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Corporate filing confirms Pope’s exit as director
An update to the UK company records for DerbyWheel Player Ltd confirms that CEO James Pope is severing ties with the project, as reported by Global Keirin a few weeks ago. Pope’s resignation as a director of the company was notified to Companies House, the UK’s corporate register on 23 July. The submission consists only…
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Foreign riders will return to Japanese keirin in 2026
Japanese keirin is preparing to re-open its doors to international riders, for the first time since the Covid pandemic. MoreCadence is reporting a decision by the JKA that the ‘short-term registration system’, suspended in 2020, will be revived. (There’s nothing on the JKA website yet, though.) They propose to hold a Keirin World Series, consisting…
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Rare defeat for the king of Korean keirin
Im Chae-Bin, who had won every race he had entered thus far in 2025, was beaten by his biggest rival Jeong Jong-Jin in Sunday’s special final of the King of Kings event, second only to the year-end Grand Prix in the Korean calendar. It brought an end to 33-year-old Im Chae-Bin’s latest winning streak, 39…
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LinkedIn edit hints at CEO Pope’s exit from DerbyWheel
Has chief executive officer James Pope parted company with DerbyWheel? Pope’s profile on LinkedIn, which has recently been his platform of choice for professional communication, has been edited in recent days, adding an end date of May 2025 for his role as DerbyWheel CEO. Pope has made no announcement regarding the change; and there have…
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DerbyWheel CEO increases commitment to US racing series
DerbyWheel’s James Pope is to extend his engagement with StadioBike, a separate initiative to bring bike racing events to US motorsport circuits. StadioBike announced that Pope would be joining its ownership team, along with former pro cyclist Kristin Labonte. He had previously been engaged with StadioBike as an advisor. The StadioBike concept appears to have…
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Lavreysen triumphant on his home streets
The fastest man in the world, Harrie Lavreysen returned to the streets of his home village for a Monday evening of sprint competition against his fellow Dutch stars – and a guest from Great Britain, none other than Matthew Richardson. The village, with a reported population of around 3,500 welcomed a crowd of over 7,000…
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DerbyWheel pushes launch timeline back a further 6 months
Global Keirin’s website monitor has picked up another quiet update to the DerbyWheel website, once again delaying the launch of the proposed world keirin series. Edits to the derbywheel.com calendar page in the last 24 hours now propose a date of ‘2nd half of 2025 (TBC)’ for an exhibition race, still taking place at the…
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Michael Johnson’s athletics startup cancels final event
Grand Slam Track, the startup athletics series led by Olympic legend Michael Johnson, has announced the conclusion of its inaugural season, one meet ahead of schedule. The competition’s final event, set to take place in Los Angeles at the end of June, was cancelled with only two weeks notice. “The decision is not taken lightly,”…
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Management change at DerbyWheel corporate entity
DJ Hyun, President of DerbyWheel Incorporated, has been added as a Director of its UK-based company, DerbyWheel Player Limited, alongside DerbyWheel CEO James Pope. The appointment of Hyun as a Director was filed electronically on May 12, with the change reportedly made on May 9. The templated statement indicates only that ‘the person named has…
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History of foreign riders in Japanese keirin
The official website of Japanese keirin lists a total of 131 ‘foreign’ riders, invited to race in Japan by the JKA. Four have no results showing – so we’ll call it 127. None are listed as currently ‘active’. There are 111 men, starting with Theo Smit and Gary Sutton making their debut appearances in 1990,…
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How Japan’s cherished sumo has embraced foreign talent
Japanese keirin is a sport guided by history and tradition; but Japan’s sumo wrestling measures its history in centuries rather than decades. The first written mentions of sumo go as far back as the year 712; it became a professionalised spectator sport in the 1600s. As Sam Ellis explains in a recent video for Search…
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Finucane leads British invasion at Gent
The strength-in-depth of the Great Britain women’s sprint programme was on show in Gent this weekend, at the prestigious Belgian Track International. No fewer than four GB riders lined up for Sunday’s final of the women’s keirin, with Emma Finucane coming out on top ahead of Lea Sophie Friedrich and Lauren Bell, with further British…
