UCI track world championships 1947

The 37th UCI Track World Championships took place in Paris from July 26th to August 3rd, 1947 . This was the sixth time that the French capital hosted the World Railroad Championships; the World Cup began a week after the end of the Tour de France .

A total of athletes from 21 nations took part (including the participants in the road world championships). German athletes were not at the start.

At these world championships, the 39-year-old Belgian Jef Scherens won his seventh world champion title among professional sprinters. In the finals, however, there were "scandalous incidents": Scherens had won the first run, he fell in the second, so that it was repeated, which Gérardin won again. When Scherens then asked for a ten-minute break because of the fall, Gérardin refused. Thereupon Scherens protested against the valuation of the second run due to obstruction, the commissioners decided to repeat it. During this run Scherens was pelted with objects by the rioting audience. Gérardin then stopped the run and tried to calm the audience down using the microphone. With a thunderous concert of whistles, the run was finally repeated and Scherens won. Now, however, Gérardin protested against his evaluation, Scherens was nevertheless declared world champion; there was no award ceremony, however, because he had to get to safety from the angry crowd. A few days later, Scherens publicly made his title available and called on Gérardin to take revenge. But it did not come to that: Scherens was presented with his world championship jersey by the mayor of his hometown Leuven at the end of September .

There was a general complaint about the lack of young talent among professional sprinters: The stars from the pre-war era, Arie van Vliet, Louis Gérardin and Scherens, continued to dominate the competitions. Albert Richter's "martyrdom" left a painful void internationally.

Results of the professional drivers

discipline	space	country	athlete	Time / distance
Air races over 1000 m	1	Belgium	Jef Scherens
	2	France	Louis Gérardin
	3	France	Georges Senfftleben
Standing race	1	France	Raoul Lesueur
over 100 km	2	France	Jean-Jacques Lamboley
	3	Netherlands	Jan Pronk
Single pursuit over 5000 m	1	Italy	Fausto Coppi	6: 16.2 min
	2	Italy	Antonio Bevilacqua	(105 m)
	3	Switzerland	Hugo Koblet	6: 26.6 min

Results of the amateurs

discipline	space	country	athlete	Time / distance
Flying races	1	United Kingdom	Reg Harris
over 1000 m	2	Netherlands	Cor Bijster
	3	France	Henri Sensever
Single pursuit over 4000 m	1	Italy	Arnaldo Benfenati	5.20.4 min
	2	Uruguay	Atilio François Baldi	(80 m)
	3	Denmark	Knud E. Andersen

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Illustrated Cycling Express , September 12, 1947
2. ↑ The Illustrated Cycling Express , November 18, 1947. Richter was allegedly murdered in 1940 by the Gestapo.

literature

• Illustrated cycling express , July / August 1947