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World Track Championships - CM
Copenhagen, Denmark, September 25 - 29, 2002
Men's 1km time trial
Hoy storms to kilo gold by ultra-thin margin
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The rebirth of British track cycling continued in Copenhagen last night as Chris Hoy won gold in the 1000m time trial by the narrowest of margins, defeating French world record holder Arnaud Tournant by just one thousandth of a second to record a winning time of 1.01.893. Australian kilo specialist Shane Kelly was third in 1.02.128.
Kelly was eighth starter of the 24 competitors and posted a sea-level personal best, then had to wait to see if the remaining riders, including Hoy and Tournant, would beat his mark.
Kelly held the top spot until only five riders remained and Hoy stormed into the lead. Then it was Hoy's turn to endure the waiting game. Would multiple champion Tournant repeat his previous successes?
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The Frenchman started well but in the final fifty metres was visibly struggling and crossed the line one thousandth of a second, or 1.5cm, behind Hoy to take the silver medal. Tournant collapsed from the effort ten minutes after his ride and did not attend the post race media conference or give any comment to the French or international media.
Hoy showed strong form earlier this year when he won Commonwealth Games gold, and said he was less nervous in Copenhagen despite the nominally higher standard of competition.
Hoy told the Reuters news agency, "I think I did a perfect ride. At the Commonwealth Games I was a bit nervous because of the all build up but here I was relaxed and focused. I'd visualised every part of my ride in my mind and it all went to plan.
"I've proved Tournant is beatable and it's a good feeling. He did a good ride but I noticed that he was struggling on the final lap."
For bronze medalist Kelly, this was his first international kilometre competition since claiming bronze at the Sydney Olympics. Since then he has been plagued with injury and illness: nine months of treatment for deep vein thrombosis in 2001 was followed by a crash and a dislocated shoulder at the Australian titles in April that ended his preparation for the Commonwealth Games.
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Nevertheless, Kelly is philosophical. "You know my Dad (Colin) always said to me from the time I was a little bloke that if something goes wrong or you have a bad race it's not the end of the world," he said of the run of bad luck that has plagued him since the mid-90's. "You have to focus on the next goal and as Dad says 'get over it and get on with it' and that's the way I live life."
Kelly dedicated his bronze medal ride to Marie Carroll, his number one fan in his home town of Ararat, Victoria, who died this week from cancer.
Photos
Images by AFP
- Ben Kersten of Australia vies in the men's kilometer time trial final
- Anything can happen in one thousandth of a second, as Arnaud Tournant found out
- Chris Hoy wins the gold medal in the men's 1km time trial
- Australian Shane Kelly rides during the 1km time trial
- Even on the podium, Arnaud Tournant can't hide his dissapointment
Images by Mike Gladu/www.velodrome.com
- Shane Kelly (AUS) ready to rock at an early start position in the Kilo Final.
- Shane Kelly in full flight.
- Chris Hoy (GBR) got a rise out of the crowd with each split.
- Hoy, obviously happy with his clocking.
- Arnaud Tournant (FRA) - so confident he'll win he seems to be smiling.
- Tournant sees his time on the big screen.
- He's not smiling now.
- The rush to get the first quotes from the giant killer.
Results
1 Chris Hoy (GBr) 1.01.893 (58.164 km/h) 2 Arnaud Tournant (Fra) 1.01.894 3 Shane Kelly (Aus) 1.02.128 4 Sören Lausberg (Ger) 1.02.164 5 Jamie Staff (GBr) 1.02.780 6 Ben Kersten (Aus) 1.02.831 7 Theo Bos (Ned) 1.02.959 8 Matthieu Mandard (Fra) 1.03.587 9 Grzegorz Krejner (Pol) 1.03.600 10 Arnaud Duble (Fra) 1.03.809 11 Hervé Gane (Fra) 1.03.976 12 Teun Mulder (Ned) 1.04.041 13 Ahmed Lopez Naranjo (Cub) 1.04.156 14 Masaki Inoue (Jpn) 1.04.353 15 Keiichi Omori (Jpn) 1.04.500 16 David Cabrero Buenache (Spa) 1.04.568 17 Carsten Bergemann (Ger) 1.04.601 18 Grzegorz Trebski (Pol) 1.04.869 19 Rubén Donet Gregori (Spa) 1.05.106 20 Wilson Meneses Gutierrez (Col) 1.05.357 21 Athanasios Mantzouranis (Gre) 1.05.648 22 Benjamin Martinez (Bol) 1.05.747 23 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) 1.06.158 24 Andriy Vynokurov (Ukr) 1.06.537
