SARAH SPRINTS TO WORLD CROWN
Hong Kong cyclist grabs her first major title
SARAH Lee of Hong Kong won her first world sprint title when she edged perennial runner-up Stephanie Morton on Friday in Pruszkow. Earlier, Frenchman Quentin Lafargue won his first World Championship gold in the men’s one kilometre time trial.
In the best-of-three final, the 31-year-old Sarah won the first two sprints to condemn her Australian opponent to a third silver medal since 2017.
“Now I want to do the same at the Olympics in Tokyo next year,” said Sarah.
French teen Mathilde Gros edged German Lea Sophie Friedrich to take silver.
Stephanie had twice finished second at the worlds to Kristina Vogel, the German double Olympic champion who became paraplegic following a training crash last year.
In Friday’s final, Stephanie launched a late sprint in the first leg but Sarah caught her.
In the second leg, the Australian tried to surprise Sarah by attacking on the penultimate lap but could not hold on to her lead.
Sarah won the 500m world title in 2013 but her best showing in the event that crowns cycling’s speed queen had been two bronzes, in 2013 and 2017.
In the men’s time trial from a standing start, Lafargue covered the kilometre in 1min 0.029sec at an average speed of 59.971 kph.
The 35-year-old Dutchman Theo Bos, who won the first of his five track world titles in 2004, was second, 0.359 seconds behind. Another Frenchman Michael d’Almeida was third in an event that was dropped from the Olympics in 2004.
The 28-year-old Lafargue won three junior world titles in 2008 and already had a small collection of podium places at the World Championships: a bronze in 2016 a silver in 2017 and a silver on Wednesday in the team sprint.
In qualification on Friday, Lafargue was the only rider to break a minute, recording a best time of 59.845sec.