Van der Poel pleads guilty to assault charge on eve of World Championships road race

By Sports Desk September 26, 2022

Mathieu van der Poel has pleaded guilty to the common assault of two teenage girls in Sydney on the eve of the UCI Road World Championships finale.

The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider was charged on two counts after an altercation with the pair, aged 13 and 14, whom he alleges to have been knocking on his hotel room door.

He was further fined 1,500 AUD (£909), though he has been allowed to leave the country following the return of his passport.

Van der Poel, who was taken into custody by New South Wales Police, intends to appeal against the conviction, according to his lawyer Michael Bowe.

"We went through the relevant events that occurred, he was arrested by police, was interviewed by police and said certain things to the police," he told Reuters.

"Mathieu agreed with some of those allegations. On discussing it was agreed he should plead guilty."

Belgium's Remco Evenepoel went on to win th World Championship on Sunday. Van der Poel, among the pre-race favourites, withdrew with 230 kilometres to go.

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    Kenny won team pursuit and omnium gold at both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games and madison gold at the 2020 Olympics, where she also won a silver medal in the team pursuit.

     

    She is a seven-time world champion and 14-time European champion, won two Commonwealth Games titles and was British National Road Race champion in 2014.

    Kenny said the “absolute highlight” of her career was the 2012 Games in London, during which her relationship with Jason also became public.

    “I never thought I would go to a home Games, let alone go on to win two gold medals,” she said.

    “When I look back, I’m like ‘wow, those two weeks did really change my life’.”

    Tributes poured in following Kenny’s announcement, with former Olympic heptathlon champion Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill writing on Instagram: “Laura what an incredible career you have had!

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    Kenny, made a Dame in the 2021 New Year’s Honours, hopes to be at this summer’s Paris Olympics “in some capacity” and wants to stay involved with the GB cycling team.

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    Kenny won the team pursuit and omnium double at both London 2012 and Rio 2016, under her maiden name Laura Trott, and when she and Katie Archibald won the Madison at Tokyo 2020 she became the first British woman to win gold at three separate Games.

    Silver in the team pursuit also meant she won multiple medals at three successive Games, a feat matched by only Charlotte Dujardin among British women – the equestrian star has three gold, a silver and two bronze to her name.

    That team pursuit was, remarkably, the first time Kenny had entered an Olympic event and not won gold. A subsequent sixth place in the omnium and the decision not to continue to Paris this summer leaves her final medal count at five golds and one silver.

    She ends her career with seven World Championship, 13 European Championship and two Commonwealth Games gold medals, and 42 total medals across those events and the Olympics.

    Jason Kenny

    If Laura Kenny is Britain’s highest-achieving female Olympian, her husband holds the overall national record.

    Jason Kenny won gold in the team sprint at three straight Olympics, from Beijing 2008 through to Rio. He doubled up with the individual sprint in London and made it a treble in Rio with the keirin.

    Winning the latter event in Tokyo gave him a British-record seventh gold, taking him ahead of his long-time sprint team-mate Sir Chris Hoy.

    Silver in the individual sprint in Beijing and the team event in Tokyo gives him nine Olympic medals in total – one ahead of Sir Bradley Wiggins as the leading Briton, with Hoy on seven.

    Jason Kenny won 28 major medals in total, with three additional golds at the World Championships and one at the European Championships.

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