SCOREBOARD: Roberts and Valente dominate for U.S. in BMX Freestyle Park and Track Cycling

Three wins at the Minsk World Cup: American star Jennifer Valente (Photo: UCI)

Highlights and results of noteworthy competitions around the world:

● BADMINTON ● China and Thailand win two in Macau Open

As China can be considered the “home team” in Macau, it had four finalists playing on Sunday in the Macau Open finals, with wins for two. Junjui Li and Yuchen Liu, ranked no. 3 worldwide, scored a three-set win over countrymen Kai Xiang Huang and Cheng Liu in men’s Doubles and Yue Du and Yinhui Li (no. 7) won over the Thai pair of Jongkolphan Kitithharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.

But the Thais also got two wins, with Sitthikom Thammasin upsetting no. 6 Yuqi Shi (CHN), 12-21, 21-14, 21-7, and the Mixed Doubles stars Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai winning easily.

Canada’s Michelle Li, the top seed coming in, won the women’s Singles in straight sets over Yue Han of China. Finals:

BWF World Tour/Macau Open
Macau (CHN) ~ 29 October-3 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men/Singles: Sitthikom Thammasin (THA) d. Yuqi Shi (CHN), 12-21, 21-14, 21-7. Men/Doubles: Junhui Li/Yuchen Liu (CHN) d. Kai Xiang Huang/Cheng Liu (CHN), 21-8, 18-21, 22-20.

Women/Singles: Michelle Li (CAN) d. Yue Han (CHN), 21-18, 21-8. Women/Doubles: Yue Du/Yinhui Li (CHN) d. Jongkolphan Kitithharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai (THA), 21-16, 10-21, 21-12.

Mixed Doubles: Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA) d. Chi-Lin Wang/Chi-Ya Cheng (TPE), 21-11, 21-8.

● BEACH VOLLEYBALL ● Border/Sude defeat Walsh Jennings in Qinzhou three-star

Believe it or not, the 2019-2020 FIVB World Tour has started and while the top seeds ended up in the men’s final, the women’s final had more drama.

The German pair of Karla Borger and Julia Sude out-pointed Americans Brooke Sweat and Kerri Walsh Jennings in the women’s final, 21-16, 21-19. In the race for points for a U.S. spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Sweat and Walsh Jennings are moving up, and are now no. 6 in the FIVB World Rankings.

The men’s final went to form, as no. 1-seeded Adrian Heidrich and Micro Gerson defeated no. 2 Martin Ermacora and Moritz Pristauz of Austria, 21-13, 21-16. Summaries:

FIVB World Tour 3-star
Qinzhou (CHN) ~ 30 October-3 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men: 1. Adrian Heidrich/Mirco Gerson (SUI); 2. Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz (AUT); 3. Valeriy Samoday/Igor Velichko (RUS). Final: Heidrich/Gerson d. Ermacora/Pristauz, 2-0.

Women: 1. Karla Borger/Julia Sude (GER); 2. Brooke Sweat/Kerri Walsh Jennings (USA); 3. Shuhui Wen/Jingzhe Wang (CHN). Final: Borger/Sude d. Sweat/Walsh Jennings, 2-0.

● CYCLING ● Three golds & for American star Valente in Track Cycling opener; Hannah Roberts wins in Freestyle

A big weekend in both BMX Freestyle Park and Track Cycling as one World Cup season ended and the other began.

In BMX Freestyle Park, Americans Hannah Roberts and Perris Benegas went 1-2 in the weekend’s final World Cup in Chengdu (CHN) and ended up 1-2 in the final World Cup standings. The men’s final in Chengdu had to be canceled, so Japan’s Rimu Nakamura and Aussie Logan Martin went 1-2 in the final standings, with Americans Justin Dowell and Nick Bruce third and fourth.

The same stars will be in Chengdu this week for the UCI World Urban Championships.

In the first Track Cycling World Cup, in Minsk (BLR), American Jennifer Valente was a big star, winning three events and claiming a bronze in a fourth. She won the Omnium – as usual – plus the Points Race and was part of the U.S. Team Pursuit winners … and a third in the Scratch Race (and a fifth in the Madison!).

There were two world records, both by Italy’s Filippo Ganna, in the Individual Pursuit. He smashed the 4:05.423 mark by Ashton Lambie (USA) in September with a 4:04.252 mark in the prelims, then improved his own mark at 4:02.647 in the final. Lambie watched the whole thing in person, and ended up finishing fourth.

Dutch sprint star Harrie Lavreysen won three events, taking the Sprint, the Team Sprint and Keirin. Summaries:

UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup
Chengdu (CHN) ~ 31 October-3 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men/Freestyle Park: Final canceled; semi-final standings used for overall standings.

Men/Final Standings: 1. Rimu Nakamura (JPN), 26,200; 2. Logan Martin (AUS), 24,100; 3. Justin Dowell (USA), 23,400; 4. Nick Bruce (USA), 21,800; 5. Irek Rizaev (RUS), 20.600.

Women/Freestyle Park: 1. Hannah Roberts (USA), 93.80; 2. Perris Benegas (USA), 90.20; 3. Charlotte Worthington (GBR), 88.40. Also: 7. Angie Marino (USA), 81.50; 8. Chelsea Wolfe (USA), 79.90.

Women/Final Standings: 1. Hannah Roberts (USA), 30,000; 2. Perris Benegas (USA), 26,200; 3. Lara Lessmann (GER), 24,400; 4. Nikita Ducarroz (SUI), 20,600; 5. Chelsea Wolfe (USA), 20,300.

