Keirin – Wikipedia

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Keirin in Canada, July 2006.

Keirin (From Jap. Bicycle race , Keirin , German “bike race”) is a discipline of the train wheel sport. It is a variant of the sprint from Japan; It is also known as a “combat sprint”.

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Keirin was introduced in Japan in 1948 as a competition; The income from the bets was intended for the reconstruction after the Second World War.

In 1980 Keirin was included in the program of UCI Railway World Championships for male professionals, and since 1993 the competition for the men’s elite category has been held. In 2002, World Championships also became category Women elite introduced.

Keirin has been an Olympic cycling competition for men since 2000. At the 2012 Olympic Games, medals were awarded for the first time in a Keirin competition for women.

Research over which the BBC reported in 2008 suggest that the Japanese Keirin Foundation (JKA) of the Union Cyclist Internationale (UCI) paid three million dollars in the Olympic program for the inclusion of Keirin in the 1990s. [first]

According to the rules of the UCI, Keirin runs are usually held with six drivers over a distance of around 1500 meters. During the first half of the distance, a pacemaker runs on a Derny or on an electrically driven wheel in front of the field and slowly accelerates from approx. 30 km/h to a speed of about 50 km/h. After the pacemaker left the train after 750 meters, the actual final fight begins. Depending on the number of participants, Keirin is held in several tournament rounds. A previously defined number of participants will then reach the next round.

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Final sprint in a Japanese Keirin race

In Japan, the pacemaker also uses a racing bike, nine drivers start per run. More physical effort is also permissible than in races of the UCI. To protect against falls, the drivers carry a plastic tank under their colorful jerseys.

Today, around 15 billion euros in Japan are implemented in 40,000 races annually and the profits that are essentially based on sports betting are used to support the domestic bicycle industry. The races are held on 50 JKA cycling railways with over 4000 professional drivers.

In order to avoid betting manipulations by influencing the drivers, the drivers go to the exam during the competition phase: they live in special hotels in addition to bicycle and must not have any physical contact with the outside world. To get a driver license, you have to attend a ten-month “Keirin School” and take an exam. Equipment and clothing are prescribed. [2] The drivers themselves are divided into a four -stage performance system. The so-called “International Keirin series” takes place annually within the top races of the top performance class in spring, to which successful foreign racing drivers are invited. To adjust to the special rules, you too have to complete the “Keirin School” with examination for two weeks. With eleven participations, the Belgian Michel Vaarten is the foreigners with the most starts in the Japanese Keirin series. German starters were so far Dieter Giebken, Michael Hübner, Sören Lausberg, Jan van Eijden, Jens Fiedler and Stefan Nimke. [3]

The ten-time Japanese professional world champion in the sprint Kōichi Nakano won several times in the 1970s and 1980s with the local Keirin series. Internationally, however, he never started in Kyrin.

From 1949 to 1964, competitions for women were also held at the Keirin races in Japan. In 2012 the women’s competition was under the title Girl’s Keirin reintroduced. Like the men, women have to go through the Keirin School. In 2014, the German driver Miriam Welte was invited to participate alongside Spaniard Helena Casas. [4]

Men [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Women [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

  1. ↑ Matt McGrath: Cycling cash linked to Olympics. In: BBC News website. British Broadcasting Corporation, 27. Juli 2008, accessed on April 2, 2011 (English).
  2. ↑ The translation on the wheels is set to <55: 12–16, see Kai-K. Sawabe/Bertram Job: Keirin , Limburg 1996, S. 20
  3. ↑ Martina Kasprzak: “Ceelled as if in jail”. In: Schweriner Volkszeitung. Zeitungslag Schwerin GmbH & Co. KG, archived from Original am 15. August 2007 ; accessed on December 8, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Achim Dreis: Bicycle driver’s license for combat sprinter. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, April 3, 2014, accessed on April 7th, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Referred to in the UCI palmarès as a Brit.
  6. ↑ The original winner of the bronze medal in Kyrin, Barry Fors from Barbados, was subsequently disqualified due to doping.
  7. ↑ UCI Doping news. In: Cyclingnews.com. December 1, 2003 ; (English).

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