March 25, 2011 (Apeldoorn, the Netherlands) – The men’s Omnium kicked off today in Apeldoorn, with riders competing in the first three of six events. Canadian favourite Zach Bell who is the World Cup Series overall champion in the event, opened strong, placing first in the Flying Lap, and went on to finish 12th in the Points race putting him second overall.

But a 16th place finish in the Elimination race, dropped the stalwart rider from the Yukon to 8th overall with 27 points half way through the competition as Bryan Coquard from France leads with 18 points.

“We had some bad luck in the elimination race this evening with Zach; we were hoping for a better result there,” commented National track team coach Richard Wooles. “We’re back at the track early tomorrow morning to continue the men’s Omnium and Tara [Whitten] will start the women’s Omnium. We’ve come here with Tara as the defending world champ in the Omnium, and along with Zach, these are our best chance at a gold medal.”

Following Conquard is Elia Viviani (Italy) with 21 points and Australian Michael Freiberg with 22 points. The men will reconvene tomorrow for the final three events: individual pursuit, the scratch race and the final event the kilo.

Canadian sprinter Monique Sullivan qualified 15th in the women’s sprints, and went on to be defeated by French Sprinter Sandie Clair in the 16th final. Olga Panarina (Belarousse), Anna Meares (Australia), Victoria Pendleton (GBR) and Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) move on to the semi-final tomorrow.

“I’ve definitely made some progress in the 200m time trial. We’ve made some changes in the approach and in the warm up procedures, and it seems to be working – and I am very happy with that. I’ve beaten some girls I had never beaten before, so there are some good progresses and there is more potential,” said Sullivan in a CCA release. “It’s not quite where I want to be yet, but there have been some improvements.”

After a gutsy performance in which he lapped the field, Columbian rider Avila Edwin Alcibiades took the title in the men’s 40km points race. Defending champion Cameron Meyer (Australia) settled for silver with Morgan Kneisky of France rounding out the podium.

Great Britain and France had two show-downs in the men’s sprint today with Defending Champion Gregory Bauge (France) against Great Britain’s Jason Kenny for gold and decorated British sprinter Sir Chris Hoy racing Mickael Bourgain of France for bronze. Bauge successfully defended his title, taking home gold, with Hoy winning the race for bronze.

In the women’s individual pursuit, American powerhouse Sarah Hammer narrowly defended her 2010 title, claiming gold by a margin of 3 tenths of a second over Alison Shanks of New Zealand. Vilija Sereikaite (Lithuania) picked up the bronze.

Full results and more photos here.