“It has been a great championships but I'm packed and ready to go home tomorrow,” commented Canadian Team Coach Kurt Innes in an exclusive interview. The coaches and officials have put in gallant efforts to make this Championships run smoothly for the athletes and spectators.

Today was a short day of racing. The whole event only lasted three hours. The remaining events were the women's Scratch Race, the men's Madison and the men's Sprints. The women's 10 Km Scratch Race was the first event. It was a fast, aggressive race. Lada Kozlikova from Czechoslovakia stunned
everyone by lapping the field with 15 laps to go. Kozlikova attacked at the half way mark and by the time the field reacted she had a good gap. It only took her about five laps to regain contact with the group. For such a short race, the element of surprise is a good tactic and it worked for Kozlikova today. The last sprint was a fight for silver and bronze. Australian Rochelle Gilmore edged out Olga Slioussareva from Russia in the final sprint to claim the silver medal. Slioussareva who took silver earlier this week in the women's Pursuit took the bronze. Mandy Poitras, Canada's lone competitor, rode an aggressive race at the front and finished 6th in the final sprint which placed her 7th overall. This is her best result at a World Championships event, one place better then her 8th place in the 2001 women's Points Race. “Mandy rode as well as she could have today with what she had”, said Innes about the race. The average speed for the race was 47 km/hr and the final sprint was an impressive 57 km/hr.

The second event was the men's Madison. The race was fairly inactive at the beginning but ended in a flourish of activity. Feeling the pressure for their lack of medals at these championships the French team leapt to the challenge. They attacked with twenty laps remaining and lapped the field in a dramatic flare that left everyone scrambling for second and third place. It was a tight battle between Austria and Argentina, but Austria squeaked into second place by only a one point margin.

The last event was the men's Sprints. It was an all Australian final, a common theme to these championships. The fight for gold was between two teammates, two friends and two very tough competitors. It was an exciting match between Sean Eadie and Jobie Dajka. It went to a third round but Eadie claimed the third match and the World Title. Eadie is known for his full facial beard which intimidates the younger riders. It could be the beginning of a new/old trend – bearded sprinters. Third place was a French battle between Florian Rousseau and Arnaud Tournant. However, Arnaud used up so much negative energy in the quarter finals that Rousseau took him easily in two straight matches. Tournant was fined by officials for unsportsmanlike conduct after he shoved and yelled abuse at his quarter final rival, Matthias John of Germany, after they crossed the line in a tangle of fists. In the second round John was relegated and Tournant continued through to the finals. The crowd displeased with this outcome booed the French star for his behavior.

Information regarding the 2003 International Track season has not been released yet. It has been promised by UCI officials that in two weeks time all will be settled and the Track schedule will be posted. Innes is enthusiastic about the prospects for next year. He said that every night the coaches met with UCI officials to voice their suggestions and comments. The focus at the World Championships is on riding but there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that the following year is a success.

Women – 10 km
1 Lada Kozlikova (Cze)
2 Rochelle Gilmore (Aus)
3 Olga Slioussareva (Rus)
4 Gema Pascual Torrecilla (Spa)
5 Lyudmyla Vypyraylo (Ukr)
6 Maria Luisa Calle Williams (Col)
7 Mandy Poitras (Can)
8 Giorgia Bronzini (Ita)
9 Belem Guerrero Mendez (Mex)
10 Rikke Olsen (Den)
11 Joanne Marie Kiesanowski (NZl)
12 Adrie Visser (Ned)
13 Cathy Moncassin (Fra)
14 Anke Wichmann (Ger)
15 Rebecca Quinn (USA)
16 Maaria Siren (Fin)
17 Evelyn Garcia ESA
18 Eleftheria Ellinikaki (Gre)
19 Emma Davies (GBr)

Men's 50 km Madison
Results
1 France 5 pts
(Jérôme Neuville, Franck Perque)

1 lap behind

2 Austria 18
(Roland Garber, Franz Stocher)
3 Argentina 17
(Juan Curuchet, Edgardo Simon)
4 Germany 14
(Guido Fulst, Andreas Muller)
5 Spain 12
(Isaac Galvez Lopez, Juan Llaneras Rossello)
6 Australia 12
(Graeme Brown, Scott McGrory)
7 Slovakia 11
(Martin Liska, Jozef Zabka)
8 Italy 3
(Fabio Masotti, Marco Villa)
9 Netherlands 3
(Robert Slippens, Danny Stam)
10 Switzerland 3
(Alexander Aeschbach, Franco Marvulli)
11 Great Britain 0
(Tony Gibb, Bryan Steel)

2 laps behind

12 Colombia 9
(Leonardo Duque, Ramos Herrera)
13 Danmark
(Morten Christiansen, Jimmy Hansen)

DNF Czech Republic
(Martin Blaha, Petr Lazar)
DNF South Africa
(James Ball, Jean-Pierre Van Zyl)
DNF Russia
(Oleg Grichkin, Serguei Kudentsov)
DNF USA
(Colby Pearce, Michael


Men's Sprint Finals

1 Sean Eadie (Aus)
2 Jobie Dajka (Aus)
3 Florian Rousseau (Fra)
4 Arnaud Tournant (Fra)
5 Jens Fiedler (Ger)
6 Laurent Gane (Fra)
7 Matthias John (Ger)
8 Jamie Staff (GBr)
9 Rene Wolff (Ger)
10 Ryan Bayley (Aus)
11 Ainars Kiksis (Lat)
12 José Anton Villanueva Trinidad (Spa)