July 31,2004 – Last night at the Junior World Championships in Los Angeles, California Shuang Guo of China won her second gold medal in the Women’s Keirin. This year, despite being a junior, Guo raced on the Senior Women’s World Cup circuit and came away with two World Cup wins. This international experience has helped Guo mature as a rider and has given her confidence. With the Women’s sprint event still to come Guo has a good chance of increasing her gold medal tally to an outstanding three!

In the Men’s Points Race Marcel Barth of Germany out rode the defending champion Miles Olman of Australia to take gold and Olman settled for silver. Instead of getting overwhelmed by the fast pace, Barth listened to his coach on the sidelines and made all the right moves. Charly Vives of Canada also became part of the action when he earned some sprint points and joined a few breakaway attempts. However, with the points being so close amongst the top riders every moment was crucial and every minute the pressure was on!

Marlijn Binnendijk of Netherlands bettered her third place finish in 2003 to take gold in the individual pursuit. In the final round Binnendijk battled Bianca Rogers of Australia, a first year junior rider, who put up a good fight but in the end Binnendijk opened her lead and finished a full two seconds ahead of Rogers. In the Men’s Team Pursuit it was Roger’s Australian team-mates who qualified first and rode five seconds faster then the defending nation of Russia. The Russian team broke the World Record last year at the 2003 World Championships in Moscow with a time of 4.07.715minutes. This year the team is made up of completely different riders and will have a tough time overcoming the Australian power-team.
Two more days left and countingstay tuned!!


Results
Men’s Points Race
1. Marcel Barth (Germany) 38 pts
2. Miles Olman (Australia) 36
3. Jérémy Besson (France) 32
4. Rafâa Chtioui (Tunisia) 27
5. Tim Mertens (Belgium) 26
11. Charly Vives (Canada) 2

Women Keirin
1. Shuang Guo (China)
2. Miriam Welte (Germany)
3. Skye-Lee Armstrong (Australia)
4. Natalia Prokurorova (Russia)
5. Jane Gerisch (Germany)

Women Individual pursuit
Qualification
1. Marlijn Binnendijk (Netherlands) 2.30.244
2. Bianca Rogers (Australia) 2.31.434
3. Paddy Walker (New Zealand) 2.33.242
4. Amanda Spratt (Australia) 2.33.301
5. Kimberly Geist (USA) 2.33.448
15. Mylene Laliberte (Canada) 2.45.599
17. Naomi Cooper (Canada) 2.47.294

Final’s
1 Marlijn Binnendijk (Netherlands) 2:30.202 (47.935 km/h)
2 Bianca Rogers (Australia) 2:32.468 (47.223 km/h)
3 Kimberly Geist (USA) 2:32.612 (47.178 km/h)
4 Paddy Walker (New Zealand) 2:32.911 (47.086 km/h)


Team Pursuit – Qualifications
1 Australia 4.15.365
2 Russia 4.20.731
3 Germany 4.21.710
4 France 4.21.751
5 Netherlands 4.27.522
6 Czech Republic 4.27.798
7 Belgium 4.29.495
8 Usa 4.32.136
9 Japan 4.34.579
10 Kazakhstan 4.35.048

July 31, 2004 (Carson, Calif.) – The 2004 UCI Junior Track World Championships continued this morning with several preliminary rounds and qualifying events.

First up was the 4km team pursuit qualifying round in which the fastest eight teams of the ten entered would advance to the first round. The U.S. started a squad that consisted of Michael Chauner, Daniel Holloway, Chris Ruhl and Michael Schnabel, a team that narrowly made it through to the next round, placing eighth with a time of 4:32.182.

The Australian team posted the fastest time of the day, riding a 4:15.365, setting up a difficult challenge for the Americans who will face the Australians in round one.

In the men’s 200m sprint qualifying, Team USA’s Michael Blatchford posted the fastest qualifying time of the morning, clocking a 10.696. From a field of 31 riders, the top 18 advanced to the 1/16 final. American Ben Barczewski qualified 18th with a time of 11.223 and teammate Ryan Nelman qualified 13th riding an 11.081 as all three Americans moved on to the first round.

Because Blatchford and Barczewski qualified first and 18th respectively, the two squared off against each other in the 1/16 final with Blatchford taking the win, advancing to tonight’s 1/8 final and relegating Barczewski to the repechage round.

In Nelman’s first round match against Germany’s Miximillian Levy, Levy advanced sending Nelman to the repechage round.

