Apeldoorn 2019: Colombia celebrate

Colombia rounded off an excellent performance as they claimed a second gold courtesy of Diego Duenas on the last day of competition of the 2019 Para Cycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

The Rio 2016 Paralympic bronze medallist was the fastest in the men’s scratch C4, slightly ahead of Ireland’s Ronan Grimes, who came in second. Russian Sergei Pudov was third.

“It was a very hard race with many good athletes in the final. Winning this gold medal for Colombia is great, as well as wearing the Rainbow Jersey,” said Duenas. “This is a great result with Tokyo 2020 in mind. I will train at home as hard as I can for that.”

Grimes added: “I'm still in shock. I didn't even realise we had a gap until we had half a lap. Then with 10 laps to go, a medal was certain.”

This result also meant that USA’s Jason Macom took gold in the omnium C4, with Duenas and Pudov sealing silver and bronze, respectively.

The Colombian delegation left Netherlands with two golds, two silvers and three bronze.

Australia’s double delight

The men’s scratch C5 was a great battle, with two-time Paralympic silver medallist Alistair Donohoe ending first ahead of Great Britain’s William Bjergfelt and home favourite Daniel Abraham Gebru.

The omnium C5 standings saw Bjergfelt’s teammate Jonathan Gildea finishing first. Ukraine’s four-time Paralympic champion Yehor Dementyev was second and Brazil’s Paralympic medallist Lauro Chaman third.

Australia’s second world champion of the day was David Nicholas in the men’s scratch C3. The USA’s Joseph Berenyi claimed silver and Russia’s Alexsey Obidennov bronze.

London 2012 Paralympic gold medallist Berenyi still left with the omnium C3 title, with Spanish rider Eduardo Santas and Nicholas following him into the podium.

British vision impaired cyclists dominate

Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott successfully defended their women’s sprint B world title. Australia’s Jessica Gallagher and Madison Janssen won silver and Netherlands’ Larissa Klaassen and Imke Brommer bronze.

There was plenty of drama in the men’s sprint B all-British final. Matthew Rotherham and Neil Fachie finally prevailed ahead of James Ball and Peter Mitchell. Poland’s Adam Brzozowski and Kamil Kuczynski collected bronze.

China won the mixed team sprint, with Paralympic champions Great Britain and USA completing the top-three.

Full results are available on the UCI website. https://www.uci.org/para-cycling/results