The Great Britain Cycling Team’s Laura Kenny, Katie Archibald and Ollie Wood all collected their second medals of the week on day three of the UEC European Track Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, with Kenny winning silver in the women’s omnium, Wood winning bronze in the men’s omnium and Archibald claiming bronze in the individual pursuit.
Kenny, who won team pursuit gold yesterday, got her omnium off to the perfect start, winning the scratch race before finishing tenth in the tempo race and third in the elimination. This left her in second place overall, just four points behind home favourite Kirsten Wild, going into the final event. It was a closely fought battle between the two reigning world and Olympic champions in the points race, with Wild ultimately taking the gold medal by two points, despite a brave attack by Kenny on the final lap. Tatsiana Sharakova won bronze.
Reflecting on her omnium result, Kenny said: “I’m a bit disappointed to be honest, I always race to win so anything less than that and I’m not happy! But fair play to Kirsten – she had a great race today. I’m looking forward to getting back to the hotel now, and getting my focus set on Sunday’s Madison.”
In the individual pursuit, fellow team pursuit gold medallist Katie Archibald posted a time of 3:31.602 to win the bronze medal in a close race against Ireland’s Kelly Murphy. Germany took the top two spots of the podium, with Franziska Brausse winning gold and team mate Lisa Brennauer winning silver. Great Britain’s Elinor Barker finished in seventh place.
Archibald said: “The exhaustion of racing always makes my head go funny. I’m proud of my bronze medal but the only thing I can think clearly about is how excited I am for the Madison on Sunday.”
In the men’s omnium, Wood got off to a solid start, recording a fifth place in the opening scratch race and fourth in the tempo race. Wood finished fourth again in the elimination race, which placed him in third place overall going into the final event of the omnium. Wood started the points race well but started to see his grasp on a medal slip with ten laps to go. However, a strong and tactically astute final sprint saw him cement his place on the podium with a bronze medal. France’s Benjamin Thomas won gold, and Lasse Norman Hansen, the London 2012 Olympic champion, took silver.
Wood said: “I’m pretty happy with bronze as it was a fairly stacked field. To perform well in the team pursuit as well was a bonus as it can be a bit of a juggling act sometimes and hopefully we can finish on a high in the Madison too.”
Today’s results mean that Great Britain go into the weekend with a total of eight medals, after Emily Nelson won scratch race gold and elimination race silver, the women’s team pursuit quartet took gold, the men’s team sprinters took silver and the men’s team pursuit foursome won bronze earlier in the week.
Competition continues tomorrow, as Neah Evans and Ethan Hayter take on the respective points races, while Katy Marchant, Sophie Capewell, Jack Carlin and Olympic champion Jason Kenny all compete in the keirin.
The championships conclude on Sunday, when Kenny and Archibald join forces in the women’s Madison, and Matt Walls and Wood link up in the men’s event.
