Women’s Team Pursuit
Great Britain may have missed out on defending their title in the men’s team pursuit but the women’s team came through with the gold medal, soundly beating New Zealand.
The gold medal race started with the two teams separated by milliseconds in the first 2km, but Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight and Anna Morris turned on the afterburners in the final kilometre and powered away from the Kiwis to win by 4.5 seconds.
Barker came back from maternity leave this year to join her younger sister Meg and former schoolmate Morris in the team and it paid off with a victory in front of a rousing cheer from the home crowd.
“It was amazing,” Barker said. “When you win the pain in your legs just disappears – it’s a magical experience. At the time it was an absolute blur of pain and it was absolute relief to get to the line.
“Josie’s turn at the end was so long and so smooth I felt like I almost recovered and wanted to start the celebration.
“This is such a rare opportunity. The last time we had a home Worlds was London 2016. It doesn’t come around often. We missed out then, we messed up in the qualifying. The chance to win at home – I’m just happy we did it.”
The bronze medal final was a much closer affair, with France topping Italy by just 0.275 seconds.
Great Britain’s gold-medal effort was propelled by a raucous home crowd in Glasgow, with hometown rider Archibald the centre of most of the love from the crowd.
The Glaswegian lost her partner Rab Wardell last August to cardiac arrest. She and Wardell had hoped to both compete in the event that has made Glasgow the world centre of cycling with the unified championships.
“Rab was so involved in this Championships and this dream of a home worlds. He had such a love for sport on two wheels and for Glasgow that’s what this whole event is about,” Archibald told the BBC last week.
Archibald understandably skipped the post-pursuit media interviews, with the British federation saying she will not talk to media until after the Omnium.
Men’s Team Pursuit
Denmark regained the top spot in the men’s team pursuit with a commanding performance against Italy. Niklas Larsen, Lasse Leth (neé Norman Hansen), Carl-Frederik Bévort and Rasmus Pedersen delivered a stinging blow to the defending Olympic champions, covering the 4km in the Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow in 3:45.161, 2.235 seconds…
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