STUTTGART, Germany, 4 August 2003 — Hosts Germany took off where they started at the world track cycling championships yesterday after holding off France in a thrilling final to win the team sprint.
Defending champions Britain took the bronze medal after fending off Australia.
Germany, who had been rocked after they disbanded their pursuit team — an event in which they are the Olympic champions — timed an impressive 49.957 to claim their second gold medal of the championships.
Jens Fiedler, who won Olympic titles in 1992 and 1996, was finally give the chance to do a lap of honor after he was knocked out of the men’s individual sprint semi by Arnaud Tournant. France timed 50.071 to claim silver but leave the championships on a high, and with two world titles, after their relatively dismal performance last year.
Britain meanwhile were left to collect the bronze — a respectable achievement given the fact they would never have figured on the podium a few years ago.
But for disappointed Scot Chris Hoy, who also lost out in the medals when he failed to defend his kilometer crown, winning any medal except the gold was unacceptable.
With the qualifying, first round and finals taking place all in the same day, asking anyone to win the gold medal was always going to be a tall order. However Germany set out their stall in the first round where they timed an impressive 50.03 to push out the Netherlands. Britain qualified thanks to Craig McLean, Chris Hoy and Olympic champion Jason Queally who timed 50.47 to beat Germany. In the first round however the Brits’ time of 50.47 against the three-man Greek team was not enough to claim a place in the final.
Meanwhile, Russian Svetlana Grankovskaya won the world women’s sprint title. She beat Natallia Tsylinskaya of Belarus 2-0 in the best-of-three sprints final.
Grankovskaya covered the final 200 meters in the sprints in 12.558 and 11.798 seconds. It was her second world sprint title after winning in 2001. Nancy Contreras of Mexico won the bronze, beating Briton Victoria Pendleton 2-1 in the three sprint ride-off.
