Track Cycling World Championships: Mark Cavendish and Olympic hopefuls in race to impress
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Your support makes all the difference.Mark Cavendish was fifth overall going into the final event of the men’s omnium at the world track championships, with his hopes of a spot in Britain’s team for this year’s Olympic Games in the balance.
The 30-year-old could manage only a disappointing 11th in the 1km time trial but posted the fourth-quickest time in the flying lap.
The 26-times Tour de France stage winner has never won an Olympic medal, of any colour, despite being one of the favourites to win the 2012 road race.
He is desperate to fill in that glaring omission from his CV this year, but his possible inclusion in the team was further complicated by Jonathan Dibben’s brilliant victory in the points race on Friday.
Dibben’s surprise gold in his first world championships has given Sutton a possible selection dilemma as he is being tipped as an Olympic medal candidate in the omnium.
What is more Dibben, 22, is a better team pursuiter than Cavendish, so selecting him would give Britain more options in a discipline in which they are desperate to beat the Australians in Rio.
Italian Elia Viviani, who rides for Team Sky, took the overall lead in the omnium after five events with a superb display in the flying lap. He leads by 14 points from Fernando Gaviria Rendon.
The points race is a 40km, 160-lap event with sprints every 10 laps in which riders can earn points.
Laura Trott led the corresponding women’s event after two disciplines, with 74 points. She was third in the opening discipline, the scratch race, and second in the 3km individual pursuit – behind Sarah Hammer of the United States.
Hammer was two points behind Trott ahead of the third discipline of the day, the elimination race, which Trott has mastered. She is targeting a second gold after Thursday’s victory in the individual scratch race.
Olympic champion Jason Kenny looks well placed to add at least a medal, and possibly gold, in the men’s sprint. He advanced to the semi-finals of the sprint competition with a 2-0 best-of-three quarter-final win over New Zealand’s Sam Webster. Callum Skinner won the second contest to force a decider in his last-eight bout with Denis Dmitriev. But the Russian responded by winning the third bout and advanced to the last four.
The travails of Britain’s female sprinters continued as Jess Varnish and Katy Marchant failed to advance to Sunday’s quarter-finals.
The pair, who expressed disappointment and anger after failing to qualify for the Olympics in the team sprint on Wednesday, qualified outside the top 10. Marchant was 11th in 11.046 seconds and Varnish 17th in 11.110secs.
Marchant lost to Virginie Cueff of France in the first round. Varnish beat Holland’s Elis Ligtlee but then lost to Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong.
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