Beijing Olympics 2008

(BEIJING, December 8 ) — Three Olympic qualifying events — the women’s points race, and the men’s team pursuit and Keirin — and four non-Olympic events — women’s 500-meter time trial, team sprint, and the men’s kilometer time trial and scratch race — were contested on the second day of the No. 2 of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics in Beijing.
At the nearly built Laoshan Velodrome in western Beijing, the Great Britain won the Olympic berths for men’s team pursuit and keirin events, while the Dutch took the other Olympic qualifying event.

The men’s Keirin event

In the men’s team pursuit, Edward Clancy, Stephen Cummings, Thomas Geraint and Paul Manning of Great Britain beat the New Zealanders in the final to qualify for the 2008 Olympic qualification. In the race for the third place, the Danes did not finish the laps, thus rendering the bronze to their counterparts the Neds.
Reigning world champion Chris Hoy of Great Britain won another Olympic spot for his country as he snatched the gold medal of the men’s Keirin event. The silver medal went to Arnaud Tournant of France and bronze to Teun Mulder of the Netherlands.
In the women’s 20km points race, Dutch cyclist Marianne Vos of Team DSB, who clinched her first gold from the women’s scratch event on Friday, was crowned again with a total score of 12 points. Even though Cuba’s Yoanka Gonzalez Perez shared the same score, Vos had a preferable finish order that gave her, in accordance with the competition rules, the first position in the final placing. The reigning world champion Katherine Bates came in the third place while China’s medal contender Yan Li scored zero points to rank in the 20th position.
In the women’s 500-meter time trial, title favorite Guerra Rodriguez of Cuba powered to a victory in 33.994 seconds, just 0.05 seconds away from the world record of 33.944 seconds. Guerra was also the silver medalist at the Sydney leg of the World Cup one week ago, following world record holder Anna Meares of Austrialia. Simona Krupeckaite from Lithuania placed second in the time trial at 34.447 seconds, while Natallia Tsylinskaya from Belarus took third place at 34.595 seconds.

The women’s team sprint

In the women’s team sprint, Dutch duo Yvonne Hijgenaar-Willy Kanis extended the winning streak on the standings of the world cup, as they edged the French pair of Sandie Clair and Virginie Cueff to snatch a victory of the second leg here with a time of 33.726 seconds. The Neds did grab the gold medal in the event at the world cup opener in Sydney nearly one week ago.
In the men’s kilometer individual time trial, Francois Pervis of France won the title with a time of 1:02.029, followed by Yevgen Bolibrukh of Ukraine in second place and Li Weibao in third.
The gold medal in the men’s scratch went to Michael Friedman of the United States, with Walter Fernando Perez of Argentina second and Tim Mertens of Belgium third. Reigning world champion Kam-Po Wang came in the 18th position.
Ten Olympic track cycling events are contested at the three-day Beijing leg of the World Cup from December 7 to 9, 2007. They are the men’s sprint, team sprint, individual pursuit, team pursuit, Keirin, points race, Madison, and the women’s sprint, individual pursuit and points race. The winners will automatically qualify for the next year’s Olympic Games, according to the qualification system.

from: beijing2008.cn