Track Result: 2023 Derny Championship

Matthew Brennan and Anna Morris winners at the 2023 Derny Championships at Derby velodrome on September 23

Track Result: 2023 Derny Championship

Brennan and Morris claim National Derny titles in fine style
Thanks to Paul Gittings

Matthew Brennan and Anna Morris were crowned National Derny champions with emphatic performances at Derby Velodrome on Saturday night. Brennan, a double gold medallist at the world junior track championships earlier this year, claimed his first senior national title while the 28-year-old Morris was adding to her rapidly growing Palmares.

The event, promoted by VeloSpeed Coaching, attracted a strong entry, although a notable absentee on the day was GB rider Will Perrett through illness. That still left Brennan, who has recently been signed by the Jumbo Visma development team, and reigning champion Tom Ward and two-time former champion Matt Gittings as the favourites for honours in the men’s race.

Gittings, paced by George Gilbert, won the first heat over 15 kilometres with Brennan, Ward and Anthony Morris (Tony Hibbert) also going through to the final, with Andrew Brinkley (Tony Cassidy) the unlucky rider to miss out.

Brinkley later had the consolation of taking the feature scratch race on the supporting programme. Former National Derny silver medallist Olivier Mangham, Andrew Magnier (Stephen Bradbury), Alexander MacRae (Ian Fraser) and Adam Kenway (Phil Brown) made it through from a slightly slower second heat, won by Fenway. Special mention to Masters veteran Ian Cooper (Rob Muzio) who narrowly missed out but was also to the fore in the support events.

The final over 30km (120 laps) was a brutal affair, with Gittings charging through from eighth on the grid to hit the front early. Brennan, paced by Paul Curran, responded with a decisive counter- attack which only Ward, with Pip Taylor up front, could match. Successive laps with a peak speed of just shy of 69kph and several others at 66km saw Ward eventually dropped while Gittings was battling to get the better of Morris and Mangham, paced by James Holland-Leader, the 2013 champion as a rider.

Brennan continued to pull away for an unhindered victory with an average speed from gun to gun of a tad under 64kph, with Ward and Gittings completing the podium. Curran, a four-time winner of the UK Motor Pace championship among a host of other titles in his glittering cycling career (four time winner of the Lincoln Grand Prix), paid tribute to Brennan, who he first paced as a 12-year-old at Middlesbrough track.

“It’s onwards and upwards for him,” he posted on social media.

Morris, the doctor turned elite cyclist, was equally impressive in claiming the women’s title in a straight final. Part of the GB women’s team pursuit squad that took gold at the world championships in Glasgow, Morris showed her intent from the start of the 15km test, paced by fellow Welsh compatriot Pip Taylor.

She had company from Lucy Nelson, paced by Phil Brown, and last year’s champion Miriam Jessett, with Tim Read, who had been due to pace the unfortunate Perrett in the men’s competition. Morris eventually shrugged them off with a succession of laps just over 14 seconds with 20 to go, with only Nelson on the same lap by the finish and Jessett completing a strong defence of her title in third place.

Morris joins follows the path trodden by Laura Kenny, Katie Archibald and Neah Evans in taking the National Derny title in the early stages of her fledging career and will hope to match their incredible successes in the future.

Men’s Derny Championship
1 Matthew Brennan MAS Design – Fensham Howes
2 Tom Ward WardPerformanceUK
3 Matthew Gittings
4 Olivier Mangham Tekkerz CC
5 Anthony Morris VC Londres
6 Andrew Magnier Leek Cyclists Club
7 Alexander MacRae Ribble rechrg Race Team

Women’s Derny Championship
1 Anna Morris WardPerformanceUK
2 Lucy Nelson Team Spectra Cannondale
3 Miriam Jessett Jadan Vive le Velo Glasdon
4 Charlotte Parnham Storey Racing
5 Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne Team Boompods
6 Laura Davies Jadan Vive le Velo Glasdon

… Continued after the advert …

Men’s Grand Prix Elimination
1 David Brearley Squadra RT
2 Alistair Rutherford Secret-Training
3 Thomas Adby Velo Club Venta
4 Samuel Thomas Contiki Velo Bavarian RT
5 Oliver Hambrey Team Huub
6 Jack Johnson
7 John McClelland WardPerformanceUK
8 Joshua Todd Ilkeston Cycle Club
9 James Richards Contiki Velo Bavarian RT
10 Joshua Gilbert Ilkeston Cycle Club
11 Jason Kierman Born to Bike Racing Team
12 John Brearley Squadra RT
13 Gregory Speakman High Wycombe Cycling Club
14 Karl Freeman Team Wheelguru
15 Michael Kirkland RAMcc
16 Liam Davison addform vive le velo
17 Wan Lau
18 Sidney Wilson Derby Mercury RC
19 Christopher Johnson Islington Cycling Club

Men’s Grand Prix Points
1 John Brearley Squadra RT
2 Alistair Rutherford Secret-Training
3 Thomas Adby Velo Club Venta
4 Sidney Wilson Derby Mercury RC
5 Michael Kirkland RAMcc
6 Samuel Thomas Contiki Velo Bavarian RT
7 Wan Lau
8 Ian Cooper Team Ohten Aveas
9 Jason Kierman Born to Bike Racing Team
10 James Richards Contiki Velo Bavarian RT
11 Oliver Hambrey Team HUUB
12 Joshua Todd Ilkeston Cycle Club
13 David Brearley Squadra RT
14 Joshua Gilbert Ilkeston Cycle Club
15 Liam Davison addform vive le velo
16 Jack Johnson

Men’s Grand Prix Scratch
1 David Brearley Squadra RT
2 Alistair Rutherford Secret-Trainin
3 John McClelland WardPerformanceUK
4 Michael Kirkland RAMcc
5 Ian Cooper Team Ohten Aveas
6 Oliver Hambrey Team HUUB
7 Liam Davison addform vive le velo
8 James Richards Contiki Velo Bavarian RT
9 Thomas Adby Velo Club Venta
10 Jason Kierman Born to Bike Racing Team
11 Joshua Gilbert Ilkeston Cycle Club
12 Christopher Johnson Islington Cycling Club
13 Gregory Speakman High Wycombe Cycling Club
14 Wan Lau
15 Jack Johnson
16 John Brearley Squadra RT
17 Joshua Todd Ilkeston Cycle Club
18 Sidney Wilson Derby Mercury RC
19 Samuel Thomas Contiki Velo Bavarian RT