Ind. Pursuit (Under 23)

European Track Championships 2006

July 19-23; Athens Olympic Velodrome

Under 23 Men's Individual Pursuit

Qualifying

First off in this event for Great Britain was Ian Stannard who produced a solid ride to finish bang on schedule with a 4m 35.479s for 4000m. Later, current World Junior Pursuit champion, Andy Tennant, rode himself into the next round with a stunning 4.27.042 to qualify second behind Russia's Olympic Points Race champion, Mikhail Ignatiev.

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Andy Tennant catches his Belgian rival and continues to give it everything on his way to second fastest.

Post Race Reactions Andy Tennant and Ian Stannard (Morning session)
"Sweet" was Andy Tennant's reaction when he learnt of his time in the Individual Pursuit for Under 23's. "Before, we thought I could possibly do a '33' so to get a 27 is pretty special to me. I didn't know what I had to do so I just went out there and gave it my best. Shame I didn't beat the Russians time but he's a bit older and wiser than me and I'm only 19."

It was an improvement of 8 seconds on his personal best and it does, Andy says, show that the racing in Italy, as he has been doing this season, is working. "I haven't been feeling that great on the track and to pull that out of the bag shows my form is obviously good." Andy explained "I caught the Belgian in the last three laps and it wasn't a great catch but I could see him early on and started to squeeze more out and managed to hold it all the way." On his lack of preparation he said "I haven't done any preparation for this other than two standing four laps and a standing six lap just to get a feel for the pace. To come in without any preparation and do this is great."

Ian Stannard too was pleased with his ride in qualifying saying "I was just trying to ride on the schedule like I discussed with Rod (is coach) so I'm pretty pleased with how it went. It's also good to have a bit of a blow out before the Team Pursuit and I'm looking forward to that now." On the Athens track, he said "it's really nice to ride and prefer it to Manchester. Its quite hard and fast and feels great."

Evening Session

In the evening session, Andy Tennant went up against the Lithuianian Bagdonas in the semi final and after being down over 2 seconds, came back to lose by just seven thousandths. His rival had 'his teeth out' from the word go and many watching expected him to blow but he didn't slow as much as expected and he made the final for Gold and Silver by a margin that made it almost a dead heat...but not quite.

Had it been a World championship, Andy would have gone straight into a final for Gold and Silver after qualifying and in this instance come out with silver. Instead, he was classified 4th because the fastest loser from the next heat got the bronze when Trussov lost to Russian Ignatiev.

Andy Tennant afterwards said "I'm gutted. I made two mistakes in that ride that I said I wasn't going to do. I looked at him twice and that's what I am annoyed about. I gave it everything but at the end of the day wasn't strong enough to back up this morning's ride. Considering I wasn't going to ride this event a week ago, it has come around okay. There are a lot of positives but next year hopefully I'll be here again."

Results

FINAL
1. IGNATIEV Mikhail, RUS 4:26.453 54.043
2. BAGDONAS Gediminas, LTU 4:29.299 53.472
3. TRUSSOV Nikolay, RUS
4. TENNANT Andy, GBR
* Bronze went to fastest loser in semi finals.

Semi Finals
BAGDONAS Gediminas, LTU 4:30.600 53.215
TENNANT Andy, GBR 4:30.697 53.196
* Bronze went to Bagdonas

IGNATIEV Mikhail, RUS 4:25.534 54.230
TRUSSOV Nikolay, RUS 4:28.826 53.566

Qualifying
1. IGNATIEV Mikhail, RUS 4:25.363
2. TENNANT Andy, GBR, 4:27.042
3. BAGDONAS Gediminas, LTU 4:27.197
4. TRUSSOV Nikolay RUS 4:29.627
5. GRETSCH Patrick GER 4:29.817
6. SHCHEDOV Vitaliy UKR 4:30.529
7. LISOUSKI Aliaksandr BLR 4:30.914
8. POLISCHUK Maksym UKR 4:30.954
9. TERPSTRA Niki NED 4:31.247
10 KUNITSKI Andrei BLR 4:32.477
11. JORGENSEN Casper DEN 4:32.588
12. SCHULZ Frank GER 4:34.127
13. LALOUETTE Kevin FRA 4:34.380
14. STANNARD Ian GBR 4:35.479
15. CHRISTENSEN Michael Faerk DEN 4:35.723
16. MERTENS Tim BEL 4:35.763
17. KRUOPIS Aidis LTU 4:36.051
18. JONKMAN Geert-Jan NED 4:36.856
19. BERNAL ROSIQUE Pablo Aitor ESP 4:36.969
20. OSS Daniel ITA 4:37.579
21. DEPOORTERE Ingmar BEL 4:37.605
22. PERUFFO Enrico ITA 4:38.432

PHOTOS

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Andy Tennant starts to hurt as he chaseshis opponent.

Andy focuses on the task ahead before the semi final where he was unlucky to lose by only seven thousandths.

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Andy and his retro shades warms on the rollers.

Rod Ellingworth goes through the Individual Pursuit (Under 23) schedules for Ian Stannard and Andy Tennant prior to qualifying.

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Ian Stannard warms up for his qualifying ride which exactly to schedule.

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Ian Stannard on the pace at the Europeans.