ACOG - News - IBM

(24 July 1996; Day 05)

COLLINELLI Sets World Record as France Captures the Gold

Andrea COLLINELLI (ITA) set a world record twice today, first this morning at the men's individual pursuit quarterfinals with a time of 4:19.699 and then in the quarterfinals, beat his time by .546 time of 4:19.153 as he overtook his opponent, Andriy YATSENKO (UKR) on lap 15 of the quarterfinals. ROUSSEAU won the World Championships in kilometer in 1993 and 1994 as well as finishing second at the 1995 World Championships.

While COLLINELLI was celebrating victory, two other cyclists agonized with defeat at not advancing to the quarterfinals. The previous world record in cycling of 4:20.894 was set at the 1993 World Cycling Championships in Hamar, Norway by Graeme OBREE (GBR), who competed but did not advance to the quarterfinals. Kent BOSTICK (USA), who won a gold medal in the individual pursuit competition at the 1995 Pan American Games, also failed to qualify for the quarterfinals. "I gave them my best and this was the result.... I have to be satisfied with that.... Realistically, I probably won't be able to improve what I did today.... I gave it 100 percent...I don't feel bad," said BOSTICK.

Florian ROUSSEAU (FRA) knew he had hit a stroke of good fortune for himself and had won the gold in the men's 1km after Shane KELLY (AUS), the current World Record holder, had trouble with his pedals and did not complete the competition. An excited ROUSSEAU said, "When it happened, I thought it was something mechanical and would be able to start again. When I realized it wouldn't happen, I knew that I was the Olympic champion...." KELLY was the last of the 20 riders to compete, following race leader ROUSSEAU, who had just broken the Olympic Record with a time of 1:02:712. "I tightened my strap -- good. Then I tightened my left strap -- good.... I had 20 seconds left (before the start) and I was on time.... I blow out of the blocks and my left foot pulled out (of the strap).... By the time I got my foot back in -- one second, two seconds had passed. Too much time had gone," said a tearful KELLY. "I think it (gold medal) was in reach.... It was an Olympic dream shattered."

Competition at the Stone Mountain Velodrome will continue on Thursday with men's individual pursuit semifinals and finals, the women's individual pursuit qualification round, the second round of men's sprint and women's sprint finals.

This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Victoria St. Martin.


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The volunteer staff of the 1996 Olympic Games totaled 50,152. They worked an estimated 850,000 shifts.