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2004 Junior Track Worlds – Day 4

August 2, 2004 – It was an electrifying last day of racing at the Junior World Championships in Los Angeles, California filled with crashes, attacks and hat-tricks.
In the men’s Madison event it was Miles Orman and Matt Goss of Australia who managed to avoid the spills and with determined wills clinched the win. They had never raced a Madison together but over the last few months spent countless training hours together. Orman and Goss were part of the winning Australian Team Pursuit who came within three seconds of breaking the World Record. The Madison gold is Australia’s 6th gold medal of the competition and the second gold for Orman and Goss.
Shuang Guo of China won an unprecedented three gold medals, sweeping the women’s sprint events. On the last day of competition she won two straight sprints against Jin A You of Korea. Earlier in the week she posted the fastest time in the 500 meter time-trial and powered through the finish line in the Keirin. Last year in Russia at the World Championships Guo won two gold medals so this year she bettered that by winning three!
For many of these athletes the World Championships marks the end of the competitive season, but not for the Canadians. The Canadian juniors will only have a few days of rest before traveling to Victoria, British Columbia for the Canadian National Track Championships next week from August 5th-8th . There will be exclusive pre-competition interviews, daily reports and results from these Championships. Stay tuned!


Results
Mens Madison
1 Australia (Matthew Goss/Miles Olman) 26 pts
2 Belgium (Tim Mertens/Tim Roels) 12
3 France (Besson Jérémy/Tuanua Zahn) 11
4 Germany (Marcel Barth/Sascha Damrow) 11
5 Russia (Sergey Kolesnikov/Ivan Kovalev) 6

Team Sprint – Qualifying

1 Germany 46.638 (57.893km/h)
Robert Förstemann
Maximilian Levy
Benjamin Wittmann
2 Australia 47.273 (57.115km/h)
Corey Heath
Shane Perkins
Daniel Thorsen
3 Russia 47.386 (56.979km/h)
Denis Dmitriev
Mikhail Shikhalev
Stoyan Vasev
4 France 47.398 (56.964km/h)
David Cabrol
Denis Rivenaire
Alexandre Volant
5 USA 47.482 (56.864km/h)
Ben Barczewski
Michael Blatchford
Ryan Nelman
6 Japan 47.731 (56.567km/h)
Yu Onishi
Atsushi Shibasaki
Kazumichi Sugata
7 Greece 48.372 (55.817km/h)
Panagiotis Barmpopoulos
Dimitrios Kalamaras
Athanasios Lefakis
8 Czech Republic 49.489 (54.558km/h)
Tomas Babek
Zbysek Mityska
Ivo Vildomec
9 Netherlands 49.909 (54.098km/h)
Bas Eckmann
Lars Jun
Yondi Schmidt
10 Canada 51.463 (52.465km/h)
Zach Grant
Mark Macdonald
Rene Regimbauld




Team Sprint – Final

1 Germany
Robert Förstemann
Maximilian Levy
Benjamin Wittmann
2 Japan
Yu Onishi
Atsushi Shibasaki
Kazumichi Sugata
3 Australia
Corey Heath
Shane Perkins
Daniel Thorsen
4 USA
Ben Barczewski
Michael Blatchford
Aaron Kacala
5 Russia
Denis Dmitriev
Mikhail Shikhalev
Stoyan Vasev

Women’s Sprint – Final

1 Shuang Guo (China)
2 Jin A You (Korea)
3 Miriam Welte (Germany)
4 Jane Gerisch (Germany)
5 Hayley Wright (Australia)
13 Laura Brown (Canada)





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2004 Junior Track Worlds – Day 4

August 1, 2004 -Team USA’s Michael Blatchford came agonizingly close to winning a world title today in the men’s sprint, finishing second to Australia’s Shane Perkins to claim the silver medal. One of the brightest prospects representing the U.S., Blatchford entered these games with medal potential after setting a world record in the 200 meter qualifying sprints at the Junior Pan American Championships in Ecuador earlier this year stopping the clock at 10.32 seconds.

He came to Los Angeles prepared and staked his claim as the man to beat after clocking the fastest time in yesterday’s qualifying heats, a 10.696 just ahead of Perkins, whose 10.701 was barely off the pace. After qualifying, Blatchford predicted that the race for the world championship would come down to himself and Perkins. Tonight, his prediction was fulfilled in front of a supportive crowd at the ADT Event Center.

After sweeping two straight races in the semifinals against Kevin Sireau (FRA), the stage was set for a battle between Blatchford and Perkins. In the first heat of the best of three format, Blatchford took the lead from the whistle and led out the sprint to score first, narrowly beating Perkins by half a wheel. In the second heat, the roles were reversed and Perkins led out the sprint and won to even up the competition and send it to a third and decisive ride. In the final round, Perkins again came out on top to snag the world title leaving Blatchford with the silver and the best performance by an American at this year’s world championships.

“I’ve come so far,” Blatchford admitted following the race. I was so excited during the first race after winning all of my heats, but began to feel a little more pressure before the second ride.” We were so evenly matched. I’ve got one more chance at a jersey though,” he said in reference to tomorrow’s team sprint event.

In the men’s 5-8 sprint final, Ben Barczewski (USA) placed second behind Matthew Crampton (GBR) to finish sixth overall.

In women’s sprint action, Team USA’s Tela Crane qualified with the 16th fastest time in the morning session with a time of 13.000. China’s Gou Shuang, who has already won world titles in the 500 meter time trial and the keirin during these games, clocked the fastest time of the morning, an 11.730. In the 1/18 round, Crane was matched up against Jin a You (KOR), a battle she lost, sending her to the repechage round against Skye-Lee Armstrong (AUS) and Jennifer Loutit (AUS). In the repechage round, where riders get a second chance to remain in the competition with a win, Crane bested the Australian duo only to be granted the dubious task of facing Shuang in the 1/8 final.

In the 1/8 final, Shuang, whose qualifying time was faster than six of the world’s best junior men, easily disposed of Crane to advance to the 1/4 finals. In the ensuing 1/8 repechage, Crane finished second to Hayley Wright (AUS), eliminating the American from competition.

In the women’s 7.5km scratch race, bronze medalist in the women’s individual pursuit, Kimberly Geist (USA) was in a late-race break with the opponent she beat for the pursuit bronze, Paddy Walker (NZL). With four laps remaining, the duo was caught by the field and Geist drifted to the back of the field as Annalisa Cucinotta (ITA) sprinted to the world title ahead of Jarmila Machacova (CZE) and Bianca Rogers (AUS).

During the morning session the U.S. team pursuit squad of Michael Chauner, Daniel Holloway, Chris Ruhl and Michael Schnabel was eliminated by the gold medal favorite team from Australia in the first round. After overtaking the American foursome on the seventh lap, Australia posted a time of 4:13.059 to advance to the gold medal match against Germany. In the world championship round, Australia clocked a 4:10.439 to claim the world title while Germany settled for silver with a 4:20.001. The U.S. squad finished seventh overall.

Blatchford’s silver and Geist’s bronze give the Americans two medals. Australia leads the country competition with 10 medals, five of them gold. Sunday’s medal events include the men’s madison, the men’s team sprint and the women’s sprint.

Aussies Continue to Dominate





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