Track Worlds Day 4 – GB Team Report

It was Madison magic for Great Britain as Katie Archibald and Maddie Leech stormed to a dominant world title win, while Anna Morris defended her individual pursuit title against teammate Josie Knight who took the silver medal.

BRITISH WORLD CHAMPIONS (GB Press Release)! DOUBLE DELIGHT: Archibald and Leech win Madison while Morris defends individual pursuit title agasint fellow Brit Knight!

Women’s Madison
Madison veteran Katie Archibald teamed up with newbie Maddie Leech to deliver and impressively dominant performance, taking Great Britan’s first world title of the night.

Initial points were picked up in the first three sprints, while both riders navigated their way to safety around a number of crashes. The race moved at a ferocious pace, with attacks being made consistently. While strung out across the track, the bunch was very much still as one, the Netherlands pipping GB to the sprint points, dropping Leech and Archibald three points behind.

By the halfway mark, Archibald was moving at pace and got into position to dominate the sprint and take five points, closing the gap to the Dutch to just two points. However, this was immediately followed by a heavy crash for the Dutch riders, forcing them out of the race. Their departure opened up the field for others and quickly Archibald, France, Italy, New Zealand and Japan had left the bunch, with Archibald quickly bypassing the quartet while Australia chased her down. As was a regular occurrence, the group eventually rejoined the bunch, as Leech picked up another three points to move back into the lead with two sprints to go.

With a quick hand sling, Archibald accelerated putting on pressure and stringing out the main players. Italy responded and fought it out to take the sprint win, pushing the closer into contention. With the lead still theirs, and the laps in single figures, a missed change could have been the end but Archibald held on, marking the French from making and big moves. Two laps to go and Archibald dropped Leech in the perfect position to jump ahead with Belgium and France, pushing ahead to get a gap before being caught by the French on the line.

The final sprint however did not alter the result and Leech and Archibald took an incredibly well earned world title. The title, Maddie’s first, made Katie only the fourth woman ever to be Madison world champion twice.

Women’s individual pursuit
It was a sensational GB vs GB showdown as two medals were guaranteed before the first session was complete. Knight qualified early, catching her opponent with ease around the halfway mark and eventually posting the fastest time of 4:25.141. She held on to the until the last race when teammate and defending champion Anna Morris pipped her to the top with 4:24.194, taking them both through to the final.

Onto the evening’s final and Morris flew out of the gate with ferocity, putting down the pace from the off and taking an early lead of around one second. Both Morris and Knight rode with complete control, smoothly chipping away at the four-kilometre distance, Morris continuing to take time out of Knight leading by 1.7 seconds at the halfway mark.

Knight worked hard but Morris’ power and metronome-style delivery were no match for her, and she took a back-to-back title by 2.317 seconds, while Knight picked up silver. Jess Roberts delivered a strong qualifying ride, catching her opponent just under a kilometre to go, clocking a time of 4:36.883 to finish eighth overall.

Men’s omnium
The men’s omnium kicked off with an incredibly splintered scratch race that didn’t kick off until the half way mark when a group of six, including GB’s Matt Bostock, got off the front for a time, before being swept back into the group.

With three laps to go, with a bunch sprint on the horizon Kazushige Kuboki (JPN) made a big move over the top to take the win, while Bostock started his campaign with a 12th place finish.

The tempo race saw a number of groups break away to secure sprint points throughout, before the race essentially split in half. Bostock remained safe but unable to collect points, crossed the line in 10th to see him 11th in the standings.

Bostock raced calmly and tactically in the elimination before, with eight riders in play, Lyndsay de Vylder (BEL) took his shot off the front to guarantee his safety and eventually secure the win. Bostock momentarily followed, before pulling back into the group and eventually out of gas, was eliminated to fifth place.

Heading into the points race, Bostock sat in 10th place with 70 points. An incredibly choppy race saw breaks being made regularly, with the bunch often strung across the track. Early on, Bostock spotted and opportunity and formed a breakaway group with Oscar Nilsen Julien (FRA),Juan Sierra (ITA),Moritz Augustein (GER) and Niklas Larsen (DEN) to take a lap and push him up to sixth place.

While Bostock had a quiet few laps, action was going on elsewhere namely Julien and Philip Hiejnen (NED) picking up more laps to move them either side of Bostock. With the final laps counting down, another group of four made a last ditch attempt, creating distance between them and the bunch. The final bell rang and Bostock launched a huge sprint, pulling back some space on the lead group to cross the line fourth and take a final two points that would push him up to seventh overall in his first world championships omnium.

Women’s 1km TT
In the new event where the world record was set and then broken twice, Rhian Edmunds qualified for the evening’s final in eighth place with a time of 1:06.110. Delivering another slick ride, the young rider took .052 seconds off her qualifying time to finish in eight place overall in her first world championships. Meg Barker delivered a strong time of 1:06.59 over the four-lap event, just missing out on a second ride with a 10th place finish.

Men’s sprint qualifiers
Current flying 200m record holder Matt Richardson delivered a strong qualifying time of 9.210 seconds seeding him first, 0.096 ahead of Olympic and world champion Harrie Lavreysen (NED). Receiving a bye into the 1/8s, Richardson defeated Nick Wammes (CAN) with ease, riding away with almost half a lap to go, sitting up as he crossed the line.

Richardson would face Kaiya Ota (JPN) in the quarter-finals, stalking his rival to the top of the track, before gaining speed and weaving up and down the track before dropping to the black to launch a powerful sprint which would see him take the first win.

In the lead position in the second race, Richardson calmy led before launching at the bell, creating a small gap which Ota gave one last push to close. Unable to match Richardson’s speed, the Brit made it 2-0 and will race Leigh Hoffman (AUS) in tomorrow’s semi-final.

Hamish Turnbull qualified 18th in a time of 9.752 seconds, taking a comfortable win in the 1/16s against Njisane Phillip (TTO). Facing Harrie Lavreysen in the 1/8 final, Turnbull was facing a big ask and put up a great fight, being pipped to the line by just 0.09 seconds, and knocked out of the event.

Heading into the final day, Great Britian sits second on the leaderboard with four gold, four silver and two bronze medals.

You can follow the action live across the BBC red button, iPlayer and BBC Sport Website. Photos sw pix – thanks to Ellie Stott at GB for the reports. Results are here https://www.tissottiming.com/2025/ctrwch/reports