News – More Rainbow Stripes for Golden Girl Trott

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Laura Trott leads the Great Britain medal charge on Thursday night with Gold whilst there was Silver for the Team Pursuit & Bronze for Becky James

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News – More Rainbow Stripes for Golden Girl Trott

If there is one athlete Great Britain can rely on for success it’s Laura Trott. She is quite simply a stunning track rider, a level above anyone of her generation and her win in the Scratch race was just such an example of that.

But it wasn’t all about Laura Trott on Thursday night. The Men’s Team Pursuit went within a lap of clinching Gold in the Team Pursuit whilst Becky James made a successful return to the track after a long spell out with injury to finish third in the Women’s Keirin.

WOMEN’S SCRATCH RACE
Laura Trott was yet again in stunning form on the track in London, sprinting to victory in the Women’s Scratch race and winning the country’s first medal of the championships, Gold. The multi-Olympic champion put the disappointment of the Team Pursuit qualifying ride behind her and did what she does best, winning.

Laura, winner of six World titles already in her young career, said “I’m so happy. I wasn’t feeling that good but it just worked out perfectly.”

The winning sprint came after a big effort to be in the mix when she bridged to the lead group with just two laps left. She made her move with four laps remaining, catching the five strong group almost single-handedly and was then to take full advantage of a handy lead-out from Canada’s Stephanie Roorda.

“It worked out perfectly for me. I’m so happy. I let everybody get on with it and raced my own race.”

“I’m celebrating on my own a little bit here. It’s much nicer to be with the (team pursuit) girls alongside me. It’s my second individual world title but I’ve kind of forgot what the omnium individual felt like.”

“To go out there and win, it gave me that buzz back and that nice feeling that I strive to achieve. I’m a racer. I would have gone into that race wanting to win, regardless what happened in the Team Pursuit. I just love racing in front of a home crowd”.

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MENS TEAM PURSUIT
A little later in the evening came yet another clash between Australia and Great Britain in the Team Pursuit. Honours are pretty much even between the countries when it comes to this event in the last 20 years with GB ahead on the latter Olympic results but the dog fight between them on Thursday night shows just how close it is.

Representing GB was Sir Bradley Wiggins, Owain Doull, Jon Dibben and Ed Clancy up against the Aussie foursome of Sam Welsford, Michael Hepburn, Callum Scotson and Miles Scotson. It was always going to be a mega clash but with the GB team still coming back to full strength after the injury to Clancy didn’t quite know how it was going to go.

The race was edge of the seat stuff, Australia gaining an early lead of just under a second, a lot to pull back at those speeds of over 60k an hour. But with Wiggin’s diesel engine keeping them in the game at the front and Ed Clancy’s speed bringing the gap down backed up by Doull and Dibben, GB hit the front late on but then, just when everyone was ready to celebrate, a gap opened up between Wiggins/Doull and Clancy.

On the line, Australia finished a second up to win the rainbow jerseys ahead of GB but the latter will be confident that with a fully fit Clancy and the power and endurance of Wiggins along with youngsters like Doull and Dibben having more time to progress, the team are in great shape for an Olympic Gold challenge.

Working for the BBC, Chris Boardman explained “there was half a lap to go and I think it was Ed Clancy who just couldn’t do it. It was a fast time by both teams, but the Australian’s were just consistent all the way through and had that extra depth. I was pleased with the way Britain managed their problems, but it wasn’t enough.”

Wiggins believes despite the defeat, GB can and will win in Rio: “I’ll put my house on it, I’ll say we’ll win in Rio now” he said to the BBC. “I’m confident and I just think we will. Look at our efforts individually from Christmas to where we are now. We’ve come on leaps and bounds and I think we’ll move on again for Rio.”

Wiggins went on to say to Sky Sports, “We try to put a brave face on and be sportsmanlike and tell them [Australia] congratulations. At the end of the day, we said it was going to take a 3min 52sec or close to the world record to win here, and they did that and we didn’t. Hats off to them. They are missing two strong riders from that team and to still post a time like that, a world-class time [is impressive].”

Meanwhile, whatever the result, the hero was Ed Clancy who had back surgery only 13 weeks ago to repair a slipped disc. “We have fast-tracked things pretty quickly and it’s fair to say we’re not flying” he explained, “but we’re not far off. I rode well there, but I just couldn’t quite hang on to Brad in the last lap. I did a good start, a good middle turn, but I didn’t expect that last turn.”

“I gave it everything in the middle of the race and hoped that Brad and Doull would take it to the finish, but they just came up a little bit short and I was left hanging on the last lap. I don’t know if we would have won if I had have hung on, but I couldn’t.”

Earlier in the day, Andy Tennant and Steven Burke combined with Wiggins and Doull, the only riders to do all three rounds, to beat Italy in the first round of the event and set up the final clash with Australia.

BECKY JAMES IS BACK
Another GB rider coming back from injury which has kept her out of the spotlight for a few years, Becky James, came out of the Women’s Keirin with a Bronze which was pretty stunning after the rough ride she had in the final.

Not only did Becky have to come back into the competition in the reps after the first round, but then battle her way through the second round to make the final for the medals.

In that final, the 2013 double world champion surged through on the inside on the final lap of the final to escape the box she was in at the back of the group to finish behind winner Kristina Vogel and Australia’s Anna Meares.

Becky, who is only 24, missed the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 World Championships through a knee injury, said afterwards “It just doesn’t feel real, I’m just over the moon to be back”.
“It’s been a tough road, the World Cups were tough for me this winter, but just to be back has been so good. I’ve seen improvements week in week out and managed to pull it out today.”

Other Events
In the Women’s Team Pursuit, a mega successful team, there was disappointment for Joanna Rowsell Shand, Laura Trott, Elinor Barker and Ciara Horne when they saw their hopes of a Gold medal end as they faded to finish in fifth place in qualifying. They are still in the hunt for a medal and given the fuss over their ‘defeat’ are sure to come back from the disappointment.

The quartet had been well placed at the 3000m point but a run of eight consecutive podium finishes at world championships – dating back to 2008 and including six world titles – could now be at risk. Great Britain will face China on Friday in round one where their fate will be decided.

USA qualified fastest with Canada second, New Zealand third and defending champions Australia fourth. After the race, Barker tweeted: “Took a big risk this morning, we were either going to qualify 1st or fall apart and unfortunately it was the latter. 5th in TP qualifying. Dreams of gold at a home worlds unfortunately over for us, but we’re still in contention for bronze and are not going down without a fight!”

In the Kilometre, Matt Crampton rode a personal best of 1:01.669 for fifth place. Germany’s Joachim Eilers won gold in 1:00.042, setting a new velodrome record whilst Dutch rider Theo Bos came back from the road where he has been racing to take silver with France’s Quentin Lafargue colleting bronze.

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VIDEOS

Laura Trott wins Scratch Race

Men’s Team Pursuit

Becky James and the Women’s Keirin Final

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