UCI confirms track quotas for London Olympic Games

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The UCI announced today the final allotment of places for the track cycling events in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. Great Britain and Australia were the only countries to qualify spots for all ten races on the schedule.

All together, 34 nations were given the opportunity be represented in track cycling in London. The National Olympic Committees must now confirm they will use the allocations by June 15. Any unused spots will be awarded to countries designated as reserves.

A total of 188 athletes will compete in track cycling - 104 men and 84 women. There are 10 spots for the men's and women's team sprint (3 athletes for men, 2 for women), 18 athletes in each keirin, individual sprint and omnium and 10 places for team pursuit (4 athletes for men, 3 for women).

Due to an expansion to the track programme, which created an equal number of events for men and women for the first time in Olympic track cycling history, the UCI also rolled out a complex series of qualification rules. These regulations factored in performances in World Cups and World Championships by nation, which were then ranked in each race, with the final event being the 2012 Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne.

One of the controversial regulations was a quota limit by continent. Although there were 10 spots for the men's team sprint, The Netherlands, which ranked 10th, was bumped from the event in London by Venezuela because of a limit to the number of European nations per race.

Similarly, Colombia missed out on the individual sprint in favor of Greece, Germany was left off the men's team pursuit for Korea and the USA, Venezuela and Chile were awarded place in the men's omnium because higher-ranked Russia, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands were outside of the allotment for countries from their continent.

In the women's events, Colombia slotted in ahead of 10th-ranked Spain, and 16th-ranked Germany lost its spot to Korea in the omnium.

Nations were also limited in their total number of athletes - 9 for men, 7 for women. Although the system only allows for 8 men and 6 women to be qualified per country, one athlete of each gender can be added from another cycling discipline such as road cycling.

You can view the full quotas in PDF form here. (Adobe Reader required).