May 28/98 10:09 am - Victoria World Cup Report 4

Posted by Editor on 05/28/98
 

Sprinting Heats Up

The weather continues to be perfect as we move into the evening of the first day here at the Victoria World Cup track meet. The 12 men who survived from the morning rounds went two-up in the 1/8 Finals to further narrow the field. The format was one race only, with the loser getting a second chance in the repechage. As expected, all the top seeded riders went through, with Marty Nothstein of the USA getting a slight scare when he fell in in the third corner of the second lap. The 3-time world champion (`94 Sprint, `94 and `96 Keirin) took no chances in his second attempt, joining favourites Jens Fiedler (Germany) and Frederic Magne (France) in moving on to the next round tomorrow. Also moving on were Grzegorz Krejner (Poland), Jan Van Eijden (Germany), Jean Giletto (France), and the two winners of the repechages - Valeri Potapov (Russia) and Craig MacLean (Great Britain). The three-up repechages offered the most exciting racing of the day, with each coming down to a photofinish. In the final repechage, MacLean had to come from well back in third, after Jose Manuel Moreno of Spain jumped early on him and Alexandre Kiritchenko of Russia. It looked like Kiritchenko had managed to pull around the Spaniard to take the race, but a tremendous surge in the last 10 metres saw the Brit edge the Russian rider.

In the womens quarterfinals, it was 2 straight wins for each of the favourites - Jennie Reed (USA) over Lori Ann Muenzer of Canada; Australian Michelle Ferris against former Junior World Champion Katrin Meinke (Germany); Canada‚s Tanya Dubnicoff over Susann Panzer (Germany) and Oksana Grichina beating her Russian teammate Olga Slioussareva. One rider to watch for in the future will be the 18 year old German Meinke. She doesn‚t have the strength yet, but tactically she was a pleasure to watch, and an extremely smooth rider.

The focus then shifted to the finals of the 4000 metre mens individual pursuit. In the gold medal race, it was German Stefan Steinweg over Michael Sandstod (Denmark), without too much trouble. This was the same matchup as in the morning, and Steinweg steadily pulled ahead and maintained a winning edge. Brett Lancaster of Australia caught his American opponent Tommy Mulkey with 2 laps to go, to take the bronze medal.

Currently, the Kilo is underway, so stay tuned for results in about an hour.

Unofficial Results

Mens 1/8 Match Sprint

Heat 1 - Marty Nothstein USA vs Valeri Potapov RUS, Nothstein advances in 2 straight

Heat 2 - Jens Fiedler GER vs Jose Manuel Moreno ESP, Fiedler advances in 2 straight

Heat 3 - Frederic Magne FRA vs Alexandre Kiritchenko RUS, Magne advances in 2 straight

Heat 4 - Grzegorz Krejner POL vs Jan Lepka SVK, Krejner advances in 2 straight

Heat 5 - Jan Van Eijden GER vs Craig MacLean GBR, Van Eijden advances in 2 straight

Heat 6 - Jean Giletto FRA vs Hedeki Yamada JPN, Giletto advances in 2 straight

Repechages

R1 - Potapov, Lepka, Yamada - Potapov advances

R2 - Moreno, Kiritchenko, MacLean - MacLean advances


Womens 1/4 Match Sprint

Heat 1 - Jennie Reed USA vs Lori Ann Muenzer CAN, Reed advances to 2 straight

Heat 2 - Michelle Ferris AUS vs Katrin Meinke GER, Ferris advances in 2 straight

Heat 3 - Tanya Dubnicoff CAN vs Susann Panzer GER, Dubnicoff advances in 2 straight

Heat 4 - Oksana Grichina RUS vs OlgaSlioussareva RUS, Grichina advances in 2 straight


Mens 4000M Individual Pursuit Final

1/2 ride - Stefan Steinweg GER wins over Michael Sandstod DEN

3/4 ride - Brett Lancaster AUS caught Tommy Mulkey USA with 2 laps left.