The Russian youth’s journey to the Track Cycling World Championships has long been in doubt. Firstly, individual permissions from the UCI to compete in neutral status were not immediately received. And secondly, the question arose: is it worth sending athletes to another continent, if the case can be limited to following the well-known motto: “The main thing is not victory, but participation?” As a result, there was a lot of controversy about it.
Furthermore, it is one thing to send adult participants who theoretically qualify for Olympic entries to grand exits, and quite another when it comes to young people working for the future. Yes, and the officials of the International Cycling Union could flash a red light in front of our athletes at the last moment. As a result, the decision was made to fly to distant Colombia, it turned out to be truly golden.
Already on the second day of competition, two of our young cyclists were forced to speak enthusiastically about themselves. Nikita Kiriltsev not only made it to the top three, but also became a world champion. The son of the sprint group coach Vladimir Kiriltsev excelled in keirin.
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Another Russian, Ruslan Kuznetsov, showed the best scratch result. It was already an unconditional triumph, but the most interesting thing awaited Russian cycling fans.
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In the sprint final, the girls faced Elizaveta Solozobova and Colombian Stephanie Lorena Cuadrado. For the South American athlete, this track is her home, so not only the well-known canvas spoke in her favor, but also the support of the fans.
But in the end it was Cuadrado who made a mistake, so the judges had to think seriously about how to proceed. In one of the curves, the Colombian fell, dropping Elizabeth at the same time. As a result, the girls had to repeat the first race. Later, Vladimir Kiriltsev said that after Solozobova’s fall, the first thing he thought was that she had broken her finger and reported it to the coach. One way or another, the brave Russian girl returned to the start – the final began again.
Isabel now had to fight not only with a rival, but also with pain. And she passed this test with honor. In the first race, Solozobova’s victory came thanks to a sprint finish. She with a score of 1: 0 she went ahead and there was one step left for the dream to come true. On the second attempt she improved her result, which meant that our athletes already had three gold medals at this world championship.
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And these were not the last awards for Russian cyclists that day. Daniil Kuznetsov became the bronze medalist in the points race. And after the results of the individual race, Vladimir Goncharov climbed to the third step of the podium.
Five medals, three of which are of maximum value, in a tournament where our athletes might not have been, were the best response to criticism. Colombian gold will firmly occupy its place in the history of national cycling. Coming to the competition and winning despite the circumstances is the best thing to do in this situation. And in the future, these young stars will be able to repeat, or even surpass, the successes of the long-time leaders of our adult team – Anastasia Voinova, Daria Shmeleva and others.
