Track Worlds: Jonathan Milan breaks men's pursuit world record, Harrie Lavreysen wins career 15th world title on the track in men's 1km Time Trial

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Friday features five elite world titles on the line at the 2024 UCI Track World Championships at Ballerup Super Arena outside Copenhagen, Denmark. This third day of the championships, running from October 16 to 20, will award titles in the women's Omnium, women's Sprint, men's Individual Pursuit, men's Points Race and men's 1km Time Trial.

Milan sets world record to win men's individual pursuit

Jonathan Milan (Italy) set a new world record en route to claiming the world title in the men's individual pursuit on Friday.

The Italian topped Great Britain's Josh Charlton, setting a time of 3:59.153 - just under Charlton's record set during qualifying. 

Charlton went under the previous mark, 3:59.636, set by Filippo Ganna during the 2022 UCI Track World Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines by 0.332 seconds during the morning session.

To win the rainbow jersey, Milan had to break that record and he led the Briton from start to finish to nudge the record down by 0.151 seconds.

Two British riders, Charlie Tanfield and Dan Bigham, went head to head in the bronze medal final, with Tanfield hitting out in the lead for the first half. He faded and ceded the bronze to Bigham in the final two kilometres, finishing almost five seconds down.

Bigham set a 4:03.807 to round out the podium.

Lavreysen wins 1km Time Trial

Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) secured a record career 15th world title on the track after his victory in the men's 1km Time trial. Lavreysen won with a time of 57.321, beating his Dutch teammate and four-time previous world champion in the event, Jeffrey Hoogland, while Joseph Truman (Great Britain) secured the bronze medal.

In the morning session on the velodrome, Lavreysen qualified with the fastest time of 57.468, which was the fastest time ever ridden at sea level in the men's 1km Time Trial (four laps).

Robin Skivild (Denmark) was the first rider to start the final, finishing with 1:00.926, but his time was surpassed by Kirill Kurdidi (Kazakhstan) who finished at 1:00.853.

Thomas Cornish (Australia) was the next to come through with the fastest time of 1:00.197 to take the lead. However, Colombia teammates Santiago Ramirez and Christian Ortega were the next to go, with Ortega taking the lead with 59.824.

The times kept getting faster as Truman came through with 58.669, securing a medal as there were only two riders left, Dutch teammates Hoogland and Lavreysen.

Hoogland, looking for a fifth world title in the event, finished his time trial in 58.252 to top the standings.

Chasing history, too, Lavreysen started his time trial, down slightly on his teammate, but then levelled out the time on lap 2, and finished with the winning time of 57.321 to take the gold medal.

Mora takes gold in men's Points Race

Spain's Sebastian Mora Vedri secured the gold medal in a thrilling battle during the men's Points Race that saw him accumulate 70 points and win by just one point ahead of home favourite and silver medallist Niklas Larsen (Denmark) and five points ahead of bronze medallist Philip Heijnen (Netherlands).

The men's Points Race kicked off the afternoon session on the third day of racing. Peter Moore (USA) took the early lead after he attacked the field to take the sprint for five points and then lap the field for another 20 points, for a total of 25 points.

After a touch of wheels, Lukas Reugg (Switzerland) crashed, but he didn't appear to have a serious injury and had five laps to get himself back on the bike and in the race.

Larsen captured full points on the next sprint, and like Moore, lapped the field for another 20 points, both riders tied with 25 points with 102 laps to go and eight sprints remaining.

A group split off the front that lapped the field with Heijnen, Naoki Kojima (Japan), Clement Petit (France), Diogo Marsico (Portugal) and Fabio van den Bossche (Belgium) taking 25 points and moving up to the top of the standings.

As small groups continued to split off apart, Kojima lapped the field again and moved into the lead with 50 points, ahead of Larsen with 45 and Moore with 45.

Heijnen and Mora Vedri took a lap and jumped into the overall lead with a total of 60 points and 51 points, respectively.

The home crowds cheered as Larsen lapped the field again and moved back into the lead with a total of 66 points ahead of Heijnen's 65 points and Mora Vedri's 61 points

Larsen picked up an additional three points in the next sprint to increase his lead to 69.

However, Mora Vedri took points in the next to move to 64 points and then broke off the front with a small group to pick up second place's six points in the final sprint and win the gold medal with 70 points.

Women's Omnium

Ally Wollaston (New Zealand) secured her second world title of the 2024 UCI Track World Championships, finishing off a well-controlled points race to claim the gold medal with 131 points.

Jessica Roberts (Great Britain) claimed the silver after successfully lapping the field solo midway through the points race, while Norway's Anita Stenberg won the bronze medal.

Wollaston wisely chose not to follow attacks, focussing only on taking points in the sprints, especially on the final double-point sprint where she raked in 10 more points to secure the gold.

The women's Omnium kicked off during the morning session at the velodrome with the Scratch Race with Yareli Acevedo Mendoza (Mexico) securing the win and collecting the first-place points to take the early overall lead in the event. Yareli won the event ahead of Amalie Dideriksen (Denmark) and Petra Sevcikova (Czech Republic).

The newly crowned Elimination Race world champion Ally Wollaston (New Zealand) secured the victory in the second round of the women's Omnium. The Tempo Race was 30 laps and an average speed of 52.3kph where Wollaston accumulated a total of 30 points to beat Tsuyaka Uchino (Japan), 23 points, and Jessica Roberts (Great Britain), 21 points. Dideriksen moved into the overall lead after finishing second in the Scratch Race and sixth in the Tempo.

The women's Omnium continued during the afternoon session of track racing with the Elimination Race where Wollaston won, backing up her victory in the previous day's stand-alone Elimination Race. She went up against Jennifer Valente (USA), who finished second, while Anita Yvonne Stenberg (Norway) took third.

Several riders crashed early on including Victorie Berteau (France), Menghan Zhau (China) and Alex Manly (Australia), but all got back into the race within five laps of the race.

In the closing laps, Dideriksen, Wollaston, Berteau, Valente and Stenberg fought for the front of the small group. It was Dideriksen and Berteau who were eliminated next leaving Valente, Stenberg and Wollaston for the final. Stenberg was the next out.

Valente led the last lap but Wollaston came out of her slipstream and crossed the line with the win and took the lead in the women's Omnium with one round to go in the Points Race.

Emma Finucane wins individual sprint

Great Britain's Emma Finucane claimed the world title in the women's individual sprint, out-duelling Hetty van de Wouw (Netherlands) in a hotly contested two-race final.

Sato Mina (Japan) beat Britain's Sophie Capewell in two races to win the bronze.

Finucane sailed through the early heats, going quickest in qualifying ahead of Capewell. She handily defeated Lijuan Wang (China) in the semifinals to move on to the quarterfinal.

She once again easily handled China's Liying Yuan in the quarterfinal while Van de Wouw had to go to a decider to get the better of Britain's Katy Marchant.

In the semifinal, Finucane defeated Sato, while Van de Wouw took the decider to go to the gold medal final over Capewell.