2011 UCI Track Cycling World Championships: a great evening for the Byelorussians


After Tuesday evening's opening ceremony, during which the International Cycling Union showed its solidarity to the Japanese who are suffering after the natural disaster in their country, the 2011 UCI Track Cycling World Championships got under way with intense competition and the awarding of the first five titles.


The Byelorussians Olga Panarina and Tatsiana Sharakova were the stars of the women's events with their victories in the 500m and the points race. The large public assembled in the magnificent Omnisport velodrome in Aperldoorn had to temporarily abandon any hope of celebrating the first Dutch medals: Willy Kanis and Marianne Vos did not make the podium. The remaining podium places for the 500m went to Sandie Claire (FRA) and Miriam Welte (GER), and those in the points race to Jarmila Machacova (CZE) and Giorgia Bronzini (ITA), the 2010 World Road Champion in Geelong and already winner of this competition in 2009 in Pruszkow.