2008/2009 World Cup and 2009 World Championships

Women

Simona Krupeckaite was the star of World Cup #4: She won all three individual contests and took home silver in the team sprint.

The fight for the remaining podium positions was between the strongs teams from the Netherlands (team sprint winner) and China.

Ukraine's Lyubov Shulika won silver in the sprint and Malaysia Fatehah Mustapa got fourth in keirin, showing that not only Malaysia's men are world class sprinters.

The French team didn't make it onto the podium.

There were no women sprint teams from Australia, UK and Germany. The Germans preferred the summer in Cape Town over the chilly temperatures in Beijing.

Men

The men's competition was much more diverse.

The competition started with Lei Zhang clocking the fastest 200m time and ending up with Silver. Gregory Bauge won the sprints and Shane Perkins took home the bronze. All three had qualified with times under 10.2 sec.

The Keirin and the Kilo showed the strength of the Malayen sprinters: Azizul Hasni Awang winning the Keirin and Rizal Tisin taking the Kilo.

Gregory Bauge won Silver in the Keirin, followed by Teun Mulder. Strog performances from New Zealand's Simon van Velthoven and Travis Smith who took 4th and 5th place.

François Pervis got silver in the Kilo and Poland's Kamil Kuczynski won bronze.

In the team sprint Cofidis won, France took second and Germany third. Despite the strong team sprint and some solid performances over the last few weeks, the Germans didn't make a strong impression in the individual events.

UK didn't sent a sprint team and Australia only had Shane Perkins in the mix.

200m Qualification

1 122 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU 11.304
2 214 SHULIKA Lyubov UKR 11.434
3 26 GUO Shuang CHN 11.439
4 152 KANIS Willy NED 11.473
5 30 ZHENG Lulu CHN 11.607
6 72 TIAN Fang GPC 11.817
7 53 CLAIR Sandie FRA 11.819
8 141 XU Yulei MSP 11.849
9 237 SULLIVAN Monique CAN 11.853
10 151 HIJGENAAR Yvonne NED 11.855

Final

1 122 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU
2 214 SHULIKA Lyubov UKR

3 152 KANIS Willy NED
4 26 GUO Shuang CHN

200m Qualification

1 24 ZHANG Lei CHN 10.173
2 4 PERKINS Shane AUS 10.178
3 50 BAUGE Gregory FRA 10.187
4 219 SIREAU Kévin COF 10.268
5 51 D'ALMEIDA Michaël FRA 10.313
6 63 LEVY Maximilian GER 10.322
7 144 MULDER Teun NED 10.333
8 218 BOURGAIN Mickaël COF 10.388
9 12 AWANG Azizulhasni BTA 10.431
10 127 NG ONN LAM Josiah MAS 10.434
11 114 WATANABE Kazunari JPN 10.445
12 173 KWIATKOWSKI Lukasz POL 10.461
13 212 VYNOKUROV Andrii UKR 10.542
14 42 ESCUREDO RAIMONDEZ José Antonio ESP 10.579
15 183 BORISOV Sergey RUS 10.584
16 134 TANG Qi MSP 10.589

Final

1 BAUGE Gregory FRA 11.072 10.949
2 ZHANG Lei CHN

3 PERKINS Shane AUS 10.852 10.943
4 D'ALMEIDA Michaël FRA

Final
1 122 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU
2 26 GUO Shuang CHN
3 152 KANIS Willy NED
4 129 MUSTAPA Fatehah MAS
5 30 ZHENG Lulu CHN
6 53 CLAIR Sandie FRA

B-Final (7-12)
7 151 HIJGENAAR Yvonne NED
8 107 FRISONI Elisa ITA
9 54 CUEFF Virginie FRA
10 226 XING Xiaoqing HKP
11 197 STRELTSOVA Olga RUS
REL 237 SULLIVAN Monique CAN

Final
1 12 AWANG Azizulhasni BTA
2 50 BAUGE Gregory FRA
3 144 MULDER Teun NED
4 161 VAN VELTHOOVEN Simon NZL
5 86 SMITH Travis HWK
6 4 PERKINS Shane AUS

