A youthful seven-rider Australia team wrapped up round two of the 2016/17 Track World Cup series in Apeldoorn on Sunday gaining crucial experience on the world stage.
CYCLING -TRACK: A youthful seven-rider Australia team wrapped up round two of the 2016/17 Track World Cup series in Apeldoorn on Sunday gaining crucial experience on the world stage.
The opening two rounds of the series have been a successful development opportunity as Australia looks to develop the next generation of talent with an eye towards the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Sprint
2014 junior sprint world champion Courtney Field (VIC) produced a strong showing in her second World Cup sprint to finish seventh.
Having qualified 14th in 11.536 seconds Field was too strong for Sara Kankovska (Czech Republic) in the 1/16 final before earning a quarterfinals birth defeating Migle Marozaite (Lithuania) in the 1/8 round.
Facing Olympian and eventual winner Wai Sze Lee of Hong Kong in the quarterfinals Field was narrowly edged in the first of two races. With Lee again proving too strong in the second to bring Field's sprint competition to a close.
The ninth fastest time of 11.374secs in qualifying meant Holly Takos (SA) moved directly in to the 1/8 finals, where she would meet fastest qualifier Pauline Grabosch (Germany) who edged the South Australian in another close finish.
In the men's event Clarke picked up a second top 20 finish in his second world cup having qualified 19th in 10.250 seconds, just shy of his personal best set in Glasgow last weekend.
The 1/16 final saw Clarke narrowly beaten by Lithuania's Vasilijus Lendel ending Clarke's sprint competition in 20th. A time of 10.464 seconds saw Braeden Dean (VIC) finish 32nd. Ukraine's Andrii Vynokurov claimed gold with Kamil Kuczynski (Poland) and Jeffrey Hoogland (Netherlands) rounding out the podium.
Team Sprint
Field and Takos finished sixth in the women's team sprint to seal another strong result after claiming fourth in Glasgow. The young pair in just their second World Cup had the seventh fastest time in qualifying of 34.970secs. Facing China in the first round they improved their time to 34.752 seconds for the two laps of the track.
Spain collected gold in 33.442 seconds with silver going to home nation The Netherlands with China third.
Rio Olympian Nathan Hart (ACT) partnered with Dean and Clarke in the men's to earn a tenth place finish in 45.463secs, improving on their time of 45.617secs from Glasgow last weekend. Gold went to Great Britain in 43.860 seconds with France and Germany completing the podium.
Keirin
Unable to reproduce her performance from a week earlier in Glasgow where she claimed bronze Field put in a strong rider to take 12th.
Field narrowly missed advancing directly to the second round after finishing third sending her to the repechage where she promptly dispatched her competition to book a spot in the second round.
In the second round Field pushed all the way to the line in a heat that included Rio Olympian's Katy Marchant (Great Britain) and Wai Sze Lee but her fifth place meant she would ride off for 7-12th places, finishing 12th. Gold went to Liubov Basova (Ukraine) ahead of Nicky Degrendele (Belgium) and Lee.
Clarke claimed his second top 20 finish of the weekend as he took 13th, just short of equalling his 12th place finish in Glasgow. A fifth place finish in the first round sent the South Australian to the repechage where he was narrowly denied advancing to the second round by just two hundredths of a second.
Tomas Babek (Czech Republic) collected gold with Andrii Vynokurov (Ukraine) and Juan Peralta (Spain) completing the podium.
Women's Endurance
South Australia's Alex Manly continued her development in the omnium finishing 11th in just her second race at world level.
After finishing 11th in the scratch race, 17th in the tempo race and 11th in the elimination race Manly started the points race on 48 points.
One of six riders to take a lap and with it 20 points jumping her up the standings. Two second place finishes at the third and seventh sprints added a further six points to her tally bringing her 74 just missing a top 10 finish.
Kirsten Wild (Netherlands) emerged with gold on 122 points ahead of Emily Kay (Great Britain-107) and Rachele Barbieri (Italy-106).
In the points race Danielle McKinnirey (SA) finished 18th. Gold went to Great Britain's Elinor Barker with Minami Uwano (Japan) taking silver and Jarmila Machacova (Czech Republic) bronze.
