2025 Track World Championships: Lara Gillespie makes history for Ireland on Day 2, Harrie Lavreysen claims second gold in

Five titles were on the line on day 2 of racing at the 2025 UCI Track World Championships in the Peñalolén velodrome in Santiago, Chile.

The second day of competition decided the gold medallists in the Men's Keirin, the Men's Scratch, Women's Team Pursuit, Men's Team Pursuit and Women's Elimination Race.

Lara Gillespie made history on Thursday evening as she became Ireland's first-ever women's gold medallist in a Track World Championships thanks to her victory in the Women's Elimination Race.

Gillespie outsprinted Olympic champion Katie Archibald after the British racer moved ahead early in the final lap, only to be outpowered in the last dash for the line.

Hélène Hesters was able to secure Belgium's first medal of the Championships after a ferocious battle against Victoire Bertheau of France, who had to settle for fourth.

The event itself was badly affected by crashes that caused commissaires to stop it twice.

Women's Team Pursuit

After two victories for Great Britain in 2023 and 2024, Italy were able to clinch the win in the women's Team Pursuit, their first medal of the 2025 Track World Championships.

Martina Fidanza, Federica Venturelli, Vittoria Guazzini and Martina Alzini were able to get the better of Germany in the final by a narrow but sufficient margin, crossing the line with a time of 4:09:569, with Germany finishing with a time of 4:09:951.

Germany led in the opening lap, but the Italian quartet then turned on the power to move ahead, maintaining the pressure all the way to a repeat of their 2022 title.

Defending champions Britain also picked up their fourth medal of the 2025 Championships with a straightforward victory against Belgium in the battle for bronze.

Men's Keirin

Fresh off taking gold as part of the Men's Sprint squad, Harrie Lavreysen returned to the winner's podium again with gold in the Men's Keirin, in the process claiming the eighteenth Worlds title of his career and fourth in the Keirin.

There was a moment of tension for the top favourite in the first round, after he was eliminated However, he qualified for the quarterfinals through the repechage, which he won. Going into the final, Lavreysen opted to lead from the front with a long sprint for the line, with Leigh Hoffman clinching the silver for Australia. The Netherlands also took the bronze with Jeffrey Hoogland- like Lavreysen, part of the victorious Dutch squad in the team sprint.

Lavreysen later told NOS that his Worlds was far from over after the Keirin, with his target for Chile the unprecedented total of four golds in a single Championships. That seems like a very ambitious goal, but for now at least, Lavreysen is on track.

Men's Scratch Race

The bell ringing a lap too early in the men's Scratch Race all but overshadowed the actual result, which mean the results were finally taken on riders sprint a lap earlier than was technically the full distance. The event then was enshrouded in further fresh controversy when Belgian Jules Hester, third on the line, was disqualified on appeal.

The victory finally went to Germany's Moritz Augenstein with a sprint from distance. Yanne Dorenbos delighted with silver, given he'd had a very difficult build up after a car accident two and a half months ago left him in intensive car. The battle for bronze was only decided after the race was over, finally going to Portugal's Iuri Letão after a protest by his federation. Hesters was demoted to sixth.

To say that the Belgian sprinter was unhappy about the disqualification would be an understatement. After accusing another rider of striking his shoe, which led to a second collision, he told sporza.be, "I'm speechless."

Men's Team Pursuit

For the third year in a row, Denmark won World Championships gold with the men's Team Pursuit.

After Glasgow in 2023 and then Ballerup in 2024, Denmark's quarter Tobias Aagaard Hansen, Niklas Larsen, Frederik Rodenberg and Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen continued their run of success with a convincing defeat of Australia.

The Danes roared home in a time of 3:43:915, having gained two seconds in the final two laps, while Australian quarter of Blake Agnoletto, Oliver Bleddyn, Conor Leahy, James Moriarty and Liam Walsh put up a strong fight early on but finally finished The final winning margin for the Danes' was 3.343 seconds in a time of 3:43.915 with a time of 3:47.258.

"They [Denmark] have been the benchmark team at World Championships for the last four to five years," Leahy said, in an Australian team federation statement.

"We changed our strategy slightly to give ourselves a good chance of tackling them head on in the last kilometre.

"It didn’t quite work out the way we wanted which is always disappointing, but I think it’s something we can take a lot of learning from moving forward. We can also find confidence in certain aspects of the ride and the whole competition."

While for Denmark, this was the team's second medal of the 2025 championships after Amalie Dideriksen's silver in the women's Scratch race, and for Olympic gold medallists, Australia, the runner's spot was the end of a six-year Worlds podium drought in the speciality.

The duel for bronze went to New Zealand, beating the United States.

Women's Sprint