B-Final (7-12)
7 63 LEVY Maximilian GER
8 113 SATO Tomokazu JPN
9 42 ESCUREDO RAIMONDEZ José Antonio ESP
10 234 KARZHENEUSKI Yury BLR
11 218 BOURGAIN Mickaël COF
12 24 ZHANG Lei CHN

1 122 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU 33.834
2 25 GONG Jinjie CHN 34.941
3 141 XU Yulei MSP 35.109
4 151 HIJGENAAR Yvonne NED 35.485
5 54 CUEFF Virginie FRA 35.831
6 72 TIAN Fang GPC 35.955
7 107 FRISONI Elisa ITA 36.199
8 129 MUSTAPA Fatehah MAS 36.284
9 77 LEE Wai Sze HKG 36.505
10 176 DREJGIER Aleksandra POL 37.018

1 128 TISIN Mohd Rizal MAS 1:02.268
2 220 PERVIS François COF 1:02.642
3 171 KUCZYNSKI Kamil POL 1:03.020
4 20 LI Wen Hao CHN 1:03.687
5 224 ZHANG Miao HKP 1:03.938
6 52 JOLLET Thierry FRA 1:04.099
7 66 STUMPF Mathias GER 1:04.117
8 146 SCHMIDT Yondi NED 1:04.204
9 228 DITZEL Filip CZE 1:05.000
10 112 SAKAMOTO Takashi JPN 1:05.184

1 NED Netherlands 34.077
HIJGENAAR Yvonne, KANIS Willy

2 LTU Lithuania 34.311
GAIVENYTE Gintare, KRUPECKAITE Simona

3 CHN China 34.490
GONG Jinjie, ZHENG Lulu

4 FRA France 34.777
CLAIR Sandie, CUEFF Virginie

1 COF COFIDIS 44.861 
BOURGAIN Mickaël, SIREAU Kévin, PERVIS François

2 FRA France 45.424
BAUGE Gregory, D'ALMEIDA Michaël, JOLLET Thierry

3 GER Germany 45.324
DOEHRER Sebastian, LEVY Maximilian, STUMPF Mathias

4 CHN China 45.498
ZHANG Zixiang, LI Wen Hao, ZHANG Lei

Day 1

Women's Sprint and Men's Team Sprint

Women's Sprint

It was good to have the flying 200m as the first women's sprint event. The qualifier provided a good overview who came to Cali with good form and who could handle the bugs the best.
Simona Krupeckaite apparently had excellent form and come in with a smashing 11.05. Lulu Zheng demostrated the width and depth of Chinese sprinting team, clocking 11.27. Clara Sanchez and Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez also stayed below 11.4s

Flying 200m Qualification

Women's Sprint 5th-8th
fotos (C) Johnny Ortiz, www.ciclismohoy.com

Going throgh the round, there weren't any suprises and the fastest four from the qualification ended up in the finals, with Simona Krupeckaite taking home Gold:

GOLD 1 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU 11.867 11.552
SILVER 2 SANCHEZ Clara FRA

BRONZE 3 GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB 11.949 12.107
4 ZHENG Lulu CHN

Men's Team Sprint

Qualification

Germany put down the hammer in the qualification with 44.6 and won Gold with pretty much the same time over the Australian Toshiba team. The French Cofidis team missed the final by less than 3 tenth, but could break the 45 sec barrier in fight for bronze. Team Venezuela demonstrated the strength of Latin American track sprinting.

