2007 European Track Championships

 

July 11-15, 2007; Cottbus, Germany

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David agrees to pose with the podium girls in traditional German dress.

 

Junior Mens Sprint

It is a cliché but the Gold for David Daniell could not have happened to a nicer guy. Known for his speed over a Kilometre and Team Sprint, it has been a busy championships. for the North East lad. Silver in the Junior Team Sprint, and then doing  two rides in the Under 23 Team Sprint before moving aside to give the team some fresh legs for the final (Christian Lyte), Daniell only made one fatal mistake in the Sprint competition.  That came in the second round but he more than made up for that in the final beating German Paul Kanzler two nil after having already dispensed with the rider who forced him into the round 2 repechages in the semi finals.

 

Reaction:

David Daniell: “I’m over the moon really” he said quite calmly. “When I first started this competition I smashed my PB from 10.779 to 10.4 which is a huge chunk. I was really confident after that as my legs felt good. Jan and Iain helped me a lot with the tactics and got me focused before the race and it all went smoothly.”

 

“When I raced the Russian in round two, the tactics didn’t fall for me and I had to go through the rep but I knew I had the legs to beat these guys and I wanted it more than anyone else out there. It’s an amazing feeling to win my own medal and worth all the hard work we have done.”

 

“For the Sprint, all year round we work on our speed to get us going as fast as we can so we can qualify high up and met the slower ones in the first round. And then for tactics we have coach led racing where we meet at weekends or week long camps and go through as many drills as we can so its drilled into us so we will know what to do when we are in that situation.”

 

“Last year I was basically a Kilo rider, a time trialist, and wasn’t that good with tactics and this year have come on in leaps and bounds. In the sprint last year, I was clumsy and didn’t know what I was doing, but with the help of Iain and Jan, I have come up a level. My speed has improved too as last year I was in the 11’s and now I’m in the 10’s.”

 

Making it look easy -- David wins the second heat of the final to take the Gold from the home ride.

 

Semi finals
After a scare in the second round when he was beaten and had to come back through the repecharge, David Daniell went out onto the track for his semi final and showed his true class. He beat the Russian Kiril Filatov and showed him who's boss by beating him 2:0 and going through to the Final for Gold!

 

 

Above: The finish line shots for the two heats of the semi finals. In the first, David just did enough to win but was more convincing in the second heat.

 

Junior Men’s Sprint (early rounds)

It was an early start for Christian Lyte and David Daniell again as they lined up in the qualifiers for the Junior Men’s Sprint flying 200 metre TT. Daniell was the first of the Brits to go and scorched around to go top of the leader board with a 10.497. Final rider off was Christian and although he was fast, his time of 10.745 was only good enough for fifth place.

 

Afterwards, David was pleased but not over excited saying it was ‘pretty good’ being on top of the leader board. Both riders then set about gearing down for the match sprint phase of the competition and in his heat in round 1, Daniell was very cool under pressure, saving his effort until a lap to go when he turned up the gas and resisted all attempts from his rivals to come past him. In the Lyte’s heat, try as he may, he was unable to stop his French rival from beating him to the line and the GB rider was relegated to riding the repecharges where he finished 3^rd and was out of the competition for medals.

 

Left: Christian Lyte and right, David Daniell launch themselves at the 200 metre line in qualifying.

 

In a controlled race, David Daniell looked impressive in his round 1 heat.

 

Christian Lyte battles with the Frenchman in round 1.

 

Christian is 3rd in the repechage.

 

Junior Men Sprint Evening Session
GB’s sole hope for a medal left in the Junior Men’s Sprint competition, David Daniell, had a scare in round 2 when he lost to Russian Kiril Fliatov but he came back in the repechage when David beat Quentin Lafargue (Fra) and Andrea Prati (Ita) to progress to the semi finals. In the other race in this competition held in the evening, the race for places 7 to 12, Christian Lyte ended his sprint competition with a victory when he won a tight sprint to the line.

 

Christian Lyte finishes the competition in 7th place.

 

RESULTS

 

Final

1. David Daniell (GBR). beat
2. Paul Kanzler (GER).

3. Kiri Fi Latov (RUS). beat
4. Florian Karge (GER).