UCI Track Worlds Day 2: British men, US women take team pursuit gold

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Great Britain captured gold in the men's Team Pursuit Thursday in Alpedoorn, taking down Denmark in the final by less than two seconds to win their first rainbow jerseys in the discipline since beating Australia in 2012.

Ed Clancy, Kian Emadi, Ethan Hayter and Charlie Tanfield powered the team through qualifying to the finals, setting the quickest time in qualifying and then beating Germany to make the finals. Denmark squeaked past Italy to set up the gold-medal match.

"Wow! I am gobsmacked," Tanfield said. "So stoked that we pulled off the win. We keep going and the results keep coming. We all rode so well together that you would think we had been riding as a team for months not just a few weeks. It was such an honour to ride in British team colours, and I am really looking forward to the individual pursuit tomorrow."

In the race for bronze, Italy took down Germany by just under two seconds.

In the women's event, the US repeated their rainbow jersey performance from 2017, beating Great Britain into silver by just over one second. The team of Jennifer Valente, Chloe Dygert, Kelly Catlin and Kimberly Geist started off fast, slowed a bit in the middle and then powered to the win.

In the race for Bronze, Italy beat Canada by nearly three seconds.

Men's Scratch Race

In the men's Scratch Race, Yauheni Karaliok of Belarus joined Italy's Michele Scartezzini and Australia's Callum Scotson in a move that lapped the field, then he beat his two fellow escapees to take the victory and the rainbow jersey. Scartezzini finished second for silver, with Scotson rounding out the podium.

Men's Keirin

Colombian Fabian Hernando Puertas, silver medalist last year, took the rainbow jersey in the keirin final ahead of silver medalist Japan's Tomoyuki Kawabata and bronze winner Maximilian Levy of Germany.

Puertas won his heat in the first round and finished third in the second round, setting himself up for a spot in the finale.

Women's Sprint

After a day of qualifying and quarterfinal heats, the women sprinters paired themselves down to just four riders ready to compete for the podium on Friday. Australia's Stephanie Morton will face Hong Kong's Wai Sze Lee in the first semi-final heat, followed by a German pairing of Pauline Sophie Grabosch and Kristina Vogel.

Vogel, the reigning world champion, set the third-best qualifying time behind Morton and Grabosch, but she fought her way to the semi-finals by beating New Zealand's Natasha Hansen in the 1/8 finals and Netherlands' Laurine van Riessen in the quarterfinals.

Morton beat Lithuania's Simona Krupeckaite to nake the semi-finals, while Grabosch beat Netherlands' Shanne Braspennincx and Lee defeated Russia's Daria Shmeleva.

Full Results