2024 UCI TRACK CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK DAY 2

New Zealand cycling star, Ally Wollaston has earned her first rainbow jersey with a brilliant win in the elimination race on day two of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Denmark today.

Wollaston not only claimed the gold medal in an exciting battle, she bettered a star-studded field including Belgian superstar, the six-time world champion and double elimination world winner, Lotte Kopecky in the final at the Ballerup Sports Arena in Copenhagen.

The elimination race featured 22 riders, with the last rider after each two laps being eliminated, until two riders remain to fight it out for the title.

The 23-year-old Kiwi Olympic omnium medallist in Paris used her race-craft and speed to remain clear until she was one of four riders remaining. They comprised Kopecky, seven-time world champion and Paris Olympic omnium gold medallist, Jennifer Valente (USA) and Letizia Paternoster (ITA), the 2021 elimination world champion and multi-world championship medallist.

Wollaston edged out the Italian and then the American by the tightest margins but had superior strength and speed to account for Kopecky in the final sprint to claim the world championship title.

“It feels amazing. It is something that I have been hunting for quite a long time. I am blown away and a little bit lost for words at the moment,” said Wollaston. “For now, I am enjoying the experience.”

The kiwi rider spoke about taking on the star-studded field today.

“They (Kopecky and Valente) are two of the best riders on the track at the moment, so it was a little bit daunting. I’ve been racing them all year and I’ve been beaten by them a few times now.

“You get to know the riders on the track and how each rider works . But until you cross the finish line you really never know what’s going to happen. So to win against riders like that means a lot.”

It is only the sixth world title won by a New Zealand female rider on the track and the first by a women’s endurance rider since the individual pursuit victory by Alison Shanks at Melbourne in 2012.

Wollaston’s victory follows the gold medal by sprinter Ellesse Andrews at the world championships in Glasgow last year, and adds to her bronze medal in the scratch race on day one.

There is no rest for the New Zealand rider, who will come up against the same foes in the arduous four-discipline Omnium tomorrow (NZ time).

Her teammate Bryony Botha is in action on Sunday (NZT) in the individual pursuit.