Track World Championships: Yet more gold medals for Great Britain on Day 4 as Iúri Leitão takes emotional Omnium victory
Millie Couzens beats teammate Josie Knight in Individual Pursuit, Anna Morris and Erin Boothman add another GB gold in the Madison, and Pauline Grabosch wins the time trial
Four more rainbow jerseys were handed out on the penultimate day of the 2026 UCI Track World Championships, with yet more success for Great Britain's women.
Anna Morris claimed her third gold medal of these Championships with victory alongside Erin Boothman in the Madison.
Elsewhere, it was an all-British final in the Individual Pursuit, with Millie Couzens getting the better of Josie Knight.
Saturday's medal events were kickestarted by Pauline Grabosch taking Germany's first gold of the week in the women's time trial, beating the Dutch reigning world champion Hetty van de Wouw to the win.
The day's action ended with the men's Omnium, where Iúri Leitão (Portugal) capped a fine day's racing with a consummate performance in the fourth and final event, the points race.
Read on for our round-ups of all the medal events, along with the results.
Women's Time Trial
The first medal event of the day came with the women's time trial, and there were few surprises among the eight competitors, with the top spots following on from the qualifying results at the start of the day.
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Qualifying saw Pauline Grabosch (Germany) top the timesheet ahead of reigning world champion Hetty van de Wouw (Netherlands) and 2024 world champion Iana Burlakova (Independent Neutral Athletes).
The top two once again proved to be the two quickest in the final, with Grabosch's time of 1:04.572 a good seven-tenths of a second quicker than Van de Wouw, who had been provisional leader.
The Dutch racer settled for silver then, while her teammate, Sofie van Rooijen, nabbed bronze. Van Rooijen had topped the standings as the fourth rider to start, and both Mathilde Gros (France) and Burlakova failed to beat that 1:05.398 run despite both starting out quicker. Burlakova finished the race in fourth place, just 0.033 seconds off Van Rooijen.
Rank |
Name (Country) |
Time |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Pauline Sophie Grabosch (Germany) |
1:03.804 |
2 |
Hetty Van de Wouw (Netherlands) |
1:04.573 |
3 |
Iana Burlakova (Neutral Athlete) |
1:04.607 |
4 |
Mathilde Gros (France) |
1:04.791 |
5 |
Sofie Van Rooijen (Netherlands) |
1:05.348 |
6 |
Claudia Marcks (Australia) |
1:05.600 |
7 |
Stefany Lorena Cuadrado Florez (Colombia) |
1:06.207 |
8 |
Marie Louisa Drouode (France) |
1:07.180 |
9 |
Yuli Paola Verdugo Osuna (Mexico) |
1:07.206 |
10 |
Hayley Yoslov (United States) |
1:07.226 |
11 |
Miriam Vece (Italy) |
1:07.316 |
12 |
Lowri Thomas (Great Britain) |
1:07.550 |
13 |
Clara Schneider (Germany) |
1:07.702 |
14 |
Mizuki Ikeda (Japan) |
1:07.803 |
15 |
Marith Vanhove (Belgium) |
1:08.647 |
16 |
Sára Kateřina Peterková (Czechia) |
1:08.949 |
17 |
Emma Jeffers (Ireland) |
1:09.332 |
18 |
Anna Jaborníková (Czechia) |
1:09.618 |
19 |
Phoebe Tung (Hong Kong) |
1:09.975 |
20 |
Andrea Robles Felix (Mexico) |
1:10.469 |
21 |
Kayla Hankins (United States) |
1:10.616 |
22 |
Javiera Garrido Muñoz (Chile) |
1:11.566 |
DNF |
Hanna Tserakh (Belarus) |
Row 22 - Cell 2 |
Men's Omnium
Iúri Leitão (Portugal) claimed the second Omnium world title of his career with a poised and powerful day of racing in Shanghai.
All four Omnium events took place on Saturday and Leitão made the perfect start with victory in the scratch race by a lap over the rest of the field. Third place in both the tempo race and the elimination race ensured he entered the final points race at the top of the leaderboard, and he managed a tricky race extremely well to take the overall title.
