The resurgence of Chinese sprinting under head coach Benoît Vêtu continued in Hong Kong, with victory for Yuan Liying in the women’s keirin event at the second round of the UCI Track World Cup.
The former flying 200 world record holder, who turned 21 earlier in the week, went unbeaten on the day – just as she had done a month earlier in claiming the Asian continental title.
In the final, she moved to the front of the bunch with two laps remaining, drawing a reaction from Emma Finucane. The British rider opened up a small gap, but Yuan kicked out of corner two on the last lap, and emerged from corner four in the lead, with Iana Burlakova in her slipstream. Finucane held on for third.
UCI > Track World Cup > 2026 > Round 2
Final
| Details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Velodrome | Hong Kong | ||
| Date | 19 Apr 2026 | ||
| UCI Track World Cup 2026 Round 2 : Final | |||
| Result | |||
| Pos | Nat | Rider | |
| 1 | CHN | Yuan Liying | |
| 2 | AIN | Iana Burlakova | |
| 3 | GBR | Emma Finucane | |
| 4 | CHN | Wang Lijuan | |
| 5 | COL | Stefany Cuadrado | |
| 6 | JPN | Mina Sato | |
Yuan recently climbed into the world’s top ten, having won every sprint or keirin competition she has entered in the past 12 months, apart from the Track World Cup round in Perth, where she had to make do with third.
Vêtu returned to lead the Chinese team a year ago, after eight years in charge in Japan – a period which didn’t deliver the Olympic success they hoped for, but produced world championships for Kento Yamasaki, Mina Sato and Kazushige Kuboki, Japan’s first rainbow stripes in almost 40 years.
His commitment this time is to deliver gold at the Los Angeles Olympics in two years time: and he clearly isn’t hanging around.
Chinese sprinting is back in a big way: Yuan made history with a sub-10 second 200, and the Chinese team dominated the Asian continental championships last month, taking two of the top four places in men’s sprint, men’s keirin, women’s sprint and women’s keirin, winning three.
