Track worlds day 4: Ethan Hayter adds omnium title to ever-growing trophy cabinet

It was another all-action day of racing at the track world championships on Saturday.

Ethan Hayter (Great Britain) won the men’s omnium to see out a stellar season while Dutch duo Kirsten Wild and Amy Pieters completed a hat trick in the women’s madison.

Germany swept the podium in the women’s individual pursuit, and Lea Sophie Friedrich added another gold for the country with her 500-meter time trial charge.

Hayter secured the rainbow jersey in the modern indoor Roubaix velodrome Saturday to cap a breakout season across a range of disciplines. The 23-year-old has scored a flood of top results with road team Ineos Grenadiers while also winning silver in the Olympic madison and securing the British national TT title.

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The Londoner topped a podium completed by Aaron Gate (New Zealand) and Elia Viviani (Italy) in the multi-event race.

Hayter had won the opening scratch race and tempo race before maintaining his lead but faltering in the elimination race. The Brit secured the title by amassing the most in the final points race.

“The way that last race went, it was quite tight at the start, but I knew if I scored well in the first few sprints and had a little gap it would make life a lot easier for me, and I pretty much just rolled off,” Hayter said.

“The race was going really hard and people were tired, but I just kept the pressure on and once I was off I committed and took the lap and then ended up taking another … amazing.”

Hayter’s victory saw him become the first British man since Ed Clancy in 2010 to win the omnium world title and completed a double for GB after Archibald triumphed in the women’s race Friday. He will be straight back into action Sunday, racing the madison alongside Ollie Wood.

Wild and Pieters showed that experience can better youth in the women’s madison.

The 39-year-old Wild and 30-year-old Pieters dominated the paired race after also crushing the field with their victories in 2019 and 2020. The result makes for some consolation for Wild and Pieters after they were surprisingly out of the medals at the Toyko Games this summer.

Just like last year, French pair Clara Copponi and Marie Le Net took madison silver. British pair Katie Archibald and Neah Evans secured bronze.

German riders stole the show in the day’s remaining events.

Brennauer took the women’s individual pursuit crown, holding off 22-year-old compatriot Franziska Brausse by more than four seconds. Brennauer’s winning time was 3:18.258 in the three-kilometer race. Mieke Kröger completed the German sweep by claiming bronze.

Friedrich, also of Germany, defended her 500m TT title with a time of 33.057 sec to see off Russian pair Anastasiia Voinova and Daria Shmeleva.

Track worlds wrap up Sunday with the men’s elimination, sprint and madison events, and the women’s keirin and points races.

 – AFP contributed to this report.