Birmingham 2022 Track Cycling: Day 2 Australian preview

It was an amazing start to Birmingham 2022 on Day 1 for Australia at the track cycling. Find out who can keep the ball rolling on Day 2.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of tonight.

Women’s Sprint

The jewel of the sprinting crown gets the Day 2 program started in London, with all three of the Australian women's sprint squad competing.

27 women will launch a flying 200m at Lee Valley VeloPark and if you don’t punch enough watts into the top-16 then your day is done.

This field is absolutely stacked despite it being open to only Commonwealth nations and includes Canada’s one-two punch of Kelsey Mitchell and Lauriane Genest, and New Zealand powerhouse Ellesse Andrews.

All three of the women above left Tokyo 2020 with medals, with Mitchell the current Olympic sprint champion.

Australia’s hopes fall on Sunshine Coast product Kristina Clonan, who has dominated the Australian sprinting scene in the last three years and is the current three-time national champion in sprint, keirin and 500m time trial.

Clonan is gradually improving her flying 200m prowess but don’t expect a lights-out qualifying seeding from her.

Maintaining a position around the top-10 will be key for her though and enables her to go to work in the matchup rounds at what she does best – racing.

The 24-year-old looked very comfortable last night and we have our fingers crossed that she can push deep into the draw.

39-year-old Hargrave has been right around the same flying 200m times as Clonan this year and even pipped her by 0.001 of a second at her international UCI Track Nations Cup debut in Glasgow.

She will be hoping to qualify well to avoid the big hitters early.

For 19-year-old McCaig, tonight will be all about soaking up the experience and hitting personal bests.

Women’s Individual Pursuit

Gold medal alert folks! But it’s going to be an all-out trans-Tasman war – one not to be missed.

Adelaide’s Maeve Plouffe and New Zealand’s Bryony Botha enter as the two heavyweights of individual pursuiting (IP) this year.

Both have broken into hallowed 3 minutes and 20 seconds territory this year, a feat only achieved by four women in history.

Plouffe was the third woman to do it in February at Adelaide Super-Drome, scorching her local boards to record a time of 3:19.994.

Botha was close behind in March, stopping the clock at 3:19.818.

But two weeks later she was back at it again at the 2022 Oceania Track Championships, breaking her record with a 3:19.634.

Plouffe has battled various health and injury issues this year but has had a clean run over the past couple of months and looks to be in top shape judging by last night’s team pursuit performance.

The 23-year-old's last 3000m hit-out was a UCI Track Nations Cup gold performance in Milton courtesy of a 3:29.324, but we expect chunks of time to have been shaved off since that race in May.

If the form guide plays out, we are in for one belter of a Birmingham 2022 gold medal final.

The news of veteran road professional Sarah Roy heading to Birmingham as both a member of the track and road team pricked ears up last week.

Roy’s ability to put the power down is a known commodity on the road and clearly, she has shown she can transition that same energy to the velodrome during her brief visits back to Australia.

It will be exciting to see what Roy can pull out of the hat tonight – a time around the mid-3:20 marker will put a smile on Australian Cycling Team staff.

Sophie Edwards will also hope to notch a time in that range and has been making impressive progress in her pursuiting craft in recent months.

A medal for either one of Roy or Edwards above would be amazing night.

Men’s Individual Pursuit

Best of luck to those attempting to predict the winner in the men’s individual pursuit because it is wide open!

Just making the medal finals will be an achievement on its own here – there is some big-time pedigree on this start list by way of Kiwi Aaron Gate, England’s Dan Bigham and Charlie Tanfield, and Scotland’s Jonny Wale and John Archibald.

Western Australian Conor Leahy has arguably flown under the radar over the past 18 months but let it be known that he broke the 11-year-old Jack Bobridge IP national record at the 2022 AusCycling Track National Championships.

A few days later he did it again, twice! First with a 4:07.356 in Oceania qualifying and then with a bittersweet 4:09.933 defeat in a pulsating gold medal final with Gate.

If the 23-year-old is at his best today, he can win gold, but it will most likely demand a new personal best.

One of Australia’s most exciting talents Luke Plapp will also IP tonight, not much to go off of here but the 21-year-old prodigy rarely does anything half-hearted.

James Moriarty is the third IP member tonight and is an outside chance for a medal should he be at his very best.

The 21-year-old has come on leaps and bounds in 2022, even more so since winning IP bronze at the Milton UCI Track Nations Cup with a time of 4:13.932 – his current personal best.

The Queenslander will need to improve by around three to four seconds to have a shot at a top-four finish.

Men’s Keirin

Our male sprinters are flying this year, as exemplified last night, and any one of the trio competing could legitimately win gold.

Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer have been going hammer and tong all season, driving each other on to the betterment of the entire program.

Both are big favourites tonight, however, the unpredictability of the keirin is always a great equaliser.

Richardson has won silver and bronze in the keirin at the UCI Track Nations Cup level this year, while Glaetzer is the defending champion from Gold Coast 2018.

Sutherland’s Thomas Cornish will make his debut with motivation to burn after missing out on the team sprint.

He too has been on the move this year, finishing fourth in the keirin at the Glasgow UCI Track Nations Cup.

How to watch the racing

In Australia, you can watch all the cycling from Birmingham 2022 on Seven and 7plus – live, free and in HD.

7plus will be showing up to 30 live and replay channels, so you can follow your favourite events and catch up on highlights. For streaming, visit the 7plus Commonwealth Games Hub. There are specific streaming pages for track cycling, mountain bike and road cycling.

AusCycling will post event previews and reports throughout the Games on our website.

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Main picture: Guy Swarbrick