Track World Championships: Great Britain adds two more gold medals on Day 3

Great Britain continued their successful run on day three of the UCI Track World Championships, taking home more silverware, with Mark Stewart winning the men’s Points Race title and Anna Morris taking the women’s Omnium title in the Shanghai championships.

In the other events, Jeffrey Hoogland took a fifth rainbow jersey in the men’s kilometre time trial, while Jonathan Milan backed up the Individual Pursuit world record he set in the semi-finals with a rainbow jersey.

With three of the five days complete, Great Britain top the medal table, adding a silver and a bronze medal to their tally, Emma Finucane taking second in the Women’s Sprint and Joseph Truman taking third place behind Hoogland in the Kilo.

Men's Points Race

Great Britain’s Mark Stewart won a brilliantly entertaining Points Race, beating the 2021 rainbow jersey into second place with a powerful and clever ride. Portugal’s Carlos Salgueiro was third.

The race finished in dramatic style with Carl-Frederik Bévort only just failing to take a lap, which would have seen the Danish rider take the win. In the end he won the final sprint, but was just off the back of the bunch and took fourth place.

Held over 160 laps of the Shanghai track, the 40km race began in restrained style, Red Walters (Grenada) and Ni Li (China) winning the opening sprints, though as the race developed Australian Liam Walsh moved into the lead, taking a lap around a third of the way into the race. However, by the time he reached the back of the bunch, the peloton was in tatters, and he was unable to consolidate, eventually losing that advantage and the 20 points that went with it.

Thomas was particularly aggressive, though Stewart was stealthily picking up points behind him, and the pair traded punches all race long, while Salgueiro was closing in. The race swung Stewart’s way with 30 laps to go, the British rider winning five points, while Thomas failed to score.

After a first attack from Dévort attack was brought back Salgueiro moved to within four points of Stewart with 20 laps to go and closer still 10 laps later. However, Bévort’s last gasp attempt worked in the Briton’s favour, and he took a career first rainbow jersey.

Women's Omnium

Anna Morris took Great Britain’s second gold medal of the day, winning the Women’s Omnium, taking her first bunch race rainbow jersey after successes in the Team and Individual Pursuits.

Morris rode strongly and intelligently throughout the four race event, finishing the top three of the first three events then defending brilliantly in the fourth. In the end she scored 125 points, beating Tsuyaka Uchino (Japan) and Amalie Dideriksen (Denmark), who was third.

The eventual medalists came to the fore in the day’s opening event, the Scratch race, which Uchino won ahead of Dideriksen and Morris, though the race was notable for a huge crash, which saw Lorena Wiebes (Netherlands) crash out of the event.

Morris moved into the overall lead in event two, the Tempo, while behind her Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) moved up the overall standings, taking second place, with French woman Victoire Berteau in third place.

Morris remained attentive throughout the Elimination race, riding aggressively and often on the front, but was the last rider eliminated, with Berteau taking the sprint ahead of recently crowned Elimination World Champion Kopecky.

With all the points scored in the Points Race counting towards the total, the final event was hugely important, and Morris started well, taking a maximum five points in the opening sprint with 70 of the 80 laps remaining. Behind her, though, Uchino continued to nag the Brit, riding aggressively, stealing points and closing to within five of Morris at the halfway mark.

However, a five woman breakaway took all the points on the next sprint, easing the pressure, and when Uchino was caught behind a split shortly after, Morris's victory was all but secured.

Men's Kilometre Time Trial

One of the World’s most dominant riders, Jeffrey Hoogland took a fifth Kilo rainbow jersey and a 13th World title overall, beating Etienne Oliviero (France) by more than half a second, with British rider Joseph Truman winning a bronze medal.

The event featured a series of ever faster rides, with Italian Matteo Bianchi first off and setting a time a fraction over one minute, however, he was soon eclipsed but a series of faster times.

Britain’s Joseph Truman staked his claim when he took 0.8 of a second out of Canadian James Hedgcock, but the pattern of the race continued when Oliviero (France), the penultimate rider to start, beat him by four hundredths of a second. But Hoogland was imperious in taking yet another title with a time of 58.713 seconds.

Men's Individual Pursuit

After setting a new World Record in the semi-finals, Jonathan Milan (Italy) took the rainbow jersey in the 4,000m men’s Individual Pursuit, leading from start to finish and beating Denmark’s Frederik Madsen by over five seconds.

Milan was flying from the first lap, riding one second per kilometre faster than his rival and apparently chasing a second record time. However, in the final 1,000m he began to tire, and though Madsen was also slowing, the Italian finished with a time of 4:00.796, well outside the benchmark time of 3:58.85 he set earlier in the day.

Continuing the battle between Italy and Denmark, Filppo Ganna won the bronze medal race, beating Rasmus Pedersen by five hundredths of a second after the Dane started the race fast. Ganna trailed for the opening two kilometres, but never ceded his advantage in the final half of the race.

Women's Sprint

The Women’s Sprint came down to a battle between China’s Liying Yuan and Great Britain’s Emma Finucane, with the home rider taking the honours in relatively straightforward style.

The Chinese rider dominated the first race, riding from the front, and though Finucane looked to be the stronger of the pair, she was unable to pass. With the pressure to take the match to a third and deciding race, Finucane tried a different approach in the second race, riding from the front, but was unable to best the irrepressible Yuan, who won the second race with ease.

Japan’s Mina Sato was third, beating Britain’s second rider Sophie Capewell, in a three race thriller, winning the final race by just one thousandth of a second.

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