Britain’s Katie Archibald and Laura Trott ended the European Track Cycling Championships with three titles apiece after producing superb performances in Grenchen, Switzerland.
Archibald, winner of a gold medal in the team pursuit earlier in the Championships, proved to be the star performer on the final day of competition claiming two titles with her first triumph coming in the women’s individual pursuit.
The Scottish cyclist dominated the gold medal ride against France’s Elise Delzenne from start to finish as she finished in a winning time of 3min 32.832sec, her opponent finishing five seconds off the pace.
Ciara Horne ensured two British athletes finished on the podium, clocking 3:35.288 to win the bronze medal ride against Germany’s Mieke Kroger, who completed the four kilometre event in 3:36.372.
Having recovered from her exertions in the individual pursuit, Archibald earned her third gold by outlasting Italy’s Annalisa Cucinotta to win the women’s elimination race, while Spain’s Irene Usabiaga Balerdi claimed bronze.
Trott, winner of the scratch race gold in addition to Britain’s team pursuit triumph, began the second day of the women’s omnium with a comfortable advantage over her rivals and duly completed her gold medal hat-trick, ending the six event competition on 231 points.
Denmark’s Amalie Dideriksen and Lithuania’s Ausrine Trebaite completed the podium positions, finishing well adrift of the winner with respective points totals of 195 and 185 respectively.
With Archibald and Trott’s golds on the final day the British team finished on top of the medals table on six golds, but were closely followed by The Netherlands, whose sprinters continued to dominate the Championships.
Elis Ligtlee made it five Dutch golds in eight sprint events, claiming the women’s keirin title after finishing narrowly ahead of France’s Virginie Cueff.
Russia’s Ekaterina Gnidenko claimed bronze.
The Czech Republic’s Pavel Kelemen secured the men’s keirin title, finishing 0.047 and 0.057 clear of France’s François Pervis and Russia’s Denis Dmitriev respectively.
The final men’s gold of the Championships was claimed by Spain’s Sebastian Mora Vedri and Albert Torres Barcelo after they lapped the field in the men’s madison alongside Mikhail Radionov and Andrey Sazanov, with their higher points total of 12 seeing them finish ahead of the Russian duo.
France’s Morgan Kneisky and Bryan Coquard secured 24 points, the highest of the teams ending a lap further back, to take the gold.
- By Michael Pavitt
- This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, www.insidethegames.biz