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Nigerian Ese Ukpeseraye may need been useless final within the Paris Olympic Video games monitor biking qualifying occasion for ladies’s Particular person Dash on Friday, however contemplating she hadn’t educated on a velodrome for greater than a yr and was using 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 spend money on monitor biking.
Ukpeseraye stated she was so stunned by the point that she felt as pleased as if she had gained the race.
“I used to be very pleased as a result of within the flying lap, I’ve by no means performed an 11 [second lap] earlier than. I at all times do 12, generally 13,” Ukpeseraye instructed 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, and so they did 11 like me as nicely. So I used to be very, very pleased, as if I’m the one which gained.
“If I ready for it, I’d do a lot better. As a result of I by no means educated 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 street 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 staff 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 staff hadn’t packed any monitor bikes. In stepped the German staff, who had beforehand helped out Ukpeseraye’s staff within the 2022 UCI Monitor World Championships once they didn’t have aero bars for the Crew Pursuit.
This time, Ukpeseraye obtained to trip 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 Dash warmth.
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“The bike was unbelievable,” she stated. “There are occasions once they offer you a brand new bike to race, and you will see that it troublesome as a result of you haven’t been coaching with it and are usually not used to it. However 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 quite a bit, as a result of they observed that I’m in want and so they have been in a position to help me.”
Ukpeseraye isn’t new to trace biking, having raced an uncommon number of occasions together with the Crew Pursuit, Crew Dash, 500-metre time trial, Keirin and Omnium in worldwide competitors, however has solely raced Particular person Dash on the Continental Championships, and never usually.
Her outcomes don’t mirror her apparent expertise, nevertheless, as a result of whereas Nigeria has a wood velodrome in one of the costly sports activities stadiums on the planet, the power has a historical past of neglect. Though it was refurbished in recent times, 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 objective.
“We now have a really lovely monitor. Our monitor is the perfect in Africa, however we don’t use it. They don’t give us the permission,” Ukpeseraye stated.
“Generally we’ve got competitors and we wish to practice within the velodrome however there’s a social gathering there and so they say we can not use it, so we take our bikes and we go dwelling. Once we wished to go to Glasgow for the World Championship, we’ve got to be coaching on the monitor. However sadly, we can not 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 wood monitor floor – an absolute sacrilege in monitor biking.
“It’s similar to they don’t perceive what monitor is all about. Generally they put some nails within the monitor when they’re doing a celebration after which after we are using, we’ve got accidents as a result of there are nails. You may have a puncture and also you crash as a result of they nailed the monitor.
“We can have quite a bit to study that as a result of I feel if folks got here right here right now to look at, they may know that this monitor isn’t meant for events. It’s not meant for different events.”
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