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The final day of the National Youth and Junior Track Championships saw the conclusion of the Under 16 Boys Sprint competition, the Under 16 Girls 500m Time Trial, the Junior Women's Individual Pursuit and Sprint and the Junior Men's Keirin.
Junior Women's Sprint
Seven riders took to the track for the 200m Time Trials with five of them going under 13 seconds and one under 12. Sarah Crowley of Cardiff Ajax did a 12.907 which was beaten, just, by Under 16 rider Imogen Farlie of Team Terminator who clocked 12.891. Rosie Blount of Derby Mercury shaved a couple of tenths of that with a 12.773 while the penultimate rider Jessica Crampton of Sportcity Velo came closest to the twelve second mark with a 12.212. Last up was World Championship Bronze medalist Victoria Williamson of Welwyn Wheelers who took half a second of Crampton's time, ending the session with an 11.726.
The only upset in the first round was Farlie beating Blount who'd outqualified her with Williamson and Crampton winning their matches. Blount had to make do with the Repechage where, again she lost out but by the narrowest of margins to Crowley.
The Semi Finals were rather one sided with Williamson and Crampton winning in two matches - and by some margin - and the Final, too, reflected the gap we'd seen in qualifying with Williamson taking the title without the need for a third match. Farlie's Bronze medal ride against Crowley was closer, but the Team Terminator rider - who managed to squeeze a ride in the Under 16 Girls 500m Time Trial in between Sprint rounds - took the last spot on the podium with two confident wins.
Under 16 Boys Sprint
The Final stages of the Under 16 Boys Sprint confirmed the quality of the week's two dominant riders Chris Lawless of Maxgear and Oliver Wood of Aire Valley - but their progress wasn't entirely straight forward. Robbie Westwood of Cwmcarn Paragon ran Lawless close twice, but not quite close enough while Wood's opening win against Ryan Whatmough of Shepherd's Cycles was matched by the 500m Time Trial Champion. Wood was in fine form, though, and took the third to book his place in the Final in what was becoming a familiar head-to-head with Lawless.
Lawless led out the Sprint in both matches and in both cases just managed to hold on as a charging Wood closed on him on the run in to the line. There was very little to choose between them, but Lawless just had the edge and took the Gold. Whatmough beat Westwood in two to take the Bronze. Between them, the three riders on the Sprint podium had taken eight of the twelve medals available to Under 16 riders this week.
Under 16 Girls 500m Time Trial
A problem with the timing system - or, at least, with the scoreboard - meant that the top two riders weren't sure of the result of the 500m Time Trial until well after the event was finished. Emily Nelson of Halesowen A&CC recorded a fast time early on but the clock carried on running - finally stopping on 45 seconds when Nelson had clearly finished seven seconds of so earlier. But the erroneous time was now in the database as other riders' positions were calculated.
The penultimate heat showed Sprint Champion Danielle Khan fastest with a 37.859 and Ellie Coster of Bush Healthcare second on 38.133, but we knew Nelson had done a ‘long' 37, too. The question was, had she taken Gold or Silver? After reference to the back up hand timing it was confirmed that Nelson had recorded a time of 37.982 seconds - a tenth of Khan's time giving the Soilhull rider her second jersey of the week.
Junior Women's Individual Pursuit
Amy Roberts of For Viored Brookvex was the first of the medal contenders to post a time - clocking 2:35.580. The next two riders - Amy Hill of Newport Velo and Roberts' team mate Hannah Manley - couldn't match her, Hill taking second place with a 3:39.449. Lucy Garner of Motorpoint Cyling went round in 2:33.850 to take the lead with team mate Hannah Barnes covering the 2km in 2:34.324 to slot in between Garner and Roberts. Last up was Elinor Barker of Cardiff Ajax who was ahead of Garner's schedule every lap, finishing in 2:31.182 to confirm a Gold medal ride-off against the Motorpoint rider.
