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France's Bauge takes sprint crown
Chinese sprinter Shuang Guo claims women's keirin gold
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Frenchman Gregory Bauge overcame a tough test against Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang to win the world sprint crown at the world track cycling championships in Pruszkow, Poland. on Sunday.
Awang took the silver medal with another Frenchman, Kevin Sireau, beating Australian Shane Perkins to take the bronze.
The men's sprint tournament is traditionally the most coveted of all track cycling events, and it lived up to that billing thanks to the unexpected rise of Awang to the final.
And the little pocket rocket from northern Malaysia, who trains at his team's base in Melbourne, Australia, threatened to cause a major upset against the sprint superpowers.
After Bauge had been given the decision from a photo finish in the first leg of their final, the tactically astute Awang forced the match into a decider after outwitting Bauge in the second leg.
In the decider, however, Bauge took no chances, forcing an early lead on his smaller rival and using all his power to charge towards a convincing win.
Bauge, based in Creteil near Paris and trained by French track legend Florian Rousseua, thus succeeds absent injured Briton Sir Chris Hoy, also the reigning Olympic champion, to take his first world gold in the sprint.
Women's Keirin
Chinese sprinter Shuang Guo claimed her maiden world title at senior level when she won the women's keirin gold Sunday.Frenchwoman Clara Sanchez took the silver medal with Dutchwoman Willy Kanis taking the bronze.
Guo, who took a sprint silver at the Olympic Games in Beijing, had previously won both sprint and keirin silver and bronze medals at the world championships.
However the 24-year-old France-based racer, who hails from Inner Mongolia, made sure of her first world senior crown with an aggressive piece of riding that effectively downed France's two-pronged attack.
With both Sanchez and Sandie Clair making it to the final the French had good reason to believe they could snatch the gold.
However despite Clair's tactical bid to slow the contenders sitting behind Sanchez, who was leading the field at the bell signaling the final lap, Guo pushed through on the final bend before pipping the Frenchwoman at the finish.
Kanis, a former BMX rider, won her second medal in as many days after taking a sprint silver behind Britain's four-time champion Victoria Pendleton on Saturday.
Pendleton looked out of sorts during the keirin tournament, which is not an Olympic event, and was pushed into first round repechages before making the second round.
In her heat the 28-year-old Englishwoman finished last, failing to qualify for the six-woman final.
Women's points
Giorgia Bronzini handed Italy its first gold of the 2009 world track cycling championships on Sunday when she won the women's 25km points race.Yumari Gonzalez of Cuba took the silver medal on 15 points with Britain's Lizzie Armitstead taking the bronze on 13.
In a race marred by a number of spectacular crashes, Bronzini proved the fastest - and arguably luckiest - rider from the field on her way to a total of 18 points.
She virtually sealed her win by claiming all five points on offer for the first rider over the line at the ninth and penultimate sprint, and a fifth place on the 10th sprint added another point to her tally.
Gonzalez came into the 100-lap race, in which the first four riders over the line at the 10 intermediate sprints collect five, three, two and one points, as a big favourite having won the women's' scratch.
The Cuban veteran had a different tactic, but set her stall out from the start winning the first sprint to put five points on the board, winning the fifth sprint and then crossing first over the 10th and last sprint.
Armitstead, who has had a great first world championships at senior level, got up after a crash in the women's scratch to win silver in the event - in which Bronzini had finished fourth.
Russian veteran Olga Slyusareva had three points on the board after the third sprint but she was among several riders who did not finish, most due to injuries sustained in a crash.
Men’s Omnium
Leigh Howard made sure Australia will finish top of the medals table at the world track cycling championships after winning the men's omnium event.Canadian Zachary Bell took the silver with Dutchman Tim Veldt winning the bronze.
Howard, who also won silver in the men's Madison partnered with Cameron Meyer on Saturday, proved the strongest throughout a tough day of racing in five events.
The omnium is not an Olympic event, and has been held only three times for the men at world championship level.