1 GER Germany 44.605
91 BERGEMANN Carsten
92 FORSTEMANN Robert
94 NIMKE Stefan

2 TOS TEAM TOSHIBA 45.034
4 ELLIS Daniel
5 NIBLETT Jason
6 SUNDERLAND Scott

3 COF COFIDIS 45.071
34 BOURGAIN Mickaël
35 HENRIETTE Didier
36 SIREAU Kévin

4 VEN Venezuela 45.560
158 CANELON Hersony
161 MARCANO Cesar
162 PULGAR Angel

Germany's Sprint Team
fotos (C) Johnny Ortiz, www.ciclismohoy.com

Final

1 GER Germany 44.651
2 TOS TEAM TOSHIBA (Australia) 45.072
3 COF COFIDIS (France) 44.706

Day 2

Women's Team Sprint, Women's 500m and Men's Kilo

Women's Team Sprint

Kristina Vogel and Miriam Welte pulled together a super qualification with 34.26, closely followed by the French Sandie Clair and Clara Sanchez. The Lithuanian team with Sprint winner Simona Krupeckaite came in as strong third, with the Polish team completing the finals.

Qualification

1 GER Germany 34.263
95 VOGEL Kristina
96 WELTE Miriam

2 FRA France 34.314
87 CLAIR Sandie
88 SANCHEZ Clara

3 LTU Lithuania 34.774
120 GAIVENYTE Gintare
121 KRUPECKAITE Simona

4 POL Poland 35.601
132 DABROWSKA Renata
133 DREJGIER Aleksandra

The French fought back in the final and took the Gold medals. Germany's Miriam Welte commented "too bad ... but Silver is nice, too." Lithuania taking the Bronze.
GOLD FRA France 34.097
SILVER GER Germany 34.221
BRONZE LTU Lithuania 34.400

Women's 500m

Simona Krupeckaite proved again her top form, winning the 500m. Her winning time was less than a tenth away from Anna Meares' world Record (33.588). Lisandra Guerra Rodrigues and Sandie Clair take Silver and Bronze. Up-and-coming sprinters Kaarle McCulloch and Kristina Vogel taking 4th and 5th.

Simona Krupeckaite
fotos (C) Johnny Ortiz, www.ciclismohoy.com

It's interesting to note that both, Simona Krupeckaite's and Lisandra Guerra Rodrigues's 500m times were faster than the winning time from the team sprint.

500m podium
fotos (C) Johnny Ortiz, www.ciclismohoy.com

Men's Kilo

Former olympic champion Stefan Nimke announced a comeback in the kilo after a three year break and succeeded with an impressive win in 1:01.590. Only Yevhen Bolibruhk could get close, he also finished in under 1:02.

Kilo podium
fotos (C) Johnny Ortiz, www.ciclismohoy.com

The Keirin is always good for suprises and this one was no exception. Columbia's Leonardo Narbarez Romero took the victory over Jason Niblett and Barry Ford.

Kévin Sireau was relegated for passing the motorbike in round 2.

Day 3

Women's Keirin and Men's Match Sprint

Women's Keirin

In the second round, Germany's Miriam Welte missed the final and Kaarle McCulloch was relegated for causing the crash of Diana Maria Garcia Orrego.

Simona Krupeckaite again shows dominance at the this world cup bu winning her third Gold medal. Clara Sanchez and Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez complete the podium.

Keirin Final

1 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU
2 SANCHEZ Clara FRA
3 GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB
4 CLAIR Sandie FRA
5 DABROWSKA Renata POL
6 ZHENG Lulu CHN

Men's Match Sprint

Kevin Sireau breaks 10s in the qualification. Germans and French sprinters are dominating the field by taking 1st - 4th.

Flying 200m

The top four from the qualification making it to the semi finals: Kévin defeats Michael and Stefan defeats Robert (2:1). In the fight for Gold Kevin Sireau wins against Stefan Nimke and Mickaël Bourgain takes the Bronze.

Men: Sprint Women: Keirin, 500m TT,

Commentary and photos by CyclingNews.com:
Day 3, part 1
Day 3, part 2

Men's Sprint

Qualifocation

The Sprint became a battle between Australia and France each having 2 riders in the semi finals. Shane Perkins met Michaël D'Almeida in the fight for vitory, Perkins showing a dominating peformance and taking home the Gold.

Jason Niblett and François Pervis were fighting out the bronze medal in two close matches, Niblett prevailing at the end.

