Paul underlines talent with world junior track sprint victory

Scottish cyclist John Paul underlined his exceptional talent when he powered his way to victory in the individual sprint at the World Junior Track Championships in Moscow.

The 18-year-old set a British junior record of 10.175 seconds when qualifying in fifth place on Friday. He then progressed through the early knockout stages, seeing off Anthony Jacques of France, the Spaniard Jose Miguel Caldentey and Matthew Baranoski of the United States to ease into Saturday’s semi-finals.

There he faced the top seeded German rider Max Niederlag, who had set a world junior record in qualifying. Paul won the first of the three legs but lost out in the second ride. However, he progressed to the gold medal showdown when his opponent was relegated for dangerous riding in the decider.

Wick-born Paul, who is now based in Oxfordshire but rides for the City of Edinburgh club, rose to the occasion in the final, dominating both legs as he beat Frenchman Julien Palma 2-0 to clinch the title.

The Scot was back in action yesterday when he lined up in the Keirin. However, despite an assured performance in his heat, he exited in the semi-final and eventually finished tenth.

Meanwhile, Team Sky’s Chris Sutton won the second stage of the Vuelta a Espana yesterday, while Leopard Trek rider Daniele Bennati claimed the red jersey.

Australian Sutton timed his sprint to perfection to win the stage in a time of 4:11:41secs, ahead of Omega Pharma-Lotto rider Vicente Reynes, with Marcel Kittel from the Skil-Shimano team in third. Bennati’s sixth place was enough to give him the overall lead.

Riding in his final race for HTC Highroad, Tour de France green jersey winner Mark Cavendish finished one minute and one second behind Sutton to sit 174th overall.

Sutton’s Team Sky team-mate Bradley Wiggins finished down in 68th but that could not dampen the spirits of the team’s sports director, Steven de Jongh.

He said: “It’s a really good result for CJ and a good boost for the team.

“We really went in detail through the final kilometres this morning in the presentation on the bus, and we had some nice information from the guys who were standing on the finish, so we could talk them through it.”