The Colombian team obtained its first medal in the UCI Cali 2023 Junior Track Cycling World Championship, through Francisco Jaramillo, silver in the men’s Keirin, apart from having achieved two fourth places, one of them by just 65 thousandths against the powerful Italy set.
This Thursday, Jaramillo maintained his orbital subtitle in the Keirin event by placing himself behind Russian Nikita Kiriltsev (neutral individual athlete), while German Pete Collin took bronze.
“When I went to the Nationals I was very motivated and when we started racing here this Wednesday I realized that I was doing some very fast laps and I understood that it was possible. I am very happy about that, ”said the local rider, dressed in his classic tricolor uniform.
At the same time, another news item was the double national and Pan-American record achieved by Stefany Lorena Cuadrado from Antioquia in the 200-meter throw, with a time of 10.972 seconds, improving the 11.146 that Natalia Martínez from Valle del Cauca had from the Nacional de Pista de mid-July 2023, in Bogotá.
For its part, responding to its favoritism, Italy won the gold medal in the men’s team pursuit after beating the German team, without the need for the 4,000 meters to be completed, since it caught up before the last turn.
The Italian quartet was made up of Matteo Fiorin, Etienne Grimod, Renato Favero and Juan David Sierra, the latter one of the great protagonists of the contest, winning the hearts of the local public, since this medal has Colombian blood.
Without being a medal that will go to the tricolor loot, the people from Cali celebrated the gold achieved by the Italians as their own, since Sierra has Colombian blood. His father, Luis Alberto Sierra, was born in Buenaventura and 23 years ago decided to seek new horizons in Europe. While his mother, Patricia, is Italian.
Once the result was given, the 18-year-old said: “I am very happy, I also feel Colombian, even though I am running in Italy. I trained a lot with my father and my grandmother to speak Spanish, mine is not so perfect, but I want to speak it well”.
He added that “my grandfather is also Colombian and works in Santa Marta, I have only come to Cali once, but here I have my grandmother and uncles.”
An electricity student, he maintained that “95% of my activity is the road, I came fourth in the world road test in Glasgow. I also do track in the European championships and in the world championships. I like people from Colombia, my grandfather and my father Luis Alberto Sierra left here in 2000 to work in Italy, in 2000 my father married my mother who is Italian and in 2005 I was born”.
Luis Alberto is an engineer and he speaks to him a lot about our country, for which Juan David appreciates the affection of the people from Cali: “I really like it because they have received me with a lot of heart, thank you all. I am excited about the Olympic Games, but now I have to keep my feet down, today I won a world title, but I hope my career will be very long, I love Colombians very much”.
About how he managed to be in the Italian National Team, he pointed out that “training myself, doing everything from the heart, with great seriousness. I’ve been in the team for two years, I’ve only liked cycling and I started track when I was 12 years old”.
He confesses that his father is happy with what he has been doing in the World Cup in Cali: “he told me that he is very proud, he always tells me to go to Buenaventura and I plan to return in October or November.”
In the Women’s Team Pursuit, gold went to France (Clemence Chereau, Leane Tabu, Melanie Dupin, Leonie Mahieu); silver for Italy (Federica Venturelli, Virginia Iaccarino, Vittoria Grassi, Alice Toniolli) and bronze went to Australia (Lauren Bates, Keira Will, Sally Carter, Nicole Duncan
Once again Cali Ciudad Deportiva vibrated with the pedal strokes of national and foreign cyclists. The Secretary of Sports and Recreation, Carlos Diago Álzate, indicated that “it is very important to continue consolidating our image as a great organizer of international sports events and in the two days that we have had this World Cup it has been quite a party.”
Results of the second day
Scratches boys:
Gold: Ruslan Kuznetsov (neutral individual athlete); silver: Matthew Brennan (Great Britain) and bronze: Conrad Haugsted (Denmark)
Men’s team pursuit
Gold: Italy (Italy (Matteo Fiorin, Etienne Grimod, Renato Favero, Juan David Sierra) (3.17;9)
Silver: Germany: (León Arenz, Bruno Kessler, Lui Bengelsdorf, Louis Gentzik) (3.21;6)
Bronze: Canada (Charles Bergeron, Justin Roy, Ethan Powell, Kaden Colling)
Ladies team pursuit
Gold: France (Clemence Chereau, Leane Tabu, Melanie Dupin, Leonie Mahieu)
Silver: Italy (Federica Venturelli, Virginia Iaccarino, Vittoria Grassi, Alice Toniolli)
Bronze: Australia (Lauren Bates, Keira Will, Sally Carter, Nicole Duncan)
Scratches boys:
Gold: Ruslan Kuznetsov (neutral individual athlete)
Silver: Matthew Brennan (Great Britain)
Bronze: Conrad Haugsted (Denmark)
Ladies elimination
Gold: Anita Baima (Italy)
Silver: Isabel Sharp (Great Britain)
Bronze: Ayana Mizutani (Japan)
Keirin boys
Gold: Nikita Kiriltsev (neutral individual athlete)
Silver: Francisco Jaramillo
Bronze: Pete Collin (Germany)