Women's Keirin

Netherland's Willy Kanis wins the Keirin, with Italy's Elisa Frisoni and Germany's Christin Muche coming in second and third. Local up and coming sprinter Kaarle McCulloch finshes 4th.

Women's 500m

Willy Kanis proves her excellent forms with another Gold.

Men: Kilo, Keirin Women: Team Sprint

Commentary and photos by CyclingNews.com:
Day 2, part 1
Day 2, part 2

Women's Team Sprint

In a field not too strong, team Netherlands (Yvonne Hijgenaar, Willy Kanis) wins in 34.191. with Australia (Kerrie Meares, Emily Rosemond) and Korea (Jin Gu Hyon, Won Gyeong Kim) taking second and third.

Men's Keirin

While everyone was watching the two fast men François Pervis and Shane Perkins, Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang surprises the competition and the spactating crowd taking the Gold. Andriy Vynokurov (Ukraine) takes the second place and François Pervis rounds out the podium.

Kilo

Michaël d'Almeida takes the Gold with a good time of 1:02.238. Australian youngster Scott Sunderland finishes 2nd in a personal best of 1:02.492. Another takent to keep watching is this 3x junior world champ Quentin Lafargue who finihses 6th in 1:03.451.

Men: Team Sprint Women: Sprint

Commentary and photos by CyclingNews.com:
Day 1, part 1
Day 1, part 2

Women's sprint

200m qualification

The quarterfinals had a good surprise in stock: Germany's Christin Muche defeated #1 qualifier Willy Kanis 2:1. Christin continues her streak against Christin Muche against Kaarle McCulloch in the quarterfinal and is only stopped Lyubov Shulika (who defeated Kerrie Meares in the semis) in the match for Gold. Anna wins Bronze against Kaarle in a closely contest match.

Men's team sprint

The young Australian Toshiba team (Daniel Ellis, Jason Niblett, Scott Sunderland) took home the victory in 44.744. Japan takes second and Ukraine third.

Day 3 in Manchester

Men's Team Sprint - Another win for the Brits

The SKY and the Polish National teams repeated their performances from the qualification. The German squad improved by 2 tenth reversing the placing from the qualification round. In fact their final time would have earned them Silver if they had qualified better. 1 SKY Team ( Ross Edgar, Jason Kenny, Jamie Staff) 44.306 2 Poland ( KWIATKOWSKI Lukasz KWIATKOWSKI, Kamil KUCZYNSKI, Maciej BIELECKI) 45.259 3 Germany ( Sebastian Doehrer, Rene Enders, Mathias Stumpf) 45.076

Team Sprint

Women's Keirin - Another Gold for Victoria Pendleton

Victoria was winning every round. Diana Maria Garcia Orrego took silver after taking a repechage detour. Jinjie Gond came in third after two strong round 1 and 2 races.

Victoria Pendleton salutes the crowd after winning the women's Keirin Photo ©: Gerry McManus

Men's International Keirin

As usual the Keirin had some surpises: Sprint Silver medalist Shane Perkins had to go through the repechage to advance to round 2. Jason Kenny didn't make it to finals. Here are the final 6: 1 Matthew Crampton 2 Ross Edgar 3 Adam Ptacnik 4 Shane Perkins 5 Christos Volikakis 6 Michaël D'Almeida Commentary and photos by CyclingNews.com: Day 3, part 1 Day 3, part 2

Close finish in the International Keirin

Day 2 in Manchester

Men's Sprint - Jason Kenny takes Gold

The qualification yielded some fast times with the top three Jason Kenny (10.138), David Daniell (10.166), and Shane Perkins (10.174) below 10.2 seconds. The top 16 were all coming in with times below 10.5 s. During the early rounds, we saw Matthew Crampton and Michaël D'Almeida fighting their way in the semi finals. However, it was Jason Kenny and Shane Perkins battling for Gold which went to Kenny was sliding first across in the final heat. Matthew Crapmton took the Bronze. Second fastest qualifier David Daniell won the race for 5th.