UCI Track Cycling World Cup I
Minsk (BLR) ~ 1-3 November 2019
(Full results here)

Men

Sprint/ Final: Harrie Levreysen (NED) d. Jeffrey Hoogland (NED), 2-3. Third: Matthijs Buchli (NED) d. Sebastien Vigier (FRA), 2-1.

Team Sprint/ Final: 1. Netherlands (Hoogland, Lavreysen, van Thoenderdaal), 42.204; 2. Great Britain, 42.590. Third: Beat Cycling (NED), 43.018; 4. France, 43.154.

Indiv. Pursuit: 1. Filippo Ganna (ITA), 4:02.647 (World Record; old, 4:04.252, Filippo, in prelims); 2. John Archibald (GBR), 4:09.483; 3. Stefan Bissegger (SUI), 4:10.391. Also: 4. Ashton Lambie (USA), 4:11.966. (In prelims: Filippo, 4:04.252; World Record; old, 4:05.423, Ashton Lambie (USA), 2019).

Team Pursuit: 1. Denmark (Hansen, Johansen, Madsen, Pedersen), 3:50.207; 2. France, 3:51.777. Third: Italy, 3:51.689; 4. Germany, 3:52.685.

Keirin: 1. Lavreysen (NED); 2. Denis Dmitriev (RUS) +0.076; 3. Koyu Matsui (JPN), +0.342.

Points Race: 1. Mark Stewart (GBR), 95; 2. Sebastian Mora Vedri (ESP), 87; 3. Andreas Graf (AUT), 55.

Scratch Race: 1. Yauheni Karaliok (BLR), 16:55.485; 2. Mora Vedri (ESP); 3. Eric Young (USA).

Omnium: 1. Matthew Wallis (GBR), 163; 2. Elia Viviani (ITA), 154; 3. Rui Oliveira (POR), 149.

Madison: 1. Lasse Norman/Michael Morkov (DEN), 52; 2. Bryan Coquard/Benjamin Thomas (FRA), 44; 3. Albert Torres Barcelo/Sebastian Mora Vedri (ESP), 41.

Women

Sprint/ Final: Wai Sze Lee (HKG) d. Anastasiia Voinova (RUS), 2-0. Third: Emma Hinze (GER) d. Mandy Marquardt (USA), 2-0.

Team Sprint / Final: 1. Ekaterina Rogovaya/Daria Shmeleva (Gazprom/RUS), 32.945; 2. Natalia Antonova/Ekaterina Gnidenko (RUS), 33.262. Third: Lea Sophie Friedrich/Pauline Grabosch (Erdgas/GER), 33.016; 4. Shanne Braspennicnx/Kyra Lamberink (NED), 33.238.

Team Pursuit/ Final: 1. United States (Jennifer Valente, Christina Birch, Chloe Dygert, Emma White), 4:13.762; 2. Germany, 4:14.836. Third: Italy, 4:16.430; 4. France, 4:18.667.

Keirin: 1. Hinze (GER); 2. Mathilde Gros (FRA), +0.098; 3. Hyejin Lee (KOR), +0.098.

Points Race: 1. Jennifer Valente (USA), 66; 2. Maria Giulia Confalonieri (ITA), 38; 3. Tatsiana Sharakova (BLR), 35.

Scratch Race: 1. Kirsten Wild (NED), 13:13.204; 2. Martina Fidanza (ITA); 3. Valente (USA).

Omnium: 1. Valente (USA), 130; 2. Letizia Paternoster (ITA), 116; 3. Laura Kenny (GBR), 108.

Madison: 1. Kirsten Wild/Amy Pieters (NED), 50; 2. Laura Kenny/Emily Nelson (GBR), 44; 3. Clara Copponi/Merie la Net (FRA), 35. Also: 5. Jennifer Valente/Christina Birch (USA), 22.

● FENCING ● Popescu wins 10th World Cup gold in season opener in Estonia

Romania’s Ana Maria Popescu may be 34, but after a World Championships silver medal in 2019, she’s a contender every time and showed it by winning in the FIE Epee World Cup season opener.

She won a tight Round of 32 match from American Courtney Hurley, 15-14, then sailed into the final with 15-9, 15-7 and 15-5 wins to face China’s Yiwen Sun in the final. That was another battle, with Popescu winning, 15-14 again. It was the fifth meeting between the two, with Popescu now holding a 3-2 lead.

The win was the Romanian’s 10th career World Cup gold medal and 23rd medal overall. She also had 16 career Grand Prix medals for a career “regular season” total of 39.

In the Team event, Poland squeezed by Russia, 45-44, and the U.S. team of Anna van Brummen and the three Hurley sisters – Courtney, Kelley and Kat – defeated China for the bronze medal by 43-35. Summaries:

FIE World Cup
Tallin (EST) ~ 1-3 November 2019
(Full results here)

Women/Epee: 1. Ana Maria Popescu (ROU); 2. Violetta Kolobova (RUS); 3. Yiwen Sun (CHN) and Mingye Zhu (CHN). Final: Popescu d. Kolobova, 15-14.

Women/Team Epee: 1. Poland (Knapik-Miazga, Rutz, Zamachowska, Trzebinska); 2. Russia; 3. United States (Courtney Hurley, Kat Hurley, Kelley Hurley, Anna van Brummen). Third: U.S. d. China, 43-35. Final: Poland d. Russia, 45-44.