The 5th to 8th heats saw some re-shuffling of qualification rankings with the third Motorpoint rider Harriet Owen improving from 7th to 5th with Hill dropping from 5th to 6th, Molly Weaver of Halesowen dropping from 6th to 7th and Hannah Manley remaining in 8th.
The Final saw Barker's fine form continue - taking over half a second off her qualifying time to win in 2:30.511 with Garner matching her earlier time to within 5 thousandths of a second. Barnes was within a couple of tenths of her earlier mark - as was Roberts - and took Bronze.
Junior Men's Keirin
Heat 1 of the Keirin competition was straightforward enough. Newly crowned European Champion John Paul of City of Edinburgh RC sat towards the back of the line and catapulted himself to the front as the Derny pulled off and flew round to take the win from Sassan Emadi of Tunstall Wheelers and Matthew Rotherham of scienceinsport.com. There were two crashes in heat 2 of the Keirin - one on the start line, resulting in a restart, and another as the Derny pulled off and the sprint wound up. Sean Mayer of Lyme RC and Alistair Thomas of Sportcity Velo tangled with Ed Bird of Ciclos Uno - with Bird staying up and the other two collecting the unfortunate Tim Ryan of Cardiff JIF. Tom Baker of Team Terminator led home the four finishers with Farrell and Bird taking second and third.
Angus Gillies of thebicycleworks.com snatched a Final berth on the line in the Repechage and Thomas recovered from his crash to take the minor Final.
And so to the main event - and the concluding event of the week. Again, Paul took station towards the back of the field and gave himself space as the Derny pulled off. He took off down the back straight and surged past Rotherham and Emadi who were at the head of the line. Rotherham wasn't finished, though and took Paul's wheel, coming round the outside of his Olympic Development Programme colleague to demonstrate that his 5th place in the Final of the Keirin at the World Championships was no fluke, passing Paul on the run-in to take a well-deserved title with Baker picking up another Bronze just behind them.
Results
Junior Women's Sprint
Qualification Round
1 Victoria Williamson Welwyn Wheelers 11.726
2 Jessica Crampton Eastlands Velo 12.212
3 Rosie Blount Derby Mercury RC 12.773
4 Imogen Farlie Team Terminator 12.891
5 Sarah Crowley Cardiff Ajax CC 12.907
6 Lauren Brown Border City Wheelers CC 13.495
7 Charlotte Lunt Sport City Velo 14.187
1st Round
Heat 1
1 Victoria Williamson Welwyn Wheelers
2 Charlotte Lunt Sport City Velo
Heat 2
1 Jessica Crampton Eastlands Velo
2 Lauren Brown Border City Wheelers CC
Heat 3
1 Imogen Farlie Team Terminator
2 Rosie Blount Derby Mercury RC
3 Sarah Crowley Cardiff Ajax CC
Repechage
1 Sarah Crowley Cardiff Ajax CC
2 Rosie Blount Derby Mercury RC
3 Lauren Brown Border City Wheelers CC
4 Charlotte Lunt Sport City Velo
Semi Final
1 Victoria Williamson Welwyn Wheelers
2 Sarah Crowley Cardiff Ajax CC
1 Jessica Crampton Eastlands Velo
2 Imogen Farlie Team Terminator
Final
GOLD Victoria Williamson Welwyn Wheelers
SILVER Jessica Crampton Eastlands Velo
Bronze Medal Ride
