Sprinter Wai Sze Lee had the attention of the home crowd in Hong Kong for the final installment of the 2018-19 UCI Track Cycling World Cup and she delivered, with wins in the Sprint and the Keirin.
Lee had hopes of possibly winning the World Cup seasonal title in both events, but while she won the Sprint over Korea’s Hyejin Lee, it was Ukraine’s Olena Starikova who got the seasonal title thanks to her fourth-place finish: 2,100 to 2,000.
In the Keirin, Lee finished just 0.088 seconds ahead of Riyu Ohta (JPN), but that was good enough to secure the season title for her with 1,775 points, ahead of Australia’s Stephanie Morton (1,525).
Dutch star Kirsten Wild won the Omnium and the Madison (with Amy Pieters) and won the seasonal crown in the Omnium.
Even though they didn’t compete in Hong Kong, Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer was the seasonal winner in the Sprint and Matthijs Buchli (NED) won the seasonal Keirin title. Greece’s Christos Volikakis won the seasonal Omnium title with a fifth-place finish in Hong Kong. Summaries:
UCI Track Cycling World Cup
Hong Kong ~ 25-27 January 2019
(Full results here)
Men
Sprint: 1. Thomas Clarke (AUS); 2. James Brister (AUS). Third: Chao Xu (CHN) d. Quentin Caleyron (FRA), 2-0. Final: Clarke d. Brister, 2-0.
Team Sprint: 1. Australia (Richardson, Clarke, Brister), 43.815; 2. Japan, 44.148. Third: 3. Poland, 44.202; 4. Trinidad & Tobago, 44.326.
Team Pursuit: 1. Italy (Bertazzo, Lamon, Ganna, Plebani), 3:53.478; 2. United States (Daniel Summerhill, Ashton Lambie, Colby Lange, Eric Young), 3:59.215. Third: Australia, 3:57.423; 4. France, 3:58.738.
Keirin: 1. Theo Bos (NED); 2. Tomoyuki Kawabata (JPN), +0.024; 3. Jeseok Oh (KOR), +0.083; 4. Yudai Nitta (JPN), +0.133; 5. Pavel Vorzhev (KAZ), +0.223.
Scratch Race: 1. Liang Guo (CHN); 2. Adrian Hegyvary (USA); 3. Clement Davy (FRA); 4. Yauheni Karaliok (BLR); 5. Michele Scartezzini (ITA).
Omnium: 1. Cameron Meyer (AUS), 134 points; 2. Benjamin Thomas (FRA), 120; 3. Campbell Stewart (NZL), 116; 4. Niklas Larsen (DEN), 114; 5. Christos Volikakis (GRE), 109. Also: 12. Daniel Holloway (USA), 62.
Madison: 1. Thomas Sexton/Campbell Stewart (NZL), 33; 2. Sam Welsford/Kelland O’Brien (AUS), 29; 3. Benjamin Thomas/Florian Maitre (FRA), 21; 4. Rui Filipe Alves Oliveira/Joao Matias (POR), 19; 5. Tristan Marguet/Nico Selenati (SUI), 14. Also: 6. Daniel Holloway/Adrian Hegyvary (USA), 10.
Women
Sprint: 1. Wai Sze Lee (HKG); 2. Hyejin Lee (KOR); Third: 3. Simona Krupeckaite (LTU); 4. Olena Starikova (UKR). Final: Lee d. Lee, 2-0.
Team Sprint: 1. Junhong Lin/Tianshi Zhong (CHN), 32.934; 2. Olena Starikova/Liubov Basova (UKR), 33.430. Third: 3. Migle Marozaite/Simona Krupeckaite (LTU), 33.480; 4. Lea Sophie Friedrich/Emma Hinze (GER), 33.488.
Team Pursuit: 1. Italy (Balsamo, Paternoster, Alzini, Cavalli), 4:17.833; 2. Germany, 4:23.289. Third: New Zealand, 4:21.331; 4. France, 4:26.857.
Keirin: 1. Lee (HKG); 2. Riyu Ohta (JPN), +0.088; 3. Hoi Yan Jessica Lee (HKG), +0.142; 3. Emma Hinze (GER), +0.156; 5. Nicky Degrendele (BEL), +0.195.
Scratch Race: 1. Martina Findanza (ITA); 2. Alex Martin-Wallace (AUS); 3. Jolien D’Hoore (BEL); 4. Ana Usabiaga Balerdi (ESP); 5. Justyna Kaczkowska (POL).
Omnium: 1. Kirsten Wild (NED), 137 points; 2. Laurie Berthon (FRA), 114; 3. Alexandra Manly (AUS), 112; 4. Letizia Paternoster (ITA), 108; 5. Lotte Kopecky (BEL), 90.
Madison: 1. Kirsten Wild/Amy Pieters (NED), 29 points; 2. Lotte Kopecky/Jolien D’Hoore (BEL), 24; 3. Elisa Balsamo/Maria Giulia Confalonieri (ITA), 12; 4. Gulnaz Badykova/Maria Novolodskaya (RUS), 11; 5. Racquel Sheath/Michaela Drummond, (NZL), 7.
