Track Worlds: Denmark men, Great Britain women secure world titles in Team Pursuit

Thursday features five elite world titles on the line at the 2024 UCI Track World Championships at Ballerup Super Arena outside Copenhagen, Denmark. This second day of the championships, running from October 16 to 20, will award titles in the Men's Team Pursuit, Men's Keirin, Men's Scratch Race as well as Women's Elimination and Women's Team Pursuit.

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Men's Team Pursuit

Denmark secured the world title in the men's Team Pursuit on the second day of racing and on home soil at the 2024 UCI Track World Championships at Ballerup Super Arena outside Copenhagen, Denmark. The Danes won gold in the 4,000-metre event in a time of 3:45.642, beating Great Britain's silver medal time of 3:45.963.

The two teams were evenly matched for the gold medal final with Great Britain's team of Ethan Hayter, Josh Charlton, Charlie Tabfield, and Oliver Wood, while Denmark's team included Tobias Aagaard Hansen, Carl-Frederik Bevort, Niklas Larsen, and Frederik Rodenberg Madsen.

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Great Britain took a narrow fraction of a second lead in the opening 1,000 metres with an average speed of 70kph. However, they were still evenly matched with the Danes at the 2,000-metre halfway mark.

Denmark then took the lead, slightly ahead of Great Britain, as both teams went down to three riders at the 2,700-metre mark.

Denmark increased their lead into the final 1,000 metres, 0.6 of a second ahead, gaining a grip on the gold medal. The Danes continued to push their lead out to .8 of a second, but that dropped slightly on the last quarter of a lap.

Although the gap dropped the Danish team held their lead by 0.3 of a second and held on for the gold medal.

In the race for the bronze medal, Germany took the hardware with a time of 3.52.707 while their rival team Japan lost a rider due to a crash in the final laps and then forced to DNF.

Japan's team of Shunsuke Imamura, Naoki Kojima, Kazushige Kuboki, and Shoi Matsuda had a strong start at half a second faster than Germany's team that included Tim Torn Teutenberg, Benjamin Boos, Ben Felix Jochum, and Bruno Kessler.

Germany moved to the lead at the 2000-metre mark, coming through a fraction of a second faster than Japan, and both teams went down to three riders at the 2,700-metre mark.

Germany held a buffer in the final 1000 metres, but they appeared to start to struggle. Japan appeared to be smooth but an unfortunate crash meant that they lost a rider as Germany went on to win the bronze medal.

Great Britain catches Germany to win world title in women's Team Pursuit

Great Britain defended their world title in the women's Team Pursuit in Bellerup catching the German team with 500 metres to go in the 4,000 metre event to secure the gold medals.

The British team included Katie Archibald, Megan Barker, Josie Knight and Anna Morris. Opening with a fast pace, they had more than one second on Germany in the first 600 metres.

Germany's team which included Franziska Brausse, Lisa Klein, Mieke Kroger and Lena Charlotte Reissner, quickly fell off the mark, losing time on each lap and their rivals orbited the track at 61kph.

At the 2,000 metres, the two teams were on the same straightaway and even while Great Britain dropped to three riders, they were still able to catch the German team inside the final 1,000 metres to claim the gold medal.

Italy secured the bronze medal in the women's Team Pursuit in the bronze-medal round against Canada.

The Italian team included Martina Fidanza, Chiara Consonni, Martina Alzini and Vittoria Guazzini while the Canadians were led by Lily Plante, Kirara Lylyk, Ariane Bonhomme and Fiona Majendie.

The Italian team opened with a fast pace and took the early lead by half a second after the first lap. They continued to increase their lead over the subsequent lap before the Canadians dropped to just three riders at the 2,000-metre mark.

Italy closed in quickly catching the Canadians at 2,600 metres into the race securing the bronze medal.

Women's Elimination Race

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Ally Wollaston (New Zealand) secured the rainbow jersey in the women's Elimination Race, forcing two-time previous winner Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) to settle for the silver medal. Jennifer Valente (United States of America) took the bronze medal for the fourth consecutive year.

It's been four years since the women's Elimination race was introduced at the Track World Championships back in 2021 at the Roubaix Velodrome, and won by Italy's Letizia Paternoster, while Kopecky went on to win the next two world titles in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in 2022 and Glasgow in 2023.

Every two laps the last rider to cross the line was eliminated. Kopecky went straight to the front for the first two laps as Fanny Malissa Cauchois was the first rider eliminated. Also staying safely at the front were Paternoster,  Wollaston, Lara Gillespie (Ireland) and Valente.

The next riders eliminated were Ellen Klinge (Denmark), Anita Yvonne Stenberg (Norway), Alzbeta Bacikova (Lithuania), Kiara Lylyk (Canada), Kiera Will (Australia), Eva Anguela (Spain) and Sophie Lewis (Great Britain) at the halfway mark.

Tsuyaka Uchino (Japan) led the field for three full laps as the field began to diminish to just 11 riders. But her efforts cost her when she was the next to be eliminated from the race.

Kopecky moved to the front as the group decreased to six riders using her power to stay away from the back as Portugal's Maria Martins and Gillespie were out of the race.

The four riders left were Kopecky, Valente, Paternoster and Wollaston. The New Zealander attacked over the top in a surprise move that meant Paternoster was eliminated from the race leaving only three for the medal.

Valente was the next eliminated, but secured her fourth consecutive bronze medal in the event, as the fans watched Kopecky and Wollaston sprint for the gold medal.

Kopecky led the pair around the track for the last lap and started her but had Wollaston in her slipstream and the Australian launched herself across the line to claim the gold medal.

Men's Keirin

Kento Yamasaki gave Japan their first world title in the Keirin since the event made the programme in 1980.

Yamasaki out-sprinted favourites Mikhail Yakovlev (Israel) and Kevin Quintero (Colombia) to claim the rainbow jersey in Ballerup.

The final was without Olympic champion Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands), who easily won his first and second round heads but failed to make the gold medal round after being eliminated in the semifinal.

Lavreysen finished second to Japan's Shinji Nakano in the consolation final for seventh place.

Men's Scratch Race

Kuboki Kazushige (Japan) dominated in the men's Scratch race, soloing away to the victory and the second gold medal for his country of the night at the UCI Track World Championships.

Kuboki stole a lap solo midway through the race, one of a dozen riders to lap the field of 24 riders then, in the final 10 laps, he leapt away to claim the win. Tobias Hansen (Denmark) finished second ahead of Clement Petit (France).