Nigerian Ese Ukpeseraye may need been lifeless final within the Paris Olympic Games monitor biking qualifying occasion for ladies’s Individual Sprint on Friday, however contemplating she hadn’t skilled on a velodrome for greater than a yr and was driving on a borrowed bike, her 200-metre flying lap was a greater than respectable time – 11.652 seconds. It was a efficiency she hoped would encourage her nation to put money into monitor biking.
Ukpeseraye stated she was so stunned by the point that she felt as completely satisfied as if she had gained the race.
“I used to be very completely satisfied as a result of within the flying lap, I’ve by no means accomplished an 11 [second lap] earlier than. I at all times do 12, generally 13,” Ukpeseraye informed Cyclingnews. “I used to be even stunned that with out getting ready for it, I did 11. There are some individuals who have been getting ready for this for the previous three years, they usually did 11 like me as nicely. So I used to be very, very completely satisfied, as if I’m the one which gained.
“If I ready for it, I might do a lot better. Because I by no means skilled for it, and I did such a time.”
Ukpeseraye was a shock entry into the ladies’s dash occasions. She was in Paris for the ladies’s highway race however was added to the monitor roster after Egypt misplaced their place when the UCI disqualified entrant, Shahd Saied, who had been named to the Olympic group regardless of being suspended for crashing her competitor throughout their nationwide championships.
The discover of Nigeria’s entry got here lower than every week earlier than the beginning of the Paris Olympics, and the Nigerian group hadn’t packed any monitor bikes. In stepped the German group, who had beforehand helped out Ukpeseraye’s group within the 2022 UCI Track World Championships once they did not have aero bars for the Team Pursuit.
This time, Ukpeseraye obtained to journey on a specially-engineered bike designed by the Institut für Forschung und Entwicklung von Sportgeräten (FES), leant to her for the Keirin earlier this week and for Friday’s Sprint warmth.
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“The bike was unbelievable,” she stated. “There are instances once they provide you with a brand new bike to race, and one can find it tough as a result of you haven’t been coaching with it and will not be used to it. But for me, once they gave me the bike, the primary day I used the bike, it was like I had been utilizing it. I used to be very comfy on it.
“I actually admire them lots, as a result of they observed that I’m in want they usually had been in a position to help me.”
Ukpeseraye is not new to trace biking, having raced an uncommon number of occasions together with the Team Pursuit, Team Sprint, 500-metre time trial, Keirin and Omnium in worldwide competitors, however has solely raced Individual Sprint on the Continental Championships, and never recurrently.
Her outcomes do not replicate her apparent expertise, nonetheless, as a result of whereas Nigeria has a picket velodrome in one of the vital costly sports activities stadiums on this planet, the ability has a historical past of neglect. Although it was refurbished lately, the velodrome has been designated as a multi-purpose facility and is rented out for religious services and other events for the equivalent of €375 a day.
Ukpeseraye hoped that her look and promising efficiency on the Olympics would result in the velodrome being put aside for its meant function.
“We have a really stunning monitor. Our monitor is one of the best in Africa, however we do not use it. They do not give us the permission,” Ukpeseraye stated.
“Sometimes we’ve got competitors and we wish to practice within the velodrome however there’s a celebration there they usually say we can’t use it, so we take our bikes and we go house. When we needed to go to Glasgow for the World Championship, we’ve got to be coaching on the monitor. But sadly, we can’t use the monitor, as a result of they’re utilizing it for events.”
She stated that generally for the events the customers will nail banners to the picket monitor floor – an absolute sacrilege in monitor biking.
“It’s similar to they do not perceive what monitor is all about. Sometimes they put some nails within the monitor when they’re doing a celebration after which after we are driving, we’ve got accidents as a result of there are nails. You have a puncture and also you crash as a result of they nailed the monitor.
“We may have lots to find out about that as a result of I feel if individuals got here right here right now to look at, they are going to know that this monitor just isn’t meant for events. It’s not meant for different events.”
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