Track Cycling World Championships: Sarah Lee on course to defend sprint title after reaching semi-finals in Berlin
- Hong Kong’s ace sprinter is unbeaten since beginning 2020 Tokyo qualifying campaign 16 months ago
- She will take on Emma Hinze of Germany in semi-finals after Hinze took the team sprint gold on opening day of world championships in Berlin
Sarah Lee Wai-sze is on course to defend her sprint crown after reaching the semi-finals at the UCI Track World Championships in Berlin on Thursday night.
The sprinting ace will take on Emma Hinze of Germany in a rematch of their duel in the final in the Hong Kong leg of the World Cup series in November, in which the home favourite won both races of the best-of-three tie at Tseung Kwan O velodrome.
The Hong Kong number one has not been beaten in the sprint since the beginning of the 2020 Tokyo Games qualifying campaign in 2018, but the German will be a hard nut to crack after an exceptional performance at the worlds so far.
Hinze and her partner Pauline Grabosch sounded an early warning in Berlin as they took the team sprint gold on the opening day, beating another top pairing, Kaarle McCulloch and Stephanie Morton of Australia, in the final.
How to watch Sarah Lee and Hong Kong at the Worlds
Hinze also made an astonishing start in the sprint when the 22-year-old recorded the fastest time – 10.364 seconds – in the 200-metre flying start of the event’s qualifiers. Lee took fourth place in 10.478.
Both riders were given a bye in the first round as the top four finishers in the qualifiers. Lee first overcame old rival Zhong Tianshi of China in the round of 16 before taking out Luz Gaxiola of Mexico in the quarter-finals. Hinze easily beat Olena Starikova of Ukraine in her first race and was also in winning form against Laurine van Riessen of the Netherlands in the last eight.
Hong Kong’s Sarah Lee wins gold again for her third straight victory in World Cup
The other semi-final also features two favourites – Kelsey Mitchell of Canada, the world record holder in the 200 metre flying start in 10.154 set last year in the highlands of Cochabamba in Bolivia and Anastasiia Voinova of Russia. Mitchell came third in the Hong Kong World Cup leg behind Lee and Hinze.
Young German guns out to upstage Hong Kong’s Sarah Lee in own backyard
In the men’s scratch, Mow Ching-yin of Hong Kong came 19th in his maiden world championships. Hong Kong has done well in the event before when Wong Kam-po and Kwok Ho-ting won the world title in 2007 and 2011 respectively.
