APELDOORN, Netherlands (AFP) — Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer was crowned king of the sprint on Saturday when he swept past Britain’s Jack Carlin 2-0 in the final at the track world championships.
Glaetzer, 25, arrived in the Netherlands claiming to be in “the form of my life” after becoming the first man to dip below the one-minute barrier in a kilometre race staged at sea level in Manchester last year.
However, he wasn’t the only headline maker at Apeldoorn on Saturday as America’s Chloe Dygert stormed to a new world record in the women’s pursuit.
Glaetzer was rarely in trouble on Saturday as he carved through his rivals.
After setting the second-best time in qualifying, the Australian eliminated defending world champion Denis Dmitriev of Russia in the quarter-finals, France’s Sebastien Vigier and then Carlin in the gold medal clash.
Vigier claimed bronze after seeing off Maximilian Levy of Germany.
Dygert, 21, who was a silver medallist in the team pursuit at the 2016 Rio Olympics, successfully defended the world individual title she claimed in Hong Kong last year.
On Saturday, she twice improved on the eight-year-old world record.
In qualifying, she covered the 3000m in 3min 20.72sec, bettering the previous mark of Sarah Hammer’s 3:22.269 from May 2010 set at altitude in Mexico.
Then, in the final, she improved it to 3:20.060 in seeing off Annemiek van Vleuten of the Netherlands for the gold.
Germany’s Miriam Welte, 31, won the women’s 500m time trial ahead of Russia’s Daria Shmeleva and Dutch rider Elis Ligtlee.
Welte had previously won the event in 2014 while also playing a part in four world titles in team speed events for Germany.
Home star Kirsten Wild, the scratch and omnium champion, added a silver to her collection on Saturday when she and partner Amy Pieters finished second in the Madison behind Katie Archibald and Emily Nelson of Great Britain.
© Agence France-Presse