Photo ©: Gerry McManus

Women's 500m - Second Gold for Victoria Pendleton

1. Victoria Pendleton, UK 34.256 2. Jinjie Gong, China 34.432 3. Miriam Welte, Germany 34.799

Photo ©: Gerry McManus

Women's Team Sprint - Great Britain beats Germany by 25 milli seconds.

Day 1 in Manchester

The first day of the world cup is under way and the sprint events included men's Keirin and Kilo and and women's Sprint.

Men's Keirin

The biggest news in the men's keirin was the absense of a good number of elite racers, taking a break from racing after the Olympics (read more on this topic in the interview with Anna Meares). 24 year old frenchman François Pervis took home the Keirin title. This comes as a surpise. While Francois is well known in sprint track scene, his palmares was comprised of successes in the kilo, sprint and team sprint, so far. 1 François Pervis, France 2 Jason Kenny, UK 3 Teun Mulder, Netherlands

Women's Sprint

The women's flying 200m looked interesting, indicating a battle between UK and China: 1. Victoria Pendleton (11.162 s) 2. Lulu Zheng (11.314 s) 3. Jinjie Gong 11.340 s) 4. Anna Blyth (11.382 s) Victoria Pendleton clearly dominating the races from the flying 200m to the final matches. Ukraine's Lyubov Shulika who had qualified with a relatively slow 11.490 was fighting her way through the match sprints to a Bronze medal. 1 Victoria Pendleton, UK 2 Lulu Zheng, China 3 Lyubov Shulika, Ukraine 4 Anna Blyth, UK Commentary and photos by CyclingNews.com: Day 1, part 1 Day 1, part 2

Men's Kilo

Great Britain's David Daniell took a decisive win in the Kilo with a a 1 second gap over 2nd Yevhen Bolibrukh and 3rd Kamil Kuczynski.
1 David Daniell, UK 1:01.996
2 Yevhen Bolibrukh, Ukraine 1:03.039
3 Kamil Kuczynski, Poland 1:03.176

World Cup schedule

Season preview - women sprinters

Let's start with a recap from 2008's big event the Olympic games.
The medals went to
1 Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain) - 10.963
2 Anna Meares (Australia) - 11.106
3 Shuang Guo (China) - 11.140

The women's sprint Olympic podium, Photo ©: Casey Gibson

Other sprinters with qualifications time under 11.5 s were

In early September we saw some strong results at the U23 European Championships in Pruszkow, Poland. The sprint events were dominated by Miriam Welte GER, Sandie Clair FRA, Lyubov Shulika UKR, and Anna Blyth GBR.

Sandie Clair clocked 33.872 over 500m, just 3/10th shy of Anna Maeres 2007 World Record. Miriam Welte took home the Gold in the Sprint and Keirin. Her 200m qualifying time was 11.453.

Another strong German sprinter for is Christin Muche who had won the German Championships against Welte in the Sprint and Keirin just a week before.

Also watch out for Germany's Kristina Vogel who won all Sprint events at Junior Worlds earlier this year. Unfortunately she crashed during the Erfurter Pool Sprint but is expected to join the World Cup tour in Cali. Another wildcard will be Great Britain's Shanaze Reade.

Season preview - men sprinters

It will Chris Hoy against everybody else, including his British team mates Jason Kenny, Jamie Staff and Ross Edgar.

The hunted - Chris Hoy
Photo ©: Rob Jones

The Frenchmen Mickael Bourgain, Grégory Baugé, Kévin Sireau and Arnaud Tournant should be highly motivated to show their stuff. Other fast men to watch out for include Roberto Chiappa, Maximillian Levy, Stefan Nimke, Kiyofumi Nagai, and of course Theo Bos (Netherlands) who crashed in the second round of the Olympic Keirin.

Jason Kenny Photo ©: John Pierce	Mickaël Bourgain Photo ©: John Pierce
Roberto Chiappa Photo ©: John Pierce	Theo Bos Photo ©: John Pierce
Max Levy Photo ©: Nick Rosenthal	Josiah Ng Photo ©: John Pierce

The chasing pack