Published February 19, 2012 02:12PM
American Sarah Hammer underlined her gold-medal ambitions in the inaugural Olympic event of the omnium by winning the final World Cup race of the season in London Sunday.
During London’s Olympic test event, pursuit specialist Hammer failed to medal in the 3km, 12-lap team pursuit, during which the Americans’ world record was beaten by Australia then Great Britain.
However the American made up for that setback by beating promising
Australian Annette Edmondson to the omnium gold, with Britain’s Laura Trott finishing third.
The omnium is one of five Olympic track disciplines — along with the sprint, team sprint, keirin and team pursuit — and is designed to test riders’ abilities across the board.
Hammer finished third in the flying lap, ninth in the points race, eighth in the elimination, third in the individual pursuit, second in the scratch and fifth in the time trial.
It left Hammer and Edmondson tied on a total of 30 points, but Hammer was awarded the gold on the basis of her lowest cumulative time from the three time trial races. Trott finished third at 32 points, just two ahead of Canada’s reigning world champion and Olympic hopeful Tara Whitten.