May 28, 2004 – The 2004 UCI Track Cycling World Championships continued this evening and provided the stage for a persevering performance from Jennie Reed (Kirkland, Wash.) in the women’s sprint as she capped off a tough day on the track to advance to the race for 5th to 8th place on Saturday.

Reed, who became the first American to medal at a track world championships since 1998, qualified earlier in the day for the 1/8 finals in the women’s sprint where she was matched against overall 2004 world cup champion, Natalia Tsylinskaya (BLR). The pairing turned out to be the fastest of the day as Tsylinskaya clocked an 11.996, the only sub-12 second effort of the evening, beating Reed and relegating her to the 1/8 final repechage.

Earlier in the day, Reed already had a frightening crash in the 1/16 finals after Cuihua Jiang (CHN), veered off her line and took out Reed resulting in a disqualification, automatically advancing the American to the 1/8 finals. Then, in the 1/8 final repechage, the exact same thing almost happened again. With Reed, Daniela Larreal (VEN) and Tamilia Abassova (RUS) all riding for a single shot at advancing to the 1/4 finals, the Russian led out the sprint into the final turn. As Reed made her move and began to accelerate past Abassova on the outside from the second position, Abassova made a sharp move to her right and impeded Reed’s sprint causing her to ease up to avoid her second crash of the day.

The move took Reed out of contention for the final sprint as Abassova crossed the line first followed by Larreal and then Reed. Officials immediately relegated Abassova to last place for “irregular movement to prevent her opponent from passing” and declared Larreal the winner. With only the winner advancing to the 1/4 finals, Reed appeared to be out of luck until officials ordered that the event be rerun with only Reed and Larreal.

In the ensuing contest between the two, Reed beat Larreal by a matter of inches to advance to the 1/4 finals.

The advancement guaranteed Reed at least a top-eight finish which ensures the U.S. a start position in both the women’s sprint and the 500m time trial at this summer’s Olympic games.

In the 1/4 finals, riders need to win two out of three against their opponent in order to advance to the semifinals. Reed was matched against Anna Mears (AUS). Again, Reed fell victim in the fastest race of the 1/4 finals as Mears clocked an 11.917 in the first run easily beating Reed. Mears then beat Reed again in the second race eliminating her from the competition.

Reed will race on Saturday in the race for 5th-8th place.

In the only other action for the U.S. team in the evening session, Jame Carney (Boulder, Colo.), placed 19th in the men’s scratch race. Greg Henderson (NZL) claimed the world title ahead of Robert Slippens (NED) and Walter Perez (ARG).