BRONZE Imogen Farlie Team Terminator
4 Sarah Crowley Cardiff Ajax CC
Under 16 Sprint
Semi Finals
1 Chris Lawless Maxgear RT
2 Rob Westwood Cwmcarn Paragon RC
1 Oliver Wood Aire Valley RT
2 Ryan Whatmough Shepherds Cycles
Final
GOLD Chris Lawless Maxgear RT
SILVER Oliver Wood Aire Valley RT
Bronze Medal Ride
BRONZE Ryan Whatmough Shepherds Cycles
4 Rob Westwood Cwmcarn Paragon RC
Junior Women's Individual Pursuit
Qualifying
1 Elinor Barker Cardiff Ajax CC 2.31.182
2 Lucy Garner Motorpoint Cycling 2.33.850
3 Hannah Barnes Motorpoint Cycling 2.34.324
4 Amy Roberts For Viored Brookvex 2.35.580
5 Amy Hill Newport Youth Velo 2.39.449
6 Molly Weaver Halesowen A&CC 2.40.332
7 Harriet Owen Motorpoint Cycling 2.40.884
8 Hannah Manley For Viored Brookvex 2.43.810
9 Stephanie May Team Quest 2.52.131
Final
GOLD Elinor Barker Cardiff Ajax CC 2.30.511
SILVER Lucy Garner Motorpoint Cycling 2.33.855
Bronze Medal Ride
BRONZE Hannah Barnes Motorpoint Cycling 2.34.593
4 Amy Roberts For Viored Brookvex 2.35.228
5th - 8th Places
5 Harriet Owen Motorpoint Cycling 2.39.629
6 Amy Hill Newport Youth Velo 2.40.496
7 Molly Weaver Halesowen A&CC 2.41.321
8 Hannah Manley For Viored Brookvex 2.41.400
Under 16 Girls 500m Time Trial
GOLD Danielle Khan Solihull CC 37.859
SILVER Emily Nelson Halesowen A&CC 37.982
BRONZE Ellie Coster Bush Healthcare CRT 38.133
4 Grace Garner Leicestershire RC 38.622
5 Imogen Farlie Team Terminator 38.857
6 Emily Kay Halesowen A&CC 38.986
7 Hannah Blount Derby Mercury RC 39.253
8 Megan Boyd Sport City Velo 39.335
9 Kimberley English Welwyn Wheelers 40.122
10 Zoe Armstrong Bill Nickson Cycles RT 40.462
11 Flora Gillies Peebles CC 40.835
12 Rebecca Hunt Cardiff Ajax CC 41.178
13 Megan Riach Discovery Junior CC 41.294
14 Lauren O'Brien Aire Valley RT 41.335
15 Sallie Birchall Lyme RC 42.013
16 Lucy Harper Welwyn Wheelers 42.189
17 Sara Gent Progressive CCDS 42.271
18 Ana Gill Heanor Clarion 42.585
19 Rosemary Collins Newport Youth Velo 45.247
Junior Men's Keirin
1st Round
Heat 1
1 John Paul City of Edinburgh RC
2 Sassan Emadi Tunstall Wheelers CC
3 Matthew Rotherham scinceinsport.com
4 Jack Webb CC Cardiff
5 Angus Gillies thebicycleworks.com
6 Louis Preston Lyme RC
7 Alex Taylor Sport City Velo
Heat 2
1 Thomas Baker Team Terminator
2 George Farrell Welwyn Wheelers
3 Edward Bird Ciclos Uno
4 Joffie Houlton BC Private Member
5 Sean Mayer Lyme RC DNF
6 Tim Ryan Cardiff JIF DNF
7 Alistair Thomas Sport City Velo DNF
Repechage
1 Angus Gillies thebicycleworks.com
2 Alistair Thomas Sport City Velo
3 Tim Ryan Cardiff JIF
4 Sean Mayer Lyme RC
5 Louis Preston Lyme RC
6 Alex Taylor Sport City Velo
7 Jack Webb CC Cardiff
8 Joffie Houlton BC Private Member
Minor Final
1 Alistair Thomas Sport City Velo
2 Tim Ryan Cardiff JIF
3 Jack Webb CC Cardiff
4 Alex Taylor Sport City Velo
5 Joffie Houlton BC Private Member
6 Sean Mayer Lyme RC DNS
7 Louis Preston Lyme RC DNS
Final
1 Matthew Rotherham scinceinsport.com
2 John Paul City of Edinburgh RC
3 Thomas Baker Team Terminator
4 Sassan Emadi Tunstall Wheelers CC
5 Angus Gillies thebicycleworks.com
6 Edward Bird Ciclos Uno
7 George Farrell Welwyn Wheelers
