Track Worlds: Gold for Barker, Pervis and Vogel on final day

Image 1 of 36

Sunday saw the final day of racing in Hong Kong at the 2017 Track World Championships, and up for grabs were four gold medals, with the points race and keirin on the women's side, and the kilo and Madison on the men's side. Here's how it all played out. 

Barker claims first individual gold

Elinor Barker claimed her first major individual gold medal on Sunday as she took an impressive points race victory after a dramatic tussle with American veteran Sarah Hammer.

The 22-year-old has won gold medals at Olympic and World Championships level as part of the all-conquering British team pursuit quartet, but the points race was her primary focus coming into Hong Kong and, after silver medals in the scratch race and Madison earlier in the week, she finally made it gold.

Barker pipped Hammer to the line on the fourth of the 10 sprints across the 100-lap race and the duo pressed on to take a take a lap on the rest of the field. Barker then extended her lead in the ensuing sprints but Hammer seized control with a lap gain with 10 to go. At that point Barker was on 39 points and needed a lap, with the 10 points on offer at the final sprint not enough to close the gap to Hammer on 51.

And she hit back almost immediately, while Hammer was still recovering from her effort, setting off initially with Dutchwoman Kirsten Wild before completing the dramatic late lap gain on her own. Barker then zipped through towards the front of the field on the approach to the finish line to make sure of it, before the jubilant celebrations ensued. She finished on 59 points, with Hammer on 51 and Wild a distant third on 35.

“I’m incredibly happy, and maybe a little bit overwhelmed,” Barker said after a trip to the podium.

“I wasn’t in control at all. That was the opposite of my plan. Due to the legacy of girls like Laura [Trott] and Katie [Archibald], I though I’d be marked, because of the British jersey, so I thought I’d never be able to sneak away for a lap on my own. So I just wanted to ease through the first sprints then just try and hit every single one from about 70-80 laps to go, and I got forced into taking two laps. So it didn’t really go to plan, but I can’t fault how the race went.”

Pervis back to winning ways with fourth Kilo title

Francois Pervis confirmed that he is back to his best with a first gold medal since 2015, claiming a fourth world title in the kilo.

The Frenchman had made the discipline his own with three consecutive victories from Minsk 2013, Cali 2014, and Yvelines 2015, but he – along with the rest of the French squad – had a poor Worlds in London 12 months ago, and bronze in the team sprint at the Olympics was scant consolation for a hugely disappointing year.

Pervis revealed last year that personal problems were affecting his performances, but he looked back to his best as he clocked 1:00.714, almost half a second quicker than Czech Thomas Babek and fellow Frenchman Quentin Lafargue, who were tied on time to the thousandth of a second and were both awarded second place. 

“It’s a great comeback," said Pervis. "It was difficult for me last year, I didn’t have good form. I went to Japan to train for three months, and came back to France in January to focus on these World Championships, and I gave it everything I had.”

Vogel wins keirin gold

Germany’s star sprinter Kristina Vogel added to her growing palmares with a third Keirin world title, adding to her triumphs from Cali 2014 and London 2016.

The 26-year-old won gold in the individual sprint earlier in the week, along with bronze in the team sprint, and this latest triumph represents her 9th Worlds gold and 14th Worlds medal.

Vogel was a convincing winner in gold-medal final round of the derny-led race, beating Colombia’s Martha Bayona and Belgium’s Nicky Degrendele into the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

"Double World Champion. I can not believe it. That does not happen every day, "said Vogel, according to ostsee-zeitung.de.

"You can not find enough superlatives for that performance!” cowed German coach Detlef Uibel, adding: “It's just impressive how Kristina handles the pressure and the favoruite status.”

More joy for the French in men’s Madison

Memories of that terrible Worlds in London 12 months ago faded quickly, with Benjamin Thomas and Morgan Kneisky triumphing in the men’s Madison to add to Pervis’ kilo victory earlier in the day and bring up France’s third gold medal of these Worlds.

It was Thomas who had got the ball rolling with victory in the Omnium earlier in the week, and at just 21 years of age he now has two gold medals at World Championships level.

Thomas and Kneisky were the pairing who finished runner-up behind Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish in London last year but with the reigning champions absent, they were a prominent throughout an aggressive race. Australia’s Cameron Meyer and Callum Scotson were in the driving seat after 50 laps but it was tight by the half-way mark after 100 laps. In the final quarter of the race, France took points in six straight sprints to take the upper hand, finishing on 45 points – four clear of the Aussies. Belgium’s Kenny de Ketele and Moreno de Pauw took bronze with 32 points.

“It was very hot on the track, and it was really quick – very hard in the first part of the race. But we managed to take the lead with 30 laps to go and then gave nothing away,” said Kneisky, who has now won three Madison World titles, all with different partners.

UCI Track World Championships Day 5 Results