British and Australians dominate day two qualifiers

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Men’s Sprint Quarter finals and Qualifying

Sir Chris Hoy (Sky+ HD), Matthew Crampton (Team GB) and Jason Kenny (Team GB) all booked their places in men’s sprint semi-finals at the World Cup in Manchester on Saturday, keeping alive the possibility of a podium clean sweep for the home nation. In the last quarter-final Shane Perkins (Australia) fended off the challenge of Michael D’Almeida (US Creteil) to round out the semi-finals.

But it was a case of easy pickings for the British riders, who all won their first two races. Hoy’s opponent Daniel Ellis (Team Jayco) even applauded the Sky rider before he’d even crossed the finish line in their second race. Crampton dispatched of Ross Edgar in his heat with Kenny proving too strong for Damian Zielinski (Poland).

Earlier in the session the Britons had dominated qualifying session in the men’s sprint, with four riders making it through to the last eight. Sir Chris Hoy (Sky+ HD) topped a trio of Matthew Crampton (Team GB) and Jason Kenny (Team GB) in the earlier qualifying round before Ross Edgar (Sky+ HD) also booked his place in the quarter finals.

In the qualifiers Hoy was the only rider to dip under ten seconds with a time of 9.869, leaping above Liu Zhang (China). The Chinese rider had briefly posted the fastest time of 10.193, before Crampton and Kenny joined Hoy in the top three qualification places.

Hoy went on to beat Andrii Vynokurov (Ukraine) in their match up while Campton, Kenny and Edgar also beat their opposition. The Australian pairing of Shane Perkins and Daniel Ellis also made it through into the last eight, but both riders were pushed all the way by Kazunari Watanabe (Japan) and Maximilian Levy (Germany).

Damian Zielinski (Poland) and Michael D’Almeida (USC) rounded out the list of riders through to the quarter final stage of competition.

Early in the initial qualification session Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Alks Stal Grudziaduz) had posted the fastest time with 10.201. The Pole's time stood at the top of the leader board before Zhang and the rest of the big hitters took the to the track. Shane Perkins (Australia), who made the semi-finals at the World Championships earlier in the year posted a time of 10.127 and safely qualified in fourth. However Teun Mulder, the former World Kilo Champion, was eliminated after the Dutchman could only post a time of 10.474.

Women's Team Sprint Qualifying

Australia's World Champion pairing of Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch advanced comfortably through to the gold medal final in the Women's team sprint at the Manchester World Cup. The World record holders in the event secured their place with a time of 33.363.

The Australian's heat partner, The Netherlands, also qualified for the top-two final. The Dutch pair of Yvonne Hijgenaar and Willy Kanis will face the Australians once more after they recorded a time of 33.949, the only other team to break the 34 second barrier.

Germany will also face their heat partner, Great Britain, in the bronze medal race. Dana Glöss and Miriam Welte recorded 34.066, to edge out Rebecca James and Jessica Varnish. The young British duo left a gap between themselves in their first two laps, but recovered to post the fourth best time, 34.193.

Women's 3000m Individual Pursuit Qualifying

Wendy Houvenaghel stormed through to the women’s individual pursuit final with an impressive display in the first rounds heats at the Manchester World Cup. Houvenaghel, who won a silver in the World Championships in March, set a time of 3:30.800 in the final heat on Saturday.

Her nearest rival Josephine Tomic (Australia) finished in 3:39.854, with The Netherlands's Vera Koedoorer setting a time of 3:40.464. Liere Olaberria (Spain) rounded out the top four with 3:40.539.

Houvenaghel will race off against Tomic for the gold medal in this evening’s session. Koedoorer will race against Olaberria for the bronze.

Men's Madison Qualifying

The French and Belgian pairs led the charge towards the men's World Cup Madison final, after they won their respective qualification heats on Saturday afternoon at Manchester Velodrome.

In the first of two heats, France's Christophe Riblon and Matthieu Ladagnous claimed a one point win over Spain (Antonio Tauler and Unai Elorriaga) after they scored points at three of the four sprints in the 80 lap race.

Russia's Sergey Kolesnikov and Alezey Shmidt qualified safely in third and matched Spain's total of seven points. Winners of the Six-days of Amsterdam a week ago, Germany's Roger Kluge and Robert Bartko, finished fourth. Michael Morkov was without his World Championship winning partner Alex Rassmussen, but he paired with Philip Nielsen to ensure Denmark's passage to the evening final.

Switzerland (Silvan Dillier and Claudio Imhof), Italy (Elia Viviani and Fabrizio Braggion), Hong Kong Pro Cycling (Ho Ting Kwok and Ki Ho Choi) and Austria (Andreas Graf and Andreas Muller) will also contest the evening final.

In the second heat the Belgian duo of Kenny De Ketele and Tim Mertens sealed their position as top qualifier with wins in the first and third sprints of the event. Behind them, The Netherlands' Peter Schep and Danny Stam, and Australia's Leigh Howard and Glenn O'Shea each finished with seven points apiece. The USA's Colby Pearce and Daniel Holloway finished clear of the danger zone in sixth.

Italy's Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Azzurre (Angelo Ciccone and Alex Buttazzoni), Lokomotiv Russia (Kirill Yatsevich and Alexander Petrovskiy) and Ukraine (Roman Kononenko and Sergiy Lagkuti) also qualified for the final. Hong Kong (Kam-Po Wong and King Lok Cheung) and New Zealand (Shane Archibald and Thomas Scully) secured the final two qualification spots of the session.

Women’s Points Race

Heather Wilson (Ire) scored her first win in a points race at her first attempt in the discipline when she won the first heat in the women’s qualifier at the World Cup in Manchester.

“I only started track racing at the start of the year and this was my first ever points race,” she told Cyclingnews at the finish. “It was quite scrappy at the start so I decided to make a move and it paid off. I’m really happy and actually looking forward to the final this evening. But I’m quite surprised with how well it just went and I’ve got nothing to lose.”

After a slow start, Wilson broke clear of the field with Penny Day (PHN) before the second sprint and both riders worked well together, catching the field and picking up twenty points each in the process.

Just before they latched on a crash in the field took out four riders including Jolien D’Hoore (BEL), yesterday's Scratch Race winner Belinda Goss (Aus) and winner of the first sprint Yumari Gonzalez (CUB). However all three riders remounted and won enough points to make this evening’s final. However Coryn Rivera (USA) who was also involved in the crash wasn’t able to score the points required to make the top twelve.

The second heat was won by local favourite Lizzie Armitstead (GBR). By contrast to the first race the heat started with a flurry of attacks but a group of five riders went clear after the first sprint including Armitstead, Andrea Wolfer (SUI), Jarmila Machacova (HKG) and Evgeniya Romanyuta (RUS) and Elke Gebhardt (Ger).

The break soon became eight when three riders joined the front and the leaders caught the remnants of the field with just eight laps to go, despite frantic chasing from both Shelley Olds (Pro) and Tess Downing (AUS)

Behind them Elissavet Chantzi attacked and took the final sprint to book her place in the final.