Nimke pedals his way to gold and takes Hoy's kilo record in process

Published on Friday 27 March 2009 23:34

SIR CHRIS Hoy's five-year-old kilometre world record was beaten by Germany's Stefan Nimke on the third day of the Track Cycling World Championships in Pruszkow, Poland.

Lizzie Armitstead won Great Britain's fourth silver of the championships in Poland despite falling in the final of the women's scratch. Her success took the British total to seven medals – one gold, four silver and two bronze – with two days to go.

Hoy won the first of his four Olympic golds in the time-trial in Athens in one minute 00.711 seconds before switching events after the discipline was removed from the Games programme. But Nimke lowered the sea-level best – France's Arnaud Tournant holds the absolute record of 58.875secs set at altitude in La Paz, Bolivia – by 0.045secs to win gold in 1min 00.666secs at the BGZ Arena.

American Taylor Phinney was second in 1.01.611 and Malaysia's Mohd Rizal Tisin was third, while Great Britain's David Daniell was seventh in 1.02.316, one place behind defending champion Teun Mulder of Holland.

Resplendent in the all-white suit of the World Cup overall champion, Armitstead, the 20-year-old from Otley, was hotly marked throughout. She was at the back of the peloton and tumbled to the boards when Czech Republic rider Jarmila Machacova slipped seven-and-a-half laps from the end of the 40-lap race.

The Briton was one of four riders to fall and, soon after she returned to the saddle, she was absorbed by the pack.

However, the fallen riders were given a lap's grace and Armitstead was well positioned for the sprint to finish second to Cuba's Yumari Gonzalez Valdivieso. Australia's Belinda Goss won bronze.

"I'm disappointed," said Armitstead. "There's things I would have had the confidence to do in the last five laps had I not crashed. I hesitated on the last lap and normally – if I hadn't been disorientated by the crash – I would've been more aggressive and hit her (Gonzalez Valdivieso] early on. I would've got her."

However, the Yorkshirewoman was pleased with her display of courage. "I knew it was eight laps to go and you're not allowed back in the race with five to go," she added. "My main priority was to get back on the bike and thank God my wheels weren't buckled, my bike was fine and my coach (Simon Cope] was brilliant – I crashed in the right place."

The men's team pursuit quartet of Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Jonny Bellis and Peter Kennaugh missed out on bronze, with New Zealand winning the race-off. The Kiwis, featuring two members of the Beijing Olympic bronze medal-winning squad, clocked four minutes 00.248 seconds to edge Britain by over a second.

But Kennaugh is looking to today's Madison, when he partners fellow Isle of Man rider Mark Cavendish.

Victoria Pendleton is also in action today, after progressing to semi-finals of the women's sprint with minimal fuss. The Olympic champion will meet Olga Panarina of Belarus as she bids to defend her title won in Manchester 12 months ago.