In the first repechage round, Nelman, Barczewski and Mikhail Shikhalev (RUS) squared off and after leading out the sprint in the final lap, Barczewski edged out Nelman to advance to tonight’s 1/8 finals.

In the women’s 3km individual pursuit, Kimberly Geist won her first round heat against points race world champion Amanda Spratt (AUS) with a time of 2:32.334. With the third fastest time amongst the four heat winners, Geist will face Paddy Walker (NZL) for the bronze medal in tonight’s 3-4 final. Walker clocked a time of 2:32.663 in the first round.

The two fastest heat winners, Bianca Rogers (AUS) who rode a 2:29.883 and Marlijn Binnendijk (NED) who rode a 2:30.243 will square off for the gold medal.

In women’s keirin qualifying, Tela Crane and Natalie Klemko each placed fifth in their respective first round heats. Only the top-two in each heat advanced to the second round, but Crane and Klemko each had a second chance at advancing with a win in their ensuing repechage rounds. In the first repechage round, Klemko placed a close second to Jane Gerisch (GER) advancing her to tonight’s 7-12 finals. In the second repechage heat, Crane fell off the pace on the final lap to place fifth, eliminating her from further competition.

Finally, Chris Ruhl advanced to tonight’s men’s 25km points race finals after placing seventh in his qualifying heat with eight points.

August 23, 2003 (Moscow, Russia) – “The Soviet Union is totally not dead and they are years behind in terms of running smooth,” said a frustrated Kurt Innes who is the head Junior Canadian Track Coach in Moscow. On the third day of competition Innes finally stole some net time from the organizers to write a quick email home. He wanted everyone to know that the team was surviving and doing their absolute best!

Today alone, approximately half the team rode personal best times. In the Individual Pursuit, Phil Abbott of Alberta and Kevin Lacombe of Quebec set a personal best times of 3:39 minutes and 3:47.9 respectively. Then in the sprint events, Canada's three junior sprinters all set personal best times in the 200 Meter qualifiers. Raphael Tremblay of Quebec posted the fastest in a time of 11.22. Prior to these performances, Cynthia Beaulieu of Quebec set a personal best in the 500 Meter with a time of 38.6 seconds.

Despite the limited communication from Moscow, Jeremy Storie of British Columbia was available for comments regarding the teams' performances. Storie has coached many athletes to Junior World Championships and is currently coaching Marsh Cooper one of the young Canadian representatives in Moscow. “My advice to Marsh prior to leaving and via email is to race in his normal aggressive style and of course to alter his gear for the faster track and competition.”

When asked to comment on the results of the team so far Storie said he knew Cooper was disappointed with their time in the Team Pursuit. Cooper had hoped the team would ride a 4:30 but they ended up riding a 4:36 and were last. Storie was quick to point out that “while it looks dismal on paper one must remember that the team had only one week of preparation and only arrived two days before the Team Pursuit qualifying event so odds were stacked against them.” He also pointed out that he was surprised at Audrey Lemieux's Individual pursuit qualifying time. She was two seconds slower in Moscow than at the National Track Championships last week in Bromont, Quebec. Moscow is a much faster track, but again he suggested that the travel is a huge factor.

Despite the slow start, Team Canada is improving each day and putting in their best performances.

Day 3

500M Women
World Record – 35.455 (CHN) 11.08.2002 Kunming (CHN)

1. Shuang Guo (CHN) 35.596
2. Oian Wang (CHN) 36.331
3. Emilie Jeannot (FRA) 36.589
12. Cynthia Beaulieu (CAN) 38.660

Women's Individual Pursuit -Final
1. Jessie Maclean (Australia)
2. Egle Cekanauskaite (Lithuania)
3. Marllijn Binnendijk (Netherlands)

Men's 24 Km Points Race
1. Miles Olman (Australia) 21 points
2. Mickael Delage (France) 15
3. Dmytro Grabovskyy (Ukraine) 15
21. Marsh Cooper (Canada) 0

Women's Keirin Final
1. Rebecca Borgo (Australia)
2. Jane Gerisch (Germany)
3. Ekaterina Merzlikina (Russia)
10. Cynthia Beaulieu (Canada)

Men's 3000M Pursuit – Qualifying
1. Michael Ford (Australia) 3:21.236
2. Alexander Khatuntsev (Russia) 3:22.042
3. Levi Heimans (Netherlands) 3:23.875
34. Kevin Lacombe (Canada) 3:37.910
36. Philippe Abbott (Canada) 3:39.152




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