Track World Championships: Evans wins women's Points title, Viviani repeats in men's Elimination race

The fifth and final day of the 2022 UCI Track World Championships concluded with medals awarded in the women's Points Race and Keirin, and the men's Madison, Elimination Race and Sprint.

Neah Evans (Great Britain) won the women's Points race on Sunday, her first individual rainbow jersey on the track. Julie Leth (Denmark) earned the silver. Jennifer Valente (United States of America) was one point better than Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) and took the bronze.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, full of adrenaline and excitement from the race but delighted,” Evans said trackside for TV cameras. “I had a good game plan going in and I was quite confident. Then Julie [Leth] went again and I went ‘oh, dear’. I knew I had good legs at that point, it was just difficult because she got such a good gap early. It was difficult to judge who was going to get that back and get people to work with me. Yeah, I’m real happy.”

She wasn’t sure she actually had scored at the end to take the title, but said she kept pushing through and had a delayed reaction.

“They rang the bell and then we had one [lap] and I wasn’t sure if I got the lap or what it was so I like, ‘just keep going’. So it wasn’t quite the magical moment you sometimes dream of, but it doesn’t matter,” she added with a big smile.

Men's Elimination

Viviani repeats as men's Elimination champion

Elia Viviani (Italy) went two-for-two as the world champion in the men’s Elimination race as he retained his title on Sunday. Corbin Strong (New Zealand) took the silver and Ethan Vernon (Great Britain) settled for bronze.

From the final four, Jules Hesters (Belgium) was squeezed out. The Italian defending champion remained with just the New Zealander for the final world title on the line. Viviani hit another gear  and stormed across the finish line well ahead of Strong to retain the rainbow bands.

Men's Madison

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France dominates men's Madison while Great Britain earns silver in final sprint

Benjamin Thomas and Donavan Grondin of France rewarded the home crowd at the Saint Quentin en Yvelines velodrome with the gold medal in the men’s Madison victory on Sunday. 

From a four-way tie headed to the bell lap, Ethan Hayter and Oliver Wood (Great Britain) emerged with the silver medal and Fabio van den Bossche and Lindsay de Vylder (Belgium)  scored the bronze.

France had already secured the world title with its haul of 65 points with just under 30 laps remaining in the 200-lap contest. In the final two laps, Belgium attacked first, then Great Britain surged to the front to score 47 points and emerge with second place. Belgium held on for this with 43 points. Italy just missed a medal by two points.

The Netherlands, with 37 points, and Australia, with 36, sat at the top of the leaderboard until France vaulted into the lead on sprint 17 of 20, overtaking Netherlands by two points.

The race then unravelled completely for Australia as they went down a lap to the rest of the field with 25 laps to go. France then earned 20 points by lapping the field with 18 to go and placed firmly in a medal position, the entire velodrome of the home crowd going crazy.

Great Britain went on the attack, but were well behind Italy and Netherlands, both with 37 points with two sprints remaining. The Great Britain team took the sprint as they lapped the field for major points, now tied with three other teams with 37 points. It came down to the final sprint to decide the final podium between Great Britain, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Italy.

Men's Sprint

Lavreysen extends Sprint streak to four world titles

Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) secured his second gold medal of the 2022 Track World Championships with a victory in the men’s Sprint. He remains unbeaten in the event across four years, and now has a total of 10 world titles. 

Matthew Richardson (Australia) came away with the silver medal.  The second Australian rider to qualify for semifinals was Matthew Glaetzer, who outdistanced Mateusz Rudyk (Poland) for the bronze medal.

Women's Keirin

Friedrich repeats as women's Keirin champion

Lea Sophia Friedrich (Germany) defended her world title in the women’s Keirin. It was her third medal of the championships, having won silver in the Sprint and a gold in the Team Sprint.

Friedrich attacked with two laps to go. It looked as if Mina Sato (Japan), who was the best from the quarterfinals, would make the pass on the final half lap, but the German surged again and crossed the finish for another rainbow jersey. Sato took silver while Steffie van der Peet (Netherlands) claimed the bronze.