The host Colombia finished as the best nation in the Cali 2021 Track Cycling Nations Cup, adding five golds after the last day of competition this Sunday, the day in which Martha Bayona Pineda added her third title of the fight.
Bayona’s third victory came in the women’s keirin when she edged Mexican Yuli Verdugo Osuna by 0.043 seconds. The Polish Urszula Łoś was third, 0.131 seconds behind the Colombian after six laps at the Alcides Nieto Patiño Velodrome.
With this result, the South American remained at the top of the general classification in this event, because in the Nations Cup in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg, she also won.
The Sunday day, which closed the activities of this fair, began with the golden of the Polish sisters Daria and Wiktoria Pikulik in the feminine madison. Daria thus secured the first gold of her country’s competition, and the pair scored five points in 10 of the 12 sprints and three in another, only failing to score in the final twelfth.
With that performance they finished with 53 points, which was far behind the Ukrainian Kseniia Fedotova and Tetyana Klimchenko, who propelled themselves to the silver medal position with six points in the final sprint to finish with 22. Lina Marcela Hernández Gómez and Lina Mabel Rojas Zapata from Colombia were third with 21 points, while Americans Kendall Ryan and Lily Williams lost on the podium with 18.
The men’s domino finals began with Nicholas Paul of Trinidad and Tobago lifting his third gold of the competition in individual speed, which was the fourth for his country, which escorted Colombia in the country medal table.
Paul was 0.125 seconds faster than local Kevin Santiago Quintero Chavarro in the first race and 0.516 seconds faster in the second to claim victory, although his opponent remains at the top of the season’s World Cup standings after having won this event in St. Petersburg.
The last race in Cali saw Romanian Daniel Crista win his second gold with a dramatic triumph in the men’s omnium. Both Crista and Colombian Juan Esteban Arango Carvajal finished with 128 points, the Romanian’s performance being decisive in the last points race.
Arango Carvajal led by a narrow margin with 112 points to Crista’s 110 after the scratch, tempo and elimination races, but the latter scored 18 sprint points in the final race, while the home favorite could only score 16.
Chilean Cristian Arriagada Pizarro also forced himself into a serious feud with the 20-point bonus for going around the field, but came up short and finished at 127 to claim bronze. Canadian Michael Foley was fourth with 121 points.
The Nations Cup took place in preparation for the UCI Track World Championships, scheduled to take place in Roubaix in France from October 20-24.