Ella Barnwell wins the national omnium titles at the Derby Arena.

In the women’s event, Barnwell’s day got off to the perfect start as she timed her sprint well to take scratch race victory ahead of Sophie Lewis and Jenny Holl. Anna Morris then propelled herself into contention with an expertly-judged tempo race, as she and Kelsey Fuss established a gap and worked together to claim a large number of the points on offer every lap.

At the halfway stage, both Barnwell and Morris were on 68 points, while consistency over the opening two events had paid off for Holl and Anna Docherty, who shared the lead on 70.

Holl was unexpectedly knocked out first in the elimination race though, while Docherty recorded a fifth-place finish. With the door ajar, Barnwell made sure she capitalised, winning her second event of the day by holding off Eluned King in the final sprint.

She went into the final event – the points race – with a six-point advantage. Strong riding from Morris threatened to eat into that lead, but Barnwell was able to steadily accumulate points by consistently scoring in the intermediate sprints, and after a dangerous-looking attack by Anna Shackley and Amelia Sharpe was brought back and Fuss had impressively taken a lap in rapid time, Barnwell ensured that she ended in fine style, claiming the maximum 10 points on the final sprint to finish on 131.

Docherty took silver with a total of 117, while Morris claimed bronze a further five points back.

Barnwell said:

“It was a tough day. It was nice to get a win in the scratch race, then I had a bit of bad luck in the tempo, but I just got my head back and went really hard in the next two races. It feels really good to wear this jersey – some great riders have worn it in the past, so it’s nice to be part of that.”