It was Tim Torn Teutenberg (Germany), winner of the tempo race, and Henry Hobbs (Great Britain), winner of the elimination race, who were the closest challengers going into the points race, with everything to play for. That much became clear half-way through the 100-lap race, when Fabio Van Den Bossche (Belgium) attacked and, after working his way through a fragmented bunch, was awarded a lap gain that gave him 20 points and put him top of the leaderboard, with points scored in the points race simply added to the riders’ totals from the previous rounds.
Leitão arguably should have been more alert to it but he didn’t panic and with 35 laps remaining he made amends with a swift attack and an utterly clinical lap gain completed in just a few revolutions of the track. From there, back on top, he managed the race astutely, marking moves from Van Den Bossche, Teutenberg, and the Spaniard Sebastian Mora, who’d moved into a podium position with a lap gain of his own around the same time.
Teutenberg won the penultimate sprint to move back into bronze medal position at the expense of Mora, and from there all Leitão had to do was cross the line, such was his lead with 10 points remaining for the final sprint.
He finished on 143 points for the competition, with Van Den Bossche taking the silver medal on 129 points and Teutenberg clinching bronze on 115 points.
Rank |
Name (Country) |
Points |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Iúri Leitão (Portugal) |
Row 0 - Cell 2 |
2 |
Kazushige Kuboki (Japan) |
-1 Lap |
3 |
Adam Křenek (Czechia) |
-1 Lap |
4 |
Tobias Hansen (Denmark) |
-1 Lap |
5 |
Fabio Van den Bossche (Belgium) |
-1 Lap |
6 |
Oscar Nilsson Julien (France) |
-1 Lap |
7 |
Tim Torn Teutenberg (Germany) |
-1 Lap |
8 |
Henry Hobbs (Great Britain) |
-1 Lap |
9 |
Sebastian Mora Vedri (Spain) |
-1 Lap |
10 |
Simone Consonni (Italy) |
-1 Lap |
11 |
Daniel Staniszewski (Poland) |
-1 Lap |
12 |
Keegan Hornblow (New Zealand) |
-1 Lap |
13 |
Ilya Savekin (Neutral Athlete) |
-1 Lap |
14 |
Clever Jose Martinez Moros (Venezuela) |
-1 Lap |
15 |
Alex Vogel (Switzerland) |
-1 Lap |
16 |
Tim Wafler (Austria) |
-1 Lap |
17 |
Junjie Wu (China) |
-1 Lap |
18 |
Conor Leahy (Australia) |
-1 Lap |
19 |
Ricardo Peña Salas (Mexico) |
-1 Lap |
20 |
Yanne Dorenbos (Netherlands) |
-1 Lap |
21 |
Tomas Eloy Moyano (Argentina) |
-1 Lap |
22 |
Ramazan Yilmaz (Turkey) |
-1 Lap |
23 |
Alisher Zhumakan (Kazakhstan) |
-1 Lap |
DNF |
Grant Koontz (United States) |
Row 23 - Cell 2 |
Rank |
Name (Country) |
Points |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Tim Torn Teutenberg (Germany) |
28 |
2 |
Sebastian Mora Vedri (Spain) |
23 |
3 |
Iúri Leitão (Portugal) |
22 |
4 |
Henry Hobbs (Great Britain) |
5 |
5 |
Fabio Van den Bossche (Belgium) |
5 |
6 |
Keegan Hornblow (New Zealand) |
3 |
7 |
Tim Wafler (Austria) |
3 |
8 |
Tobias Hansen (Denmark) |
2 |
9 |
Daniel Staniszewski (Poland) |
2 |
10 |
Simone Consonni (Italy) |
1 |
11 |
Kazushige Kuboki (Japan) |
1 |
12 |
Yanne Dorenbos (Netherlands) |
0 |
13 |
