)0:44.454
7 Malaysia (Mohd Azizulhasni Awang/Josiah Ng/Mohd Rizal Tisin)0:44.725
8 United States (Michael Blatchford/Adam Duvendeck/Giddeon Massie)0:45.346
9 China (Yong Feng/Wenhao Li/Lei Zhang)0:45.556
10 Greece (Athanasios Mantzouranis / Vasileios Reppas/ Panagiotis Voukelatos )0:45.645
11 Czech Republic (Tomas Babek/ Adam Ptacnik/ Denis Spicka)0:45.678
12 Russian Fed (Sergey Polynskiy/ Denis Dmitriev/ Sergey Kucherov)0:45.964
13 Poland (Maciej Bielecki/ Kamil Kuczynski/ Lukasz Kwiatkowski)0:45.266
Fastest 8 teams qualify for the first round
Round 1
Heat 1
1 Australia (Daniel Ellis/Mark French/Shane Kelly)0:44.090
2 Netherlands (Theo Bos/Teun Mulder/Tim Veldt)0:44.212
Heat 2
1 Germany (Rene Enders/Maximilian Levy/Stefan Nimke)0:43.699
2 Japan (Kiyofumi Nagai/Tomohiro Nagatsuka/Kazunari Watanabe)0:44.437
Heat 3
1 France (Gregory Bauge/Kevin Sireau/Arnaud Tournant)0:43.656
2 Malaysia (Mohd Azizulhasni Awang/Josiah Ng/Mohd Rizal Tisin)0:44.822
Heat 4
1 Great Britain (Chris Hoy/Jason Kenny/Jamie Staff)0:43.034
2 United States (Michael Blatchford/Adam Duvendeck/Giddeon Massie)0:45.423
Fastest two winners race for Gold
and the other two winners race for Bronze
Losers are classified from the 5th to the 8th place
based upon their time from first round
Final
Ride for Gold & Silver
1 Great Britain (Chris Hoy/Jason Kenny/Jamie Staff)0:43.128
2 France (Gregory Bauge/Kevin Sireau/Arnaud Tournant)0:43.651
Ride for Bronze
3 Germany (Rene Enders/Maximilian Levy/Stefan Nimke)0:44.014
4 Australia (Daniel Ellis/Mark French/Shane Kelly)0:44.022


Men's Individual Pursuit
Qualifying
1 Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain)4:15.031
2 Hayden Roulston (New Zealand)4:18.990
3 Alexei Markov (Russian Fed)4:21.498
4 Volodymyr Dyudya (Ukraine)4:21.530
5 Steven Burke (Great Britain)4:22.260
6 Antonio Tauler (Spain)4:22.462
7 Taylor Phinney (United States)4:22.860
8 Alexander Serov (Russian Fed)4:23.732
9 Bradley McGee (Australia)4:26.084
10 Sergi Escobar (Spain)4:26.102
11 David O'Loughlin (Ireland)4:26.102
12 Brett Lancaster (Australia)4:26.139
13 Jens Mouris (Netherlands)4:27.445
14 Vitaliy Popkov (Ukraine)4:30.321
15 Fabien Sanchez (France)4:33.100
16 Carlos Alzate (Colombia)4:35.154
17 Alexandr Pliuschin (Rep. of Moldova)4:35.438
18 Jenning Huizenga (Netherlands)4:37.097
Fastest 8 riders qualify for the first round

Women's Individual Pursuit
Qualifying
1 Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain)3:28.443
2 Rebecca Romero (Great Britain)3:28.641
3 Lesya Kalitovska (Ukraine)3:31.942
4 Alison Shanks (New Zealand)3:34.312
5 Sarah Hammer (United States)3:35.471
6 Vilija Sereikaite (Lithuania)3:36.063
7 Katie Mactier (Australia)3:38.178
8 Lada Kozlikova (Czech Republic)3:39.561
9 Karin Thurig (Switzerland)3:40.862
10 Maria Luisa Calle (Colombia)3:41.175
11 Verena Jooss (Germany)3:44.480
12 Svetlana Pauliukaite (Lithuania)3:45.691
13 Evelyn Garcia (El Salvador)3:56.849
Fastest 8 riders qualify for the first round

 

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