In several Global Keirin articles lately, we have reflected on the relative strengths and weaknesses of different countries. Some boast dozens of international-class riders; some literally only have one. So we wondered… how many riders show up at each country’s National Championships?
The necessary data is – or certainly should be – published in Dataride, the UCI’s database of riders and results. But the UCI website only offers certain views of the data. If you wanted to analyse it from another angle, you’d have to draw it down and do it yourself. So we did. 😇
A few things jump out:
- The strength of Great Britain: it had the largest total combined entry across the 4 events, with 49 men in the sprint, and 22 women in keirin, both the biggest entries in the world for those races last year. Second is China, and third is India, two countries with populations well over a billion – and approximately 22x more than GB.
- India, Brazil, Iran and Pakistan all show high total turnouts, without yet translating that participation into global success.
- Based on the Dataride information, only one woman showed up for the national sprint championships in Barbados (Amber Joseph), South Africa (Amber Hindmarch) and Suriname (Tachana Dalger). Joseph and Dalger were also unopposed in keirin.
- There seem to have been four national keirin titles – Israel men, and women in Serbia, Norway and Uzbekistan – where only two riders participated. The dynamics of those races must have been a little odd. And of course: if anyone else had shown up, they would have taken home a medal.
- There are a remarkable number of zeroes in this table – where a country literally has no men, or no women sprinters, or perhaps no championship event. Bulgaria, Denmark, Israel, Jamaica, Slovenia, Switzerland and Uruguay don’t seem to have had either a sprint or keirin competition for women. Barbados, Serbia and Suriname have no male sprint or keirin champions. Belgium didn’t hold a keirin event?
- And then there are the countries who aren’t listed at all. Apart from South Africa, there are no African results listed. Quite a few countries held national championships for endurance events, but no sprints. Mexico and Egypt have submitted 2026 championship results, so maybe it was a data entry issue.
| Country | M Sprint | M Keirin | F Sprint | F Keirin | UCI pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇺 Australia | 18 | 16 | 13 | 13 | Link |
| 🇧🇧 Barbados | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Link |
| 🇧🇪 Belgium | 12 | 0 | 5 | 0 | Link |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | 28 | 11 | 9 | 7 | Link |
| 🇧🇬 Bulgaria | 20 | 12 | 0 | 0 | Link |
| 🇨🇦 Canada | 20 | 14 | 10 | 9 | Link |
| 🇨🇱 Chile | 15 | 16 | 7 | 6 | Link |
| 🇨🇳 China | 27 | 23 | 25 | 19 | Link |
| 🇨🇴 Colombia | 18 | 18 | 11 | 11 | Link |
| 🇨🇿 Czechia | 9 | 8 | 4 | 5 | Link |
| 🇩🇰 Denmark | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | Link |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | 16 | 13 | 5 | 9 | Link |
| 🇫🇷 France | 21 | 21 | 8 | 9 | Link |
| 🇬🇧 Great Britain | 49 | 15 | 16 | 22 | Link |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 14 | 13 | 7 | 6 | Link, Link |
| 🇬🇷 Greece | 23 | 14 | 7 | 0 | Link |
| 🇭🇰 Hong Kong | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | Link |
| 🇭🇺 Hungary | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | Link |
| 🇮🇳 India | 25 | 18 | 19 | 15 | Link |
| 🇮🇷 Iran | 11 | 12 | 17 | 9 | Link |
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | 10 | 10 | 5 | 5 | Link |
| 🇮🇱 Israel | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Link |
| 🇯🇲 Jamaica | 8 | 6 | 0 | 0 | Link |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | 24 | 17 | 9 | 6 | Link |
| 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan | 9 | 10 | 6 | 11 | Link |
| 🇰🇷 Korea | 24 | 23 | 11 | 13 | Link |
| 🇲🇾 Malaysia | 7 | 7 | 4 | 6 | Link |
| 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 9 | 10 | 5 | 6 | Link |
| 🇳🇴 Norway | 6 | 6 | 2 | 2 | Link |
| 🇳🇿 New Zealand | 11 | 11 | 5 | 5 | Link |
| 🇵🇰 Pakistan | 17 | 9 | 10 | 5 | Link |
| 🇵🇾 Paraguay | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | Link |
| 🇵🇪 Peru | 6 | 7 | 0 | 10 | Link |
| 🇵🇱 Poland | 13 | 11 | 10 | 11 | Link |
| 🇷🇴 Romania | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | Link |
| 🇿🇦 South Africa | 11 | 7 | 1 | 3 | Link |
| 🇸🇮 Slovenia | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Link |
| 🇷🇸 Serbia | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | Link |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 13 | 12 | 0 | 0 | Link, Link |
| 🇸🇷 Suriname | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Link |
| 🇹🇭 Thailand | 4 | 11 | 3 | 5 | Link |
| 🇹🇼 Chinese Taipei | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | Link |
| 🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago | 9 | 10 | 4 | 4 | Link |
| 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 10 | 14 | 7 | 11 | Link |
| 🇺🇾 Uruguay | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Link |
| 🇺🇸 United States | 24 | 18 | 12 | 11 | Link |
| 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan | 5 | 7 | 4 | 2 | Link |
| 🇻🇪 Venezuela | 12 | 6 | 6 | 7 | Link |
This analysis has been produced and published in good faith by Global Keirin, based on data published online by the UCI. We can’t rule out the possibility of human error in our processing: please let us know if you see an issue. Incorrect uploading of individual events, or omissions from the Dataride database are beyond our control.
