German Nimke legs it to men's kilo crown

Stefan Nimke handed Germany their second gold of the world track cycling championships on Friday when he powered his way to victory in the men's one kilometre event.

American Taylor Phinney, the newly-crowned world pursuit champion, took his second medal of the competition with a well-deserved silver following his winning ride in the 4km pursuit.

Mohd Rizal Tisin made history to hand Malaysia their first ever world championships medal with bronze in a time of 1:01.658.

Nimke, a well-known sprint event specialist, came into the championships stating the kilometre - which is no longer an Olympic discipline - was his number one objective.

He benefited from a middle-of-the-field start to set a devilishly impressive time of 1min 00.666sec to strike a psychological blow to his main rivals. It is the fastest time ever recorded at sea level.

A few came close to challenging him. French pair Francois Pervis and Michael D'Almeida, and Dutch defending champion Teun Mulder, all started fast but faded in the final of the four lap event to finish out of the medals.

"My long term goal is to help Germany win the Olympic team sprint title in 2012, and that's why I've gone back to competing in the kilometre," said 31-year-old Nimke, who helped Germany to bronze in the team sprint in Beijing behind champions Britain and silver medallists France.

His last world crown was in 2003 when he won the kilometre.

"I wanted to win this crown badly and I did it. But with the kind of time I did, it's just amazing."

Germany now have two golds following Maximilian Levy's victory in the keirin on Thursday.

The 18-year-old Phinney's time of 1:01.611 proved enough for the silver. His feat is all the more impressive as the pursuit specialist has only raced in a few kilos in official competition.

Having discovered his aptitude for the 'kilo' when he started a pursuit race too fast last year, the 1.93m tall Phinney - who is skinny in comparison to other riders in the event - showed that you don't need to burst out the blocks like a raging bull to win a medal.

His first lap left him in 25th place, but from there he went to 22nd then 10th then second.

"That's sort of how I do this race. I don't know if it's the right way to do it, but it's the pursuiters' way of riding the kilo I guess," he said.

"I don't have that power at the beginning to throttle an 18-second lap, but I do have the endurance to keep the speed up in the last couple of laps.

"I don't really know - I just decided to do this event on a whim about a month ago!"





Kasahara