Motor Racing

DERICK ALLSOP
reports from NurburgringDavid Coulthard, steadfastly declining to mention the name McLaren-Mercedes in discussions about his future, has to wait his turn in the sequence of driver announcements, while Eddie Irvine begins acclimatising to the prospect of life at Ferrari and Martin Brundle prepares for a move to Jordan-Peugeot.However, there is one significant consequence of Coulthard’s departure from Williams-Renault to McLaren – it will become official five hours before Sunday’s Grand Prix of Europe here – that the young Scot cannot ignore. The United States won the bronze medal, beating Spain by 652-thousandths of a second, with a time of 59.289sec.. The world No 1, Tony Rominger who set the record of 55.291 km (equivalent to 34.55 mph) in Bordeaux last November, rides in the opening session of the meeting.Jens Fiedler, Michael Hubner and Jan Van Eijden of Germany defeated the French trio of Benoit Vetu, Herve Thuet and Florian Rousseau to capture the Olympic sprint title The Germans won the 1km event in 58.098 sec. Minutes earlier, Spain’s Jose Manuel Moreno had broken the same record in 10.008sec. Three other riders also broke the 10-second barrier – Australia’s Darryn Hill (9.926sec) and Gary Neiwand (9.935) and France’s Frederic Magne (9.978) – but they were unable to equal Harnett’s lead.Obree will make a renewed assault on the world one-hour record – cycling’s blue riband event – during the Saturday session of the two-day meeting at the Manchester Velodrome on 13 to 14 October.

“The atmosphere was not so good after the rain and the temperature dropped very quickly,” said Obree, who holds the world record at 4:20.894.Canada’s Curt Harnett, however, managed to set a world record in the men’s 200 metres sprint yesterday when he became the first man to break the 10-second barrier with a time of 9.865sec. “I didn’t know I had won until I crossed the finish line and saw the clock He [Collinelli] is very difficult to race against. He keeps coming back at you.”Obree’s final time of 4min 24.182sec was considerably slower than his 4:22.917 in the semi-final, which he blamed on rain which fell between the two races and ruined any chance of a new world record. After winning the event, Obree said repeated his intention to sue the WCU for that disqualification.The Scot started badly, trailing by 0.3sec after two laps, but closed the gap and then opened up a large lead after the half-way mark.

He then had stave off a late challenge by the Italian, which faded in the last two laps.”It was very hard,” he said. The WCU had previously told him his downhill-skier position was against the rules of the sport. Cycling

Graeme Obree, disqualified last year because of his riding style, hit back by powering to the men’s individual 4,000 metres pursuit title at the World Championships in Bogota, Colombia.
Obree, who had won the title in 1993, beat Italy’s Andrea Collinelli by one-and-a-half seconds in a dramatic final on Wednesday evening which saw the lead change hands five times.The 30-year-old British champion, who will challenge for the world hour record at the Superdrome 2 meeting in Manchester next month, had earlier beaten Philippe Ermenault, of France, in the semi-finals in a repeat of the 1993 final.The win made up for the disappointment of last year’s championship, when he was disqualified on the first day after the World Union ruled his style was illegal. But it’s going to work both ways: I’m full of ideas to take Gloucester forward and I’ve no doubt whatsoever that this club – one of the greatest in the land, don’t forget – has the capacity to regain its former eminence.”. “If I want to coach at representative level, then I have to have regular experience of coaching at a top club. He is also assistant coach of England A, the chief coach being none other than the same Keith Richardson who preceded him at Kingsholm.Hence Hill’s need, as soon as he had terminated his association with Bath, to find an alternative that could assist him in his entirely proper ambition. “There is a fantastic rugby culture in Gloucester, unequalled anywhere in England, and I appreciate I need to exploit that to the full.