Adam Křenek (Czechia) |
0 |
14 |
Oscar Nilsson Julien (France) |
0 |
15 |
Conor Leahy (Australia) |
0 |
16 |
Clever Jose Martinez Moros (Venezuela) |
0 |
17 |
Alisher Zhumakan (Kazakhstan) |
0 |
18 |
Junjie Wu (China) |
-19 |
19 |
Ramazan Yilmaz (Turkey) |
-20 |
20 |
Alex Vogel (Switzerland) |
-20 |
21 |
Ricardo Peña Salas (Mexico) |
-20 |
22 |
Ilya Savekin (Neutral Athlete) |
-20 |
23 |
Tomas Eloy Moyano (Argentina) |
-40 |
DNS |
Grant Koontz (United States) |
Row 23 - Cell 2 |
Rank |
Name (Country) |
Points |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Henry Hobbs (Great Britain) |
Row 0 - Cell 2 |
2 |
Tim Torn Teutenberg (Germany) |
Row 1 - Cell 2 |
3 |
Iuri Leitao (Portugal) |
Row 2 - Cell 2 |
4 |
Fabio Van den Bossche (Belgium) |
Row 3 - Cell 2 |
5 |
Simone Consonni (Italy) |
Row 4 - Cell 2 |
6 |
Yanne Dorenbos (Netherlands) |
Row 5 - Cell 2 |
7 |
Tim Wafler (Austria) |
Row 6 - Cell 2 |
8 |
Adam Krenek (Czechia) |
Row 7 - Cell 2 |
9 |
Sebastian Mora Vedri (Spain) |
Row 8 - Cell 2 |
10 |
Daniel Staniszewski (Poland) |
Row 9 - Cell 2 |
11 |
Tobias Hansen (Denmark) |
Row 10 - Cell 2 |
12 |
Junjie Wu (China) |
Row 11 - Cell 2 |
13 |
Clever Jose Martinez Moros (Venezuela) |
Row 12 - Cell 2 |
14 |
Kazushige Kuboki (Japan) |
Row 13 - Cell 2 |
15 |
Oscar Nilsson Julien (France) |
Row 14 - Cell 2 |
16 |
Ilya Savekin (Neutral Athlete) |
Row 15 - Cell 2 |
17 |
Alex Vogel (Switzerland) |
Row 16 - Cell 2 |
18 |
Ramazan Yilmaz (Turkey) |
Row 17 - Cell 2 |
19 |
Keegan Hornblow (New Zealand) |
Row 18 - Cell 2 |
20 |
Conor Leahy (Australia) |
Row 19 - Cell 2 |
21 |
Tomas Eloy Moyano (Argentina) |
Row 20 - Cell 2 |
22 |
Alisher Zhumakan (Kazakhstan) |
Row 21 - Cell 2 |
23 |
Ricardo Pena Salas (Mexico) |
Row 22 - Cell 2 |
Rank |
Name (Country) |
Points |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Iuri Leitao (Portugal) |
143 |
2 |
Fabio Van den Bossche (Belgium) |
129 |
3 |
Tim Torn Teutenberg (Germany) |
115 |
4 |
Sebastian Mora Vedri (Spain) |
113 |
5 |
Simone Consonni (Italy) |
105 |
6 |
Henry Hobbs (Great Britain) |
102 |
7 |
Tobias Hansen (Denmark) |
93 |
8 |
Oscar Nilsson Julien (France) |
91 |
9 |
Yanne Dorenbos (Netherlands) |
87 |
10 |
Adam Krenek (Czechia) |
83 |
11 |
Kazushige Kuboki (Japan) |
74 |
12 |
Daniel Staniszewski (Poland) |
72 |
13 |
Tim Wafler (Austria) |
70 |
14 |
Keegan Hornblow (New Zealand) |
54 |
15 |
Conor Leahy (Australia) |
43 |
16 |
Clever Jose Martinez Moros (Venezuela) |
40 |
17 |
Junjie Wu (China) |
36 |
18 |
Ramazan Yilmaz (Turkey) |
31 |
19 |
Alex Vogel (Switzerland) |
22 |
20 |
Alisher Zhumakan (Kazakhstan) |
10 |
21 |
Ilya Savekin (Neutral Athlete) |
7 |
DNF |
Ricardo Pena Salas (Mexico) |
Row 21 - Cell 2 |
DNF |
Tomas Eloy Moyano (Argentina) |
Row 22 - Cell 2 |
Women's Madison
Great Britain's storming World Championships continued with victory in the women's Madison. This was hardly the most experienced pairing in the field, with Anna Morris only competing in her first Madison a year ago and teaming up with the teenager Erin Boothman.
