Dudley impresses in women's omnium debut

Mar 28th, 10.  Gemma Dudley's top performance in the five event omnium at the Track Worlds earned New Zealand another Top10 placing when the Levin rider placed 8th overall.

Gemma Dudley 8th in the omnium ©Gerry McManus

The women's omnium is a new event at the Track World Championships.

After the reshuffle of the Olympic Games' track programme when it was announced the women's omnium would be contested at the London 2012 Games, the UCI also included it in the Worlds' programme.

20 year old Dudley earned her position in the New Zealand team after a strong performance at last month's NZ track nationals where she won the hotly contested omnium.

In the first event today, the 200m sprint, Dudley produced a personal best time of 12.036 for 9th position.  She continued her great results with personal bests in the other two timed events, the 500m time trial (36.414) and 2000m individual pursuit (2:24.842).

In the points race Dudley was attentive and aggressive, managing to take a lap on the field with the key riders in the middle of the race.   

The omnium is scored on a points basis, 1 point for 1st, 2 for 2nd etc. The rider with the least number of points is the winner.  With this points system there is no room for one bad event and consistent placings are the key.

Dudley's consistent placings, sprint 9th, scratch 10th, individual pursuit 7th, points 7th and 500m time trial 7th, earned her the overall 8th placing. 

Canada's Tara Whitten became the first ever Women's Omnium World Champion ahead of Great Britain's Liz Armistead.

This was the first senior world championships for Dudley and a great indication of her future potential in this new Olympic event. Unfortunately the omnium (men's and women's) is not contested at the Commonwealth Games.

Other news of the track today

• Fast times for Kiwi sprint trio
• Tom Scully and Marc Ryan finished 14th in the madison

Related articles

• UCI World Track Championship results
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