Havana, April 24 (RHC) – Cuban cyclist Marlies Mejías achieved 18th place in the Elimination race today during the opening of the third and final phase of the 2026 Track Cycling World Cup, held at the Nilai velodrome in Malaysia.
Marlies was the third athlete from the Americas to earn points (132) for the world ranking, which count towards the Olympic qualification process for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
The race was dominated by 34-year-old Norwegian Anita Stenberg, who earned 600 points. She was followed by multiple Pan American medalists, Yareli Acevedo (540) of Mexico, and Ireland’s Lara Gillespie, both 25 years old.
Among the 24 competitors who qualified for this final, American Emma Louise Jimenez (18) secured 10th place (270 points), and Canadian Lily Plante (25) finished 22nd (84 points).
The Elimination event is run until only two riders remain on the track to compete for the title. In each sprint, the last rider to cross the finish line is eliminated.
At the velodrome, with a capacity of two thousand spectators, Mejías finished eleventh in her qualifying heat of thirteen participants.
The rider for the UCI Women’s Team, the highest level of world road cycling, will compete again on Sunday in her preferred event, the omnium, in which she holds eighth place at the London 2012 Olympics and seventh at Rio de Janeiro 2016.
The last competition on the track in which Marlies participated was the Elite Pan American Championships held in Peñalolén, Santiago, Chile, where she won the silver medal in the Scratch race and fifth place in the omnium.
This Saturday, in Malaysia, the men will compete in the keirin and omnium, and the women in the Madison and individual sprint.