But Morris has been a revelation of these Championships, claiming her third world title of the week, and she was riding with a former junior world champion in the discipline.
The key moment came with 40 of the 120 laps remaining. Until that point, New Zealand were heading up the leaderboard thanks to points gained in the sprints but despite botching a handover, Britain launched straight into a two-up attack with France, and it resulted in a lap gain and 20 points for both nations.
Britain marked everything and even scored well in the sprints, taking the 10th of the 12 sprints to extend their lead over France to nine points with 20 laps to go. From there, they managed the latter phase of the race calmly – there we no more lap gains and Britain marked France on the penultimate sprint to make virtually sure of it.
In the end, they finished on 40 points, beating France by seven points, with Japan taking the bronze medal with 18 points.
"We are actually quite fresh together. My first Madison was only in September last year so I'm not sure who's taking the lead on experience, but it's really exciting to work with Erin and hopefully there's more to come as we keep working on the partnership," said Morris.
Rank |
Name (Country) |
Points |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Great Britain |
40 |
| Row 1 - Cell 0 | Erin Boothman |
Row 1 - Cell 2 |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Anna Morris |
Row 2 - Cell 2 |
2 |
France |
33 |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | Clara Copponi |
Row 4 - Cell 2 |
| Row 5 - Cell 0 | Marion Borras |
Row 5 - Cell 2 |
3 |
Japan |
18 |
| Row 7 - Cell 0 | Tsuyaka Uchino |
Row 7 - Cell 2 |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | Maho Kakita |
Row 8 - Cell 2 |
4 |
New Zealand |
18 |
| Row 10 - Cell 0 | Bryony Botha |
Row 10 - Cell 2 |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | Prudence Fowler |
Row 11 - Cell 2 |
5 |
Denmark |
17 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | Ida Fialla |
Row 13 - Cell 2 |
| Row 14 - Cell 0 | Amalie Dideriksen |
Row 14 - Cell 2 |
6 |
Italy |
15 |
| Row 16 - Cell 0 | Chiara Consonni |
Row 16 - Cell 2 |
| Row 17 - Cell 0 | Vittoria Guazzini |
Row 17 - Cell 2 |
7 |
Belgium |
14 |
| Row 19 - Cell 0 | Lotte Kopecky |
Row 19 - Cell 2 |
| Row 20 - Cell 0 | Shari Bossuyt |
Row 20 - Cell 2 |
8 |
Netherlands |
14 |
| Row 22 - Cell 0 | Nienke Veenhoven |
Row 22 - Cell 2 |
| Row 23 - Cell 0 | Lisa Van Belle |
Row 23 - Cell 2 |
9 |
Switzerland |
12 |
| Row 25 - Cell 0 | Michelle Andres |
Row 25 - Cell 2 |
| Row 26 - Cell 0 | Aline Seitz |
Row 26 - Cell 2 |
10 |
Australia |
-18 |
| Row 28 - Cell 0 | Maeve Plouffe |
Row 28 - Cell 2 |
| Row 29 - Cell 0 | Alyssa Polites |
Row 29 - Cell 2 |
11 |
China |
-20 |
| Row 31 - Cell 0 | Xianbing Gong |
Row 31 - Cell 2 |
| Row 32 - Cell 0 | Ning Chen |
Row 32 - Cell 2 |
12 |
United States |
-20 |
| Row 34 - Cell 0 | Megan Jastrab |
Row 34 - Cell 2 |
| Row 35 - Cell 0 | Bethany Ingram |
Row 35 - Cell 2 |
13 |
Spain |
-20 |
| Row 37 - Cell 0 | Isabella Maria Escalera |
Row 37 - Cell 2 |
| Row 38 - Cell 0 | Eva Anguela Yaguez |
Row 38 - Cell 2 |
14 |
Czechia |
-20 |
| Row 40 - Cell 0 | Vendula Strakatá |
Row 40 - Cell 2 |
| Row 41 - Cell 0 | Petra Ševčíková |
Row 41 - Cell 2 |
15 |
Poland |
-20 |
| Row 43 - Cell 0 | Wiktoria Pikulik |
Row 43 - Cell 2 |
| Row 44 - Cell 0 | Martyna Szczęsna |
Row 44 - Cell 2 |
16 |
Hong Kong, China |
-20 |
| Row 46 - Cell 0 | Sze Wing Lee |
Row 46 - Cell 2 |
| Row 47 - Cell 0 | Wing Yee Leung |
Row 47 - Cell 2 |
17 |
Germany |
-20 |
| Row 49 - Cell 0 | Lea Lin Teutenberg |
Row 49 - Cell 2 |
| Row 50 - Cell 0 | Messane Bräutigam |
Row 50 - Cell 2 |
18 |
Chile |
-40 |
| Row 52 - Cell 0 | Scarlet Cortes Ugarte |
Row 52 - Cell 2 |
| Row 53 - Cell 0 | Aranza Villalon Sanchez |
Row 53 - Cell 2 |
Women's Individual Pursuit
Another event, another gold medal for Great Britain's women, and this one was a dead cert as the final began. Having been the top two in qualifying, Mille Couzens and Josie Knight – who won gold together in the team pursuit earlier in the week – faced off against each other in the final, and Couzens came out on top.
Couzens had qualified fastest in the morning session, just under two seconds faster than Knight, and there was an enormous gulf to the rest of the competition, with the third and fourth from qualifying – Martina Alzini (Italy) and Lisa Klein (Germany) – being nine seconds slower than Couzens' benchmark.
Come the final, Couzens made the stronger start and opened a commanding lead. Knight did come back at her in the second half of the pursuit, but it wasn't enough. Couzens stopped the clock on 4:21.505, half a second up on her teammate.
"I'm still a bit shocked. I had zero expectations coming in. I thought a podium would be a good result, but I didn't expect this, so I'm very happy. "It's always a bit weird racing against a teammate, but it was quite nice, you feel like you're in it together."
In the bronze medal match, Klein was a runaway winner against Alzini.
Rank |
Name (Country) |
Time |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Millie Couzens (Great Britain) |
4:21.161 |
2 |
Josie Knight (Great Britain) |
4:22.993 |
3 |
Martina Alzini (Italy) |
4:30.619 |
4 |
Lisa Klein (Germany) |
4:30.979 |
5 |
Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (Australia) |
4:34.108 |
6 |
Jasmin Liechti (Switzerland) |
4:34.684 |
7 |
Suwan Wei (China) |
4:35.115 |
8 |
Kristen Faulkner (United States) |
4:36.121 |
9 |
Megan Barker (Great Britain) |
4:37.862 |
10 |
Luca Vierstraete (Belgium) |
4:39.312 |
11 |
Fiona Mangan (Ireland) |
4:40.059 |
12 |
Palina Konrad (Belarus) |
4:41.358 |
13 |
Sophie Edwards (Australia) |
4:41.543 |
14 |
Anna Hicks (United States) |
4:42.109 |
15 |
Chao Song (China) |
4:43.240 |
16 |
Martyna Szczęsna (Poland) |
4:43.621 |
17 |
Zoe Bihan (France) |
4:43.793 |
18 |
Annika Liehner (Switzerland) |
4:44.354 |
19 |
Katrijn De Clercq (Belgium) |
4:46.098 |
20 |
Tamara Szalinska (Poland) |
4:51.291 |
21 |
Maite Ibarra Ramirez (Chile) |
4:54.492 |
22 |
Ida Ayu Manik Laksmi Dewi (Indonesia) |
5:12.834 |
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Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor before being hired full-time. Her favourite races include the Paris-Roubaix, Tour de France Femmes, Tro-Bro Léon, and cycling's fourth Grand Tour, the Volta a Portugal.
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