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What do these absurd names mean? Three different ways of sending a track bike around a velodrome at ludicrous speeds.
The individual sprint is one of the purest of cycling events: two riders go head-to-head on the velodrome, in a battle of power, speed and tactics. Riders must defeat their opponent in two-out-of-three heats to progress through to the next round. You’ll often see riders slowing to a complete stop (this is called a trackstand) in the early part of the race, as they try to fox their opponent out of position.
The Keirin is a sprint race between six or seven riders with an underdeveloped sense of danger, that starts with a few slow laps behind a motorised ‘derny’ (a small moped), gradually increasing in pace until the derny moves out of the way and the race explodes into an absolutely insane mess of high-speed sprinting, with the winner often decided by the width of a tyre.
The Team Sprint is a short team time trial: three riders and three laps for men, two riders and two laps for women. There’s no mucking around in the team sprint, it’s full power from gun to tape.
Why should I watch it?
Track sprinting is about as pure an expression of speed and power as you will ever see in sport. A slow-motion game of cat-and-mouse, tension builds, then everything goes ballistic and the riders scorch around the track like lycra-clad guided missiles.
The Keirin, unlike the standard track sprint between two riders, is a six-way battle, it’s a much more frenetic and unpredictable race. Almost anything can happen as riders try to hold the perfect position on the track.
The finish is raced at incredibly high speeds: British Olympic legend Sir Chris Hoy hit 78km/h on the London Olympic velodrome on his way to claiming gold in 2012.
Expect plenty of jostling for position, especially in the last two laps of the race. Crashes are likely. Australia’s young gun Matthew Glaetzer knows this as well as anybody, after a spectacular crash at the World Championships earlier this year, where he went over the handlebars and his bike went over the fence.
Seven riders, each generating enough watts to power a family home, with absolutely no sense of self-preservation hammering around a steeply-banked velodrome shoulder-to-shoulder at 75km/h? Definitely worth watching.
The team sprint is short, sharp, and requires impeccable teamwork and enough power to pull a Glasgow bus up a steep hill.
Who’s going to win?
Australia and England are the hot favourites in track sprints, with strong competition from New Zealand and Malaysia.
The women’s sprint will probably be a contest between Australia’s Olympic champion Anna Meares, Stephanie Morton, and England’s Jess Varnish.
At the World Championships in Cali, Colombia earlier this year, Meares finished a disappointing 7th in the sprint, but a silver medal in the 500m time trial (not to mention a world record in that event last December) shows that she’s still able to produce massive rides.
Varnish, who was 4th in Cali, will push Meares all the way, as will Morton, who was 6th.
Sadly, there is no women’s keirin at the Commonwealth Games.
The men’s sprint will be fought between Australia’s Matt Glaetzer and Shane Perkins, England’s Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton, New Zealand’s Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins, and Malaysia’s Josiah Ng and Azizulhasni Awang.
Glaetzer was the highest-placed in Cali, but Kenny is Olympic champion in the individual and team sprint and will start as hot favourite on British soil.
The keirin is unpredictable at the best of times, but Australia’s Glaetzer and Perkins will be in the hunt for medals. Kenny was the best Commonwealth rider in the Keirin in Cali, but Glaetzer, Crampton, Dawkins and Perkins are all thereabouts.
New Zealand’s men are the top ranked Commonwealth nation in the team sprint. Great Britain (all three riders are English) is ranked next, with Australia third. Malaysia’s men will be dangerous, too.
In the women’s team sprint, Australia’s combination of Morton and Meares will be tough to beat, with England’s Varnish and Danni Khan likely to be the sternest opposition.
What happened last time?
In the Keirin, it was Malaysia’s Josiah Ng, England’s David Daniell, and New Zealand’s Simon van Velthooven taking the medals. That wasn’t the whole story though: Ng’s compatriot Awang was first across the line but was relegated (disqualified) for dangerous sprinting.
Australia’s Shane Perkins easily won the minor final to finish 7th, but caused a stir by flipping the bird at race officials who had disqualified him from the semi-final for, yes, dangerous sprinting. He went on the win the World Championship the following year.
In the women’s sprint, Anna Meares took gold ahead of Wales’ Becky James and Australia’s Emily Rosemond.
In the men’s sprint, Perkins and Scott Sunderland went 1-2 for Australia, and New Zealand’s Webster took the bronze.
In the team sprints, Australia won both men’s and women’s races. New Zealand and Malaysia won the other medals in the men’s race, with Scotland and Canada doing the same in the women’s.
Who are the Aussie hopefuls?
Anna Meares (31) has a list of medals long enough to wrap around the outside of a velodrome – Olympic, World, Commonwealth and National titles more than you can count. Meares is the absolute doyenne of Australian track cycling, and one of the finest athletes Australia has ever produced. She’s a stone cold killer on the track, and charming and gracious person off it.
Stephanie Morton (23) upset Meares to win the national Keirin title this year, and is a Paralympic gold medallist from London, as tandem pilot for Felicity Johnson.
Perkins (27) is the Australian champion in the keirin, a former World Champion, and this is his third Commonwealth Games. The Melburnian has a bit of a reputation as a bad boy, but he’s also one of the few international track sprinters to have beaten the great Chris Hoy.
Glaetzer (21) is a former World Champion in the team sprint (with Perkins and Scott Sunderland), and is considered one of Australia’s brightest prospects on the velodrome.
Nathan Hart (21) is making his debut in an Australian team for a major championships,. Hart came 2nd in the individual sprint at this year’s Nationals, and is likely to ride in the team sprint.
Peter Lewis (24) is in the team on the back of good results in Oceania and National Championships, and a World Cup win in the team sprint with Matthew Glaetzer.
Fast Facts
– Meares’ popularity on and off the track extends into the realm of social media, too. She has over 25,000 Twitter followers and 2000 Instagram followers. Compare that to Shane Perkins, who has just over 4000.
– Meares’ long-time rival Victoria Pendleton retired after the 2012 Olympics, where she won the women’s keirin, an event Anna was favourite to take. Meares got her revenge in a tense sprint final.
– The voice of cycling, Phil Liggett, is set to return to commentary duties for this year’s Commonwealth Games. 70-year-old Liggett has covered 14 Olympic Games and 42, that’s right, 42, Tours de France.
What to drink while watching
Start slow. Build up. Go go go! Stop. A chilli-spiked Bloody Mary (Mocktail or cocktail) will do nicely.
This article was first published on the Tenplay website here.
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