Saturday May 29
Session 6 

Qualifying
14:00 - 16:10

Saturday May 29
Session 7

 Finals
19:15 - 22:35

Points Race

Sprint Semi Final

Sprint Final

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The Points Race was a hotly contested event. For many riders it provided a possible ticket to the Olympics. For others, already going to the Olympics, there was still ambition to take the victory - Sarah Ulmer, for one, hinted after her win in the Individual Pursuit last night that she would not be celebrating wildly on Friday - realising that she had another 2 races to compete in on Saturday and Sunday. She was going to wait to celebrate on Sunday night.....

The race was run over 25km - 100 laps. The first sprint was taken by Russian Olga Slyusareva - the defending (and three time) World Champion. Hanka Kupfernagel (Ger) and Kate Bates (Aus) followed her over the line with 90 laps to go.

There were sprints every 10 laps, each giving 5,3,2 and 1 points for the first riders over the line. The race stayed pretty well together until Sarah Ulmer set the capacity stadium alight with a lone effort off the front. She went with 59 to go, just after Vera Carrara (ITA) had taken the 60laps sprint from Adrie Visser (NED) and Cuban Yoanka Gonzalez Perez. Ulmer was joined briefly by Maria Luisa Calle (COL) and previous double World  Champion in this event, Mario Clignet (FRA). All three were swallowed up before the halfway point. Indeed, Clignet tried to go alone for some points at the halfway point, she was successful and went back into the bunch afterwards. 

The next major move was by Meifang Li (CHN), who made her attack with 35 laps to go, managing to move her advantage to around half a lap and to take maximum points with 30 to go. She sat up soon afterwards, having taken points previously, her total was boosted to 8 by the 30 to go win.

The race-making breakaway followed soon afterwards, defending Champion Slyuserava broke away with Carrarra and Belem Guerrero Mendez (Mex). Slyusareva took the next two sprints to virtually tie-up the race with 10 to go. The three caught the main bunch and thereby took 20 points for lapping the field. The only rider to realise the danger was Sarah Ulmer, who rode off the front of the bunch as the 3 were heading towards gaining their lap. With 4 to go, she went and took 5 points for the final sprint as she crossed the line alone. Meifang Li got 3 points, Adrie Visser got 2 points and Gema Pascual Torrecilla (Esp) got 1 point.  

The gold unassailable after Slyusareva's intermediate wins, Vera Carrara (ITA) commented afterwards "I am very happy. During the race I thought maybe I could win gold but then I realised I could have the silver."

Mexican, Guerrero Mendez was pleased with her medal, although she admitted "I was hoping to win the sprint final because that would have given me the silver medal." She also said;  "It was a very hard race and the competition was very good. I am very impressed with my result because everyone was trying to qualify for the Olympics. It worked out well for me." 

Slyusareva, pleased with her win and happy to entertain the crowd by blowing kisses to waiting photographers as she exited the track and then kissing the gold medal was clearly comfortable with the magnitude of winning the World Championship jersey for the 4^th time. She said that "Yesterday, I was disappointed not to win the Individual Pursuit, so today I was determined to try as hard as I could. I'm very happy to have won."

Full Result: 

Sprint 1/2 Final

The first heats of the semi-finals were the first races of the evening. 

Heat 1

Victoria Pendleton was beaten by Svetlana Grankovskaya

and Anna Meares was beaten by Lori-Ann Meunzer.

Heat 2

Victoria Pendleton strayed wildly off her line, crossed the sprinter's line and  hit the Russian. This caused Grankovskaya to pull her foot out of the pedal, veer up the track and bump Pendleton, who was lucky to stay on. Although Pendleton crossed the line first, she was relegated in the Heat. This put her 2-0 down and out of the gold medal final.

Anna Meares took the line from Lori-Ann Meunzer in a close dash to the line. This put them 1-1 and in a ride-off for the other berth in the gold medal final. Meares took the third meeting and progressed to the Gold ride-off. 

Sprint Final

Bronze Ride-offs : V Pendleton (GBR) vs L-A Meunzer (CAN)

Heat 1

Lori-Ann Meunzer overpowered Victoria Pendleton in a heat where the riders were up and down the track in an attempt to outfox each other. 

In a show of pure class, on the bend leading to the bell, Meares dived from the fence to the sprinter's line, but opponent G had too much speed and beat Meares to the line

Heat 2 

Lori-Ann Meunzer just had too much speed for Victoria Pendleton. Leading from the bell, Meunzer made Pendleton go the long way around. It was too much for the British sprinter and the Canadian claimed her first World Championship medal of her career.

Gold Ride-offs : A Meares (AUS) vs  Svetlana Grankovskaya (RUS)

Heat 1

In a show of pure class, on the bend leading to the bell, Meares dived from the fence to the sprinter's line, but Grankovskaya had too much speed and beat Meares to the line

Heat 2

Anna Meares showed that she is not an athlete to be messed with. After a slow start, where both riders rolled around and up and down the track, Meares had Grankovskaya on her right shoulder and just after they crossed the finishing line, she manoeuvred Grankovskaya up into the barrier. She stayed high and kept Grankovskaya high, maintaining the initiative and did not dive down below the red sprinter's line until just before the last bend of the race. She was able to stay ahead and took the heat - thereby requiring a 3rd heat.

Meares was warned for "a blocking move on an opponent".

Heat 3

Meares had no answer to Grankovskaya's pace. This heat saw the riders constantly accelerating throughout the race. At the bell, they were moving very quickly, but by the end, Meares had no more speed. 

Svetlana Grankovskaya was delighted with her win......  and Anna Meares was very pleased with her silver medal too!

Svetlana Grankovskaya had identified Anna Meares as her main competitor and played down her own ambitions - "I was hoping to do well, to possibly get a medal and perhaps even the gold medal". But, she did concede that "I trained a lot, so I was very motivated and very driven."

Anna Meares happily spoke to media as she left the track - she was descended upon almost before she got down the bottom step from the track. She smiled as she said that she "I had nothing to lose tonight I'm here now. I'm a gratified loser!" She added "I think I was beaten by a better ride. I gave my all and in the end I had nothing left to give."