German champ cops WUCC gold
GERMANY’S national mountain bike champion Sofia Wiedenroth engaged Marta Turobos of Poland in a nip-andtuck battle before prevailing with a mighty finishing kick to win the gold medal in yesterday’s women’s cross country eliminator in the World University Cycling Championships (WUCC).
Wiedenroth tamed the steep climbs, sharp descents, snake-like bend and other man-made obstacles at Ultimate Mountain Bike Park in Silang, Cavite, and give Germany its third gold in the prestigious “for-students-only” championship sanctioned by both the International University Sports Federation (Fisu) and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).
Japan’s Seika Ainota finished a distant third at the expense of China’s Binni Lou.
The gold in the men’s XCE went to Poland’s Marcin Kawalec who bested Germany’s Louis Wolf and Japan’s Kohei Maeda, who picked himself up after a nasty spill while negotiating the treacherous snake bend to give Japan its second bronze medal.
Christian Tan, Federation of School Sports Association of the Philippines (Fessap) vice president and the event’s race director, lamented the fact that not one local cyclist qualified for yes- terday’s race.
“It would have been a great learning experience for our cyclists on how to succeed in this highly technical event,” Tan said.
Tan revealed that one strategy Fessap would implement as soon as possible is to package the highlights of the different races contested in this year’s WUCC into instructional videos with emphasis on technical skills employed by the foreign cyclists.
According to Fessap president David Ong and Tan, criterium gold medal winner Boots Ryan Cayubit and road race bronze medalist Marinell Salamat “will be generously rewarded,” with the help of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce Inc. (FFCCCI) “for their achievements.”