-
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,”…
-
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…
-
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,…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Awang: I hope comeback will inspire the people of Malaysia
Keirin legend Azizulhasni Awang posted a statement on X/Twitter following Saturday’s press conference, at which he announced his intention to keep riding, but outside the Malaysian team structure. The 37-year-old Pocket Rocketman admitted that he too had felt the Paris Olympics might be the end of his career; but having taken time to reflect, he…
-
Awang quits Malaysian national squad, but will ride on
Malaysian keirin superstar Azizulhasni Awang has announced that he will continue his career as a professional rider – but no longer with the country’s national squad. ‘I decided to return to being active in the cycling arena competitively, but the journey is a little different and I will not be with the national team,’ he…
-
Moving beyond DerbyWheel name and its baggage
When the figurehead of the DerbyWheel project to reinvent track cycling writes an article about reinventing track cycling, and doesn’t use the word DerbyWheel, that’s worth a closer look. For what it’s worth, we never liked the name DerbyWheel. Nobody would hear the name, and instantly associate it with bicycles or velodromes. Nobody searching online…
-
DerbyWheel’s Pope outlines plan to save track cycling
DerbyWheel CEO James Pope has published an article on LinkedIn describing ‘the initial 5 steps (he) would take to try and fix track cycling’, presenting Pro Keirin as the foundation of a pyramid supporting UCI events. With track cycling in something of a crisis, with the termination of the Track Champions League, and the failure…
-
A full year since the last DerbyWheel news update
It gives Global Keirin no pleasure whatsoever to note that today marks exactly one year since the last ‘news‘ article was posted on the DerbyWheel website. Regular readers will know we watch closely for any signs of life. CEO James Pope posted a video message on the homepage last June, confirming that there would be…
-
American velodrome series pushes launch back to 2026
TeamTrak Cycling League, the velodrome series which promised four United States arena events building to a championship event in October 2025, has quietly delayed its launch by twelve months. At some point in the last four weeks, TeamTrak’s website switched from announcing ‘coming 2025’, with a firm date and location for its season finale –…
-
Japanese keirin channel posts English language guide
The official YouTube channel for Japanese keirin has published a new guide to the experience of watching and placing bets at a keirin event. But for the first time, as far as we can tell, the video has been posted in both Japanese and English versions. Over the course of 10 minutes – with an…
