Plenty of twists of fate over the eight laps of the first Men’s Short Track World Championships. The American wins the World Champion beating Avancini and Brandl in a sprint
It was on everybody’s lips: the Men’s first Short Track World Championship might be a wide-open affair, particularly with Mathieu van der Poel out of discussion due to a back injury. The exciting race in Daolasa di Commezzadura, Val di Sole, possibly exceeded this expectation.
USA’s Christopher Blevins is the very first Men’s Short Track World Champion, an honor he totally deserved by playing it smart over the eight laps of the Men’s effort on the technical 950 mt loop of #ValdiSole2021.
Nearly the first half of the race went through without major gaps among the top 15 to 20 riders, with Henrique Avancini (Brazil), Sam Gaze (New Zealand) and Adam Hatherly (South Africa) patrolling the leading position.
The first tear of the race was courtesy of Ondrej Cink (Czech Republic), whose attack and change of pace brought Avancini behind him, and eventually stretched out and splintered the group, cutting it down to six men: Cink, Avancini, Brandl (Germany), Blevins (USA), Hatherly and Blums (Latvia).
But it was in lap 7 that Brandl made a bold move on the toughest stretch of the course, apparently leaving anybody else unable to close. The German crossed the line for the penultimate time with 7 seconds on the chasers, and when it seemed he might be gone for good, the pride and talent of Henrique Avancini came to the fore: an impressive acceleration saw him get back to the front, with Blevins sharply on his wheel.
The final corner were a battle on a tight rope between the three, exchanges nail-biting overtakes until the final corner, when Blevins passed and made good use of his hard-tail bike (he was the only rider to make such selection among the leaders) to unleash his power towards the finish.
