Kristina Vogel and Francois Pervis end Track Worlds in style

Image 1 of 12

On the final night of racing at the 2014 Track World Championships, 29-year-old Francois Pervis made history by achieving an unheralded sweep in the men’s speed events by claiming his third gold medal in five days. Fastest in the qualifiers of the men’s sprint (9.742), the Frenchman reached the final unbeaten and did not conceded defeat since his arrival in Colombia. Kristina Vogel also won a third gold of the championships giving Germany four rainbow jerseys in total and equal top of the medal count with Australia, who also take home eight medals

In the final Pervis again dominated title-holder Stefan Bötticher of Germany in two rides to secure his third gold of the championships. A little earlier in the evening, Russia’s Denis Dmitriev had taken the bronze by defeating Australian Matthew Glaetzer who recovered from a spectacular crash in the kerian to make his way in to the semi-final.

France confirmed its domination in the men’s sprint through Pervis and now have only missed the podium twice (1994 and 2006) in twenty years. Pervis joined Florian Rousseau, Arnaud Tournant or Gregory Beauge as one of his sport’s greats and is now seen as a favourite for success at the 2016 Rio Olympics despite failing to make London in 2012.

Having placed third in the kerian 2012, Kristina Vogel became the second German to win the event after Christin Muche eight years ago and wrapped up the championships with her third gold medal. Anna Meares was second and her silver medal elevated her to the top of the record books, becoming the women with the most World Championships medals, 22.

In the final Vogel proved too good for her Australian rival while Great Britain’s London gold medallist in the event, Becky James had to settle for the bronze medal. In the final for seventh place, it was Hong Kong’s Wai Sze Lee who took out the win.

American Sarah Hammer had made it clear she was out for revenge in the omnium having lost her pursuit crown to Great Britain’s Joanna Roswell. “Congrats Joanna Rowsell for kicking my ass tonight! Great race. Really wanted that one...a bit bummed. Now to switch gears – omnium tomorrow”, she had warned on her Twitter account.

Pride and class did the rest. Second in the flying lap, Hammer won the points race, the elimination race and the pursuit, before finishing 5th in the scratch and 4th in the 500 metres. At 30-years-of-age, Hammer retained her world title on 14 points. The podium was identical to last year’s in Minsk with Britain’s Laura Trott second on 20 points and Australia’s Annette Edmondson third on 24.

Silver-medallist in 2011, third in 2012 and crowned for the past two years, Hammer is the most successful athlete in the discipline.

There were long nail-biting minutes to find out the winners of the Madison as while Belgium’s Jasper de Buyst and Kenny De Ketele thought they had won, they were finally relegated to 5th place which saw Spaniards David Juaneda Muntaner and Albert Barcelo Torres with 18 points claim victory. Second last year, it was who Spain earned the last title on offer at the championships.

Czechs Martin Blaha and Vojtech Hacecky were second on 12 points and Italy, relegated from third to seventh, left the bronze medal to Switzerland’s Stefan Kueng and Thery Schir with seven points.

Results

Evening Results