| | |
Great Britain sprinter Kian Emadi has vowed to return even stronger for next season after a promising first winter in elite international track cycling.
The 21-year-old made his senior track world championships bow last week in Belarus where he contested the kilo and team sprint.
Narrowly denied a medal in the kilo by just one place, he finished sixth alongside Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny in the men’s team sprint after stepping into the man three role associated with Sir Chris Hoy, who is on a sabbatical from competitive cycling.
It concluded a season in which the rider from Stoke-on-Trent became national kilo champion at the British Track Championships last September.
He went on to collect silver in the same discipline in his UCI Track Cycling World Cup debut in Cali, Colombia in October, where he set a new personal best in the Alcides Nieto Patiño velodrome.
“I’ve had a really good time, there are always positives to take away. I’ve gone out and done personal bests and now it’s time to get back to the grind and approach next year.”
Kian Emadi
And his notable performances were then rewarded with a spot in Great Britain’s 16-person squad for the season’s finale.
“It’s been a big step up and I’ve really enjoyed it, that’s the big thing,” Emadi said of the season.
“I’ve had a really good time, there are always positives to take away. I’ve gone out and done personal bests and now it’s time to get back to the grind and approach next year.”
The Minsk Arena served Emadi his toughest test to date in the team sprint, having to keep pace with London Olympic champions Hindes and Kenny.
He acknowledges that there is room for improvement if he is to make the man three spot his own but is already looking forward to making headway in the event back at the team’s Manchester base.
“I was prepared for a fast start but at the end of the day I didn’t have it in my legs going down the back straight,” Emadi assessed.
“The first quarter was good but then when you needed to be sort of firing on all cylinders I ran out of a bit of steam.
“The team sprint is always the big focus and that’s what you train towards. I think I’m going to be training towards that and just focus on getting a strong first half lap that means no matter how fast Phil goes I’ll be able to get on the back of it.
“I think the other training sort of encompasses everything else – you’ve got your length work and your speed work which is good for kilo, keirin and sprint, it’s a combination of all factors really.”
Emadi will now take a short break before returning to a mixture of training and track meetings throughout Europe during the summer months, adamant his time in Belarus has been a valuable one.
“Overall it’s been a positive experience, I’m happy with how I approached it and went to the races, I gave it my best shot, there are always things to improve and that’s one of the things I’m taking away.
“I’ve come here, I have had a good experience but I’m going to go back to training and hit it hard and do better next time.”
