Hetty van de Wouw has already made history this week: breaking her own world record for the kilometre time trial twice on Saturday, to win her third gold medal at the UCI’s world championships in Santiago.

On Sunday, she has the opportunity to go beyond that: no woman has ever won gold in all four ‘sprint’ events – individual sprint, team sprint, time trial (500m or 1km) and keirin – at a single world championships.

But it’s going to be a busy day, with the winner needing to do four races – possibly five, if she needs a repechage – in less than five hours. The men had a gap of a few hours between the afternoon and evening sessions: but there’s no extended break for the women.

There are six first round heats, some with 5 riders, some with 6, starting at 11.08am local time (2.08pm UK, 11.08pm Tokyo). Clocks in Europe went back an hour overnight, hence the change to the time difference compared to earlier this week.

The first two from each heat will go directly to the quarter finals: everyone else goes again in the repechages.

Outgoing world champion Mina Sato goes in the first heat: she took silver in the individual sprint earlier this week, but keirin is her event. In domestic Japanese racing this year, she has 4 overall wins from 4 meetings. Stefany Cuadrado has had a curious worlds, failing to make the quarters of the individual sprint, coming seventh in the kilo – and even riding in team pursuit.

Alina Lysenko will line up against Lea Sophie Friedrich; the Individual Neutral Athlete beat the German two-time world keirin champion in their sprint quarter-final on Thursday. Nikola Sibiak is in good form, winning her national title last month.

van de Wouw lines up with 2023 world champion Ellesse Andrews in her first round heat, but don’t overlook Alessa-Catriona Pröpster.

Miriam Vece and Iana Burlakova are the stand-out names in the first heat of six. Vece is ranked no4 in the world, but she tends to get her best results in sprint rather than keirin. Burlakova won the European sprint title in February, but was only 8th in keirin; she got some good results racing in Japan and Hong Kong earlier this year. Veronika Jaborníková‘s ranking of 11 is more due to her busy race schedule, than stand-out results.

Asian champion Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri goes in heat five. She faces Emma Finucane, whose sprint competition ended with a relegation in the decider of her quarter final against Burlakova; and Sarah Orban, who needs a good performance to close out her year.

Lauriane Genest won her second Panamerican keirin title in April, but hasn’t raced a ranking event since. Mathilde Gros has been working with former Dutch team coach Mehdi Kordi, away from the French team’s Paris base, following a disappointing home Olympics. Lauren Bell won against a very strong field in Cottbus over the summer, but was only fourth in Barcelona a month ago.

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Sprint event winners at UCI World Championships

Women’s Team Sprint was added to the UCI world championship programme in 2007: it was a two-woman event until 2021. The Time Trial event was 500m for women until 2025, when it was increased to match the men’s distance of 1000m.

Year	Team Sprint	Sprint	Time Trial	Keirin
2007	Pendleton, Reade 🇬🇧	Pendleton 🇬🇧	Meares 🇦🇺	Pendleton 🇬🇧
2008	Pendleton, Reade 🇬🇧	Pendleton 🇬🇧	Guerra 🇨🇺	Reed 🇺🇸
2009	Meares, McCulloch 🇦🇺	Pendleton 🇬🇧	Krupeckaite 🇱🇹	Guo 🇨🇳
2010	Meares, McCulloch 🇦🇺	Pendleton 🇬🇧	Meares 🇦🇺	Krupeckaite 🇱🇹
2011	Meares, McCulloch 🇦🇺	Meares 🇦🇺	Panarina 🇧🇾	Meares 🇦🇺
2012	Vogel, Welte 🇩🇪	Pendleton 🇬🇧	Meares 🇦🇺	Meares 🇦🇺
2013	Vogel, Welte 🇩🇪	James 🇬🇧	Lee 🇭🇰	James 🇬🇧
2014	Vogel, Welte 🇩🇪	Vogel 🇩🇪	Welte 🇩🇪	Vogel 🇩🇪
2015	Gong, Zhong 🇨🇳	Vogel 🇩🇪	Voinova 🇷🇺	Meares 🇦🇺
2016	Shmeleva, Voinova 🇷🇺	Zhong 🇨🇳	Voinova 🇷🇺	Vogel 🇩🇪
2017	Shmeleva, Voinova 🇷🇺	Vogel 🇩🇪	Shmeleva 🇷🇺	Vogel 🇩🇪
2018	Vogel, Welte, Grabosch 🇩🇪	Vogel 🇩🇪	Welte 🇩🇪	Degrendele 🇧🇪
2019	McCulloch, Morton 🇦🇺	Lee 🇭🇰	Shmeleva 🇷🇺	Lee 🇭🇰
2020	Grabosch, Hinze, Friedrich 🇩🇪	Hinze 🇩🇪	Friedrich 🇩🇪	Hinze 🇩🇪
2021	Grabosch, Hinze, Friedrich 🇩🇪	Hinze 🇩🇪	Friedrich 🇩🇪	Friedrich 🇩🇪
2022	Grabosch, Hinze, Friedrich 🇩🇪	Gros 🇫🇷	Kouamé 🇫🇷	Friedrich 🇩🇪
2023	Grabosch, Hinze, Friedrich 🇩🇪	Finucane 🇬🇧	Hinze 🇩🇪	Andrews 🇳🇿
2024	Capewell, Finucane, Marchant 🇬🇧	Finucane 🇬🇧	Burlakova	Sato 🇯🇵
2025	Kalee, van de Wouw, van der Peet 🇳🇱	van de Wouw 🇳🇱	van de Wouw 